Sightlines · reception
How The Ice Tower was received
2025 · Lucile Hadžihalilović · The Ice Tower on Sightlines
The arc
Fresh out of the gate: it took the Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution at Berlinale 2025, then rode a slow arthouse rollout (BFI in the UK) to a spot in Sight and Sound's top 20 films of the year — the 'is this her masterpiece or her chilliest puzzle?' conversation is still live.
What’s debated
The classic Hadžihalilović split, amplified: critics swoon over the trance-state dream logic while a chunk of viewers call it glacial and inert — the Sight-and-Sound-top-20 vs. middling-audience-score gap is the whole debate.
Its footprint
Its calling card is the image of Marion Cotillard in full Snow Queen regalia — an instantly screenshot-able ice-diva look that did the rounds when the stills dropped, and the film's shorthand ever since.
Where it stands
A cult object in real time — catnip for the Hadžihalilović completists, slow-cinema devotees, and dark-fairy-tale Letterboxd crowd who've championed her since Innocence.
Did you know? Gaspar Noé — Hadžihalilović's longtime partner and collaborator — plays the film-within-the-film's director, and reportedly agreed to do it on one condition: that he got to wear a wig.
Named by the director
- The Red Shoes (1948) — She cited its ballet-within-the-film artificiality and the idea of being possessed by something stronger than your own will.
- Black Narcissus (1947) — Named as a visual reference, particularly for the film's mountain scenes.
- A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935) — She wanted that 1930s film's kind of set and costuming for the Snow Queen film-within-the-film.
- The Spirit of the Beehive (1973) — She said she thought a lot about how Erice transfigures reality through a young girl's eyes and tried to do the same.
- Dario Argento — Cited (alongside painter Giorgio de Chirico) for the look of the empty nighttime streets and their stark architecture.