Heavy on atmosphere and slimmer on story, The Ice Tower is the intermittently intoxicating fourth feature from French director Lucile Hadžihalilović (Innocence, Evolution), winner of the Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution at this year’s Berlinale. It stars Marion Cotillard as a diva-like actress taking on the role of fairytale icon the Snow Queen, who casts her own spell on an impressionable young girl.

Talented newcomer Clara Pacini plays 15-year-old orphan Jeanne. Fleeing her 1970s foster home at the outset, Jeanne ends up taking shelter on a movie set, where it’s assumed she’s an extra. Cotillard is movie star Cristina, who makes life difficult for everyone around her, but takes an odd shine to this girl. Meanwhile, Cristina’s doctor and enabler (played by August Diehl) has a troubling relationship with the actress.

Fact and fiction blur in visually enchanting fashion in a wintry, sinister film with a supernatural air that compares the power wielded by movie stars to that of a monstrous monarch. Cotillard is ideally cast as the ethereal, seductive and superior Cristina, and seems to lose herself to the role, while screen natural Pacini captures the vulnerability of a motherless, eager-to-please waif entering an industry notorious for turning a blind eye.

There are some fascinating dimensions to the story: Cristina’s past mirrors Jeanne’s own sad background and there’s an almost All About Eve aspect to their dynamic at points, although Jeanne is so lacking in her own power that she’s wide open to exploitation. The film’s commitment to mystery over its two-hour duration can be as exasperating as it is beguiling and it feels a shame not to build on some of its interesting ideas. But there are still some impactful, startling scenes as Cristina shows her true colours, while Cotillard’s chilly charisma is fittingly irresistible.

The Ice Tower is in cinemas from Friday 21 November.