Clouds of Sils Maria

Olivier Assayas is a highly intelligent filmmaker, and often draws on his roots as a critic for Cahiers du Cinéma in his highly structured stories. His latest film, Clouds of Sils Maria stars Juliette Binoche and Kristen Stewart.

Maria Enders (Juliette Binoche) is a successful actor, who began her career in the play Maloja Snake by Wilhelm Melchior. Enders and Melchior have a difficult past relationship and as Enders is travelling to Zurich to accept an award on his behalf, she hears the troubling news that he has passed away. Maria has a loyal assistant, Valentine (Kristen Stewart), and the two are very close; she helps Maria with the news. Soon Maria is offered a role in the latest version of the play, however she'll be playing an older woman.

This is a very French film. It revels in the revival of an artistic era that doesn't necessarily exist any more, subtly poking fun at the ways of Hollywood, superhero movies and celebrity gossip. These are starkly contrasted against the passion that the characters put into the play; in trying to understand the production's characters with long conversations detailing their various attributes. One of the key elements of Clouds of Sils Maria is the relationship between Maria and Valentine, and more specifically, how this is played on when they do the script read-throughs. These scenes are sometimes a bit tedious and difficult to follow - as the lines between the play's characters and the two women are quite blurred - but they are managed with a lot of finesse from Binoche and Stewart. There's certainly an element of art imitating life in the film; between the play, the film and also real life. However there are certain details that are not followed through, which at times can be slightly confusing. For instance, I would have liked to understand a bit more about what Maria thought of her past career. She's constantly focusing on her previous role in the play but doesn't really vocalise any of her other roles. 

Clouds of Sils Maria has a very dislocated structure, with scenes fading in and out with little to no actual transitions. It's a stylised choice and I understand the reasoning behind it but I'm not sure how effective it really is, at times it's certainly distracting. The grief that Maria feels at the playwrights passing (they had a very personal relationship) and the way that she deals with it through the reboot of the play, was one interesting element of the story that they probably could have brought out a bit more. However the subtlety in character development is certainly indicative of the intelligent writing behind Assayas's script. The mountainous backdrop almost becomes another character in Clouds of Sils Maria, it has an importance in contextualising the story and makes for some incredibly beautiful shots - particularly a time-lapse sequence where the fog rolls in - however I think they may have overindulged in the scenery just a little too much.

Clouds of Sils Maria is lead by two outstanding performances from Binoche and Stewart. Juliette Binoche is a veteran actress, and is just as talented here. She brings depth and no doubt, personal experiences to Maria, who is a much more memorable character than Dina in Words and Pictures, the last major role that I saw her in. Kristen Stewart, who many people like to mock for her seemingly expressionless delivery - I actually think she's had some great performances - really shines here. Her understated mode of acting works well for Valentine, whose calm and collected manner perfectly dichotomises Maria's emotional and vibrant personality. Maria and Valentine are two very memorable characters, an absolute requirement for this complex story to work.

Clouds of Sils Maria is a well-written and intelligent movie, with plenty of inspiration from French New Wave films. The palatable story is sometimes difficult to follow and won't necessarily please everybody, but the two leading ladies sustain the interest throughout. However I do feel like it's been written for critics, and I don't know how I feel about that narrowing down of audience.