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Euronews
17-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Euronews
Berlinale 2025 review: 'La Tour de Glace' ('The Ice Tower') - Marion Cotillard is the Snow Queen
Over the course of three films, from her 2004 debut Innocence to 2021's Earwig via Evolution, one of our favourite European films of the 21st century, Lucile Hadžihalolović has established herself as one of the most singular voices in French cinema. For her transfixing fourth feature, she's reuniting with Marion Cotillard after Innocence as well as her Earwig screenwriter Geoff Cox to loosely adapt Hans Christian Andersen's 'The Snow Queen'. And chilly though it is, this ain't no Frozen. Like a lot of fairy tales, it begins with an unhappy orphan. Jeanne (Clara Pacini, in her first feature role) lives in a foster home in a small, mountainous village in 1970s France. She decides to flee and head to an ice rink she's seen on a postcard. There, she admires an elegant skater named Bianca and adopts her identity when the latter loses her purse. With nowhere to sleep, she breaks into what seems to be an abandoned warehouse. It turns out she's kipping in a film studio, where a production of The Snow Queen – one of her favourite tales - is being filmed. Famous and feared actress Cristina Van Der Berg (Marion Cotillard) is playing the central role and we learn through the chats between the extras that nothing escapes the 'pitiless' Cristina. True enough, she quickly finds out that Jeanne, who has managed to pass herself off as an extra as Bianca, has been sleeping at the studio. Or maybe she knew all along? A relationship develops between them. An obsessive bond from Bianca's part; a fascination from Cristina's. And by crystal yanked from a costume or by bracelet pearl accidentally left behind, the two 'will be connected forever' in a manipulative push-and-pull. Those familiar with Hadžihalolović's films will know the director's affinity for stories brimming with brooding atmospherics and which deal with young characters faced with maturity-triggering circumstances. In adapting 'The Snow Queen', she distils the tale of a young girl's quest for her missing flame and who becomes influenced by an older woman in order to make it something more. More enigmatic; more menacing; more glacial. Glacial is the optimum word, as the form mirrors the content. The pacing is measured - to say the least - in this world of minimal dialogue, full of recurring motifs whose slippery purposes make them seem more pregnant with meaning. It's also a powerfully stylish world to dive into, as the butterscotch lighting and shadowplay in The Ice Tower bolsters the dark fairy tale mood, which is peppered with other references to childhood classics. Little Red Riding Hood's red coat, the bracelet pearls hitting the ground like breadcrumbs from Hansel And Gretel and the ogre figure Jeanne runs away from during her initial escape are some that spring to mind. They come together to tell the tale of heroine on the cusp of womanhood. Central to this is Cotillard's character. Initially, it seems that the celebrated French actress doesn't get to do all that much apart from embrace a sense of noirish beauty and elusiveness, but what she creates in the second half adds layers to Jeanne's quest. Cristina is a diva-like Norma Desmond demanding a vampiric sacrifice from a younger version of herself, but also a wounded soul. The girl in Earwig may have had actual teeth of ice, but Cristina has a jaded heart that threatens to become irreversibly icy. She's an actress who considers her glory days to be over and who sees a coming-of-age occur right before her eyes - while hers is long gone. Bianca drops her dead mother's beads as if progressively abandoning her birth mother and opening herself up to a maternal substitute; Cristina recognises this and strikes during this adolescent awakening. Or is there the possibility that she could resign herself to what she's known all along: that she's now a stepping stone for another to reach her true sense of agency? To say that The Ice Tower 's layers are snowflake-levels of numerous is putting it mildly. There is also a fascinating amount of mise en abyme created throughout – chiefly through the fact that Andersen's tale had the totemic presence of a mirror. This is replaced by a camera in The Ice Tower, creating a film within a film that offers up a meditation on how cameras, like mirrors, can reflect and deform reality. The Cristina / Snow Queen and Jeanne / Bianca dédoublements may simply a way to tell the tale of an older woman both cruelly and resolvedly imparting the love of the facetted medium of cinema itself. The longueurs and prism-like layers in Hadžihalolović's film will frustrate and disorientate viewers looking for either more crystalized meaning or even something overtly stranger. And it's true that even for fans of Innocence and Evolution 's sinister grooming rituals and Earwig 's haunting surrealism, this eerie reverie lacks an impactful sense of strangeness – something initially teased by the ominous title card featuring the American Horror Story font. However, anyone yearning to be entranced by a frosty mood piece will find The Ice Tower 's intoxicating spell tricky to break.
The Independent
06-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Waterstones Children's Book Prize shortlist spotlights stories of neurodiversity and palaces filled with dumplings
The shortlist for the Waterstones Children's Book Prize 2025 has been announced. The award, now in its 21st year, is voted for by booksellers across the UK, with the shortlist comprising 12 books across three categories: Illustrated Books, Younger Readers, and Older Readers. Themes such as neurodiversity, belonging and anxiety are explored in the books on this year's shortlist, which also features its first ever graphic novel: a story about an imagined sign language system. The list sheds light on topics of interest to young people as well as showcasing the best in children's writing and illustration. In the Illustrated Books category, Gina Kaminski Saves the Wolf by authorCraig Barr-Green and illustrator Francis Martin follows a neurodivergent protagonist in a humorous fresh take on the fairytale of Red Riding Hood. Meanwhile, Jana Curll's Mountain and Cloud tells the heartwarming story of a child facing worries and finding friendship. Rounding out the category is Dim Sum Palace by X Fang, a mouth-wateringly illustrated book about a little girl dreaming of a palace full of dumplings, and The Café at the Edge of the Woods by Mikey Please. The Younger Readers category features a broad range of genres. Included on the list are James Fox's The Boy in the Suit about a child in search of security, community and connection and Tidemagic: The Many Faces of Ista Flit by Clare Harlow, a fantasy about a shapeshifting girl on a magical adventure to find her missing father. Elsewhere, Piu DasGupta's Secrets of the Snakestone takes readers on a historical adventure. The final entry in the category is Rune: The Tale of a Thousand Faces by Carlos Sánchez. The first graphic novel to be listed, Rune imagines a magic system based on sign language. In the Older Readers category, Emily Varga puts an innovative spin on The Count of Monte Cristo with her fantasy novel For She is Wrath. Two young men begin new lives after growing up together in the care system in Margaret McDonald's poignant Glasgow Boys, while King of Nothing by Nathanael Lessore is a teen comedy about an unlikely friendship between two boys. Also shortlisted is the Liverpool-set romcom Lover Birds by Leanne Egan. One book will be awarded the winner in each category, with the three section winners vying for the overall title of Waterstones Children's Book Prize Winner 2025. Each category winner is awarded £2,000 with an extra £3,000 for the overall winner. 'Sharing a love of books with young readers is the most important thing we do as booksellers, and we have been proud to celebrate the very best emerging talent in children's publishing for over 20 years with this special prize,' said Bea Carvalho, head of books at Waterstones. 'In our illustrated category we are thrilled to present a quartet which celebrates plucky characters, dreamy landscapes, and all things spooky and delicious. Our shortlist of books for younger readers showcases storytelling excellence across historical adventure, fantasy, and real life stories, and includes the first graphic novel to be shortlisted for its age-group. 'Meanwhile there is something for teens of all tastes in our older readers category, with books which are hilarious and heartbreaking to appeal to both reluctant readers and avid bookworms. Booksellers have prioritised reading for pleasure with this shortlist and we can't wait to share all twelve books with readers young and old, far and wide.' The winners will be announced at an evening ceremony on Thursday 27 March 2025.
