Experimental study of the free growth of an ice crystal into a supercooled pure water film is presented. We have performed the measurements of main parameters of growing dendrite such as the tip velocity v, the main distance Z(SB) between the tip and the position of the first sidebranch, and the fractal dimension d(f) of the whole dendrite as functions of initial supercooling of water. The experimental results, i.e. v(1), Z(SB), and d(f),, have been compared with analytical studies [J.S. Langer, H. Mtiller-Krumbhaar, Acta Metall. 26 (1978) 1681; E. Brener, D. Temkin, Phys. Rev. E 51 (1995) 351], and numerical simulations [J. Nitmann, H.E. Stanley, J. Phys. A 20 (1987) L981]. It is found that at high supercooling there is an essential disagreement between present results and predictions of diffusional models of dendritic growth. We show that the disagreement between experiment and theory is due to crossover from diffusion-limited to kinetics-limited growth of ice crystal. The anisotropic growth kinetics of ice crystals is discussed. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.