Clouds of Sils Maria
Director: Olivier Assayas
Starring: Juliette Binoche, Kristen Stewart, Chloë Grace Moretz
124 mins; Class Unrate;
Eden Cinemas Release
When discussing a film with her employer, Valentine (Kristin Stewart) mutters something about it “having werewolves in it… for some reason”.
That the line is delivered by the actress in an absolutely deadpan manner made me laugh out loud. Here Stewart was, subtly poking fun at the franchise that made her famous.
I suppose I can’t blame her. Her role in the super-successful Twilight films has oft threatened to eclipse any other work she does. Yet, her performance in this film is proof positive that she is a good actor and has the potential to be great – and in fact I have often praised her in her non-Bella roles.
Suffice it to say that Stewart won a César (the French equivalent of the Academy Award) for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Clouds of Sils Maria; the first American actress to receive the honour.
Stewart’s Valentine is the assistant to acclaimed French actress Maria Enders (Juliette Binoche). As the film opens, they are on their way to an event where Maria is to receive an award on behalf of reclusive playwright and director Wilhelm Melchior, Maria’s mentor and the man who, 20 years earlier, gave Maria her big break in a play called Majola Snake.
In the play, Maria played Sigrid, a young manipulative woman, who has an affair with an older woman named Helena, driving her to suicide. Now, Maria is being courted by a director to appear in a new version of the play – as Helena – a role she accepts with misgivings.
When tragedy unexpectedly strikes, Maria and Valentine retreat to the village of Sils Maria in the Swiss Alps for Maria to rehearse, a process made difficult because she comes to realise her perception of the play is completely different to what it was when she first performed it, while facing with discomfort the prospect of working opposite the actress now playing the role of the younger woman – the scandal-hit Hollywood starlet Jo-Ann Ellis (Chloë Grace Moretz).
A topical commentary on the the film industry
There are so many layers to this film; so much to enjoy that I feel a second viewing is required. On the one hand is the intricacy of the storyline.
The relationship between the characters Sigrid and Helena in the play-within-the-film has strong parallels to the relationship between Maria and Valentine – so much so it is at times hard to tell whether the lines they are saying are from the play or not. In the meantime, Maria’s struggles with playing the older woman mirror her misgivings about aging which in turn colours how she views Jo-Ann, this young upstart upstaging the veteran actress.
The film is also a topical commentary on the film industry and its treatment of older women; while much can be made of the fact that Stewart is playing the assistant and not the starlet. The industry’s penchant for sci-fi and superhero films also get some deconstruction – a scene where Maria and Valentine discuss Jo-Ann’s latest opus is classic; Valentine defending the genre while Maria dismisses it wholeheartedly, often with a laugh that is delightfully infectious.
Also thoroughly enjoyable are the performances. Binoche positively glows in a role written for her by director Oliver Assayas. Binoche is matched step-by-step by Stewart, whose performance is as self-assured and intelligent as her French co-star.
Moretz also impresses considerably in the smaller, yet, no less important role of Jo-Ann; as convincing as the bratty tabloid baiter as she is the actress trying to be taken seriously.