Director - Olivier Assayas
Cast - Juliette Binoche, Kristen Stewart, Chloë Grace Moretz
How do you solve a problem like Maria? How do you catch a cloud and pin it down? Questions we have been asking ourselves since we first saw The Sound of Music and questions that remain unanswered after watching CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA.
It's taken me about a week to process this film and to be able to write a review, I felt a bit off-kilter after watching it. I wasnt' quite sure that I knew what had happened, in fact, I'm still not quite sure what happened, but I'll try and put together a review anyway!
CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA takes a look at celebrated actress Maria Enders (Juliette Binoche) who is on her way to Zurich to accept an award on behalf of the playwright who kickstarted her career (Wilhelm Melchior). She is heading there with her personal assistant Valentine (Kristen Stewart). The shit hits the fan however when said playwright just up and dies while they are in transit No matter though, as they say in the classics 'the show must go on'. Maria still fulfills all her publicity requirements including a Chanel photo shoot. The tribute goes ahead, and during the after party Maria meets with a hot new director who wants her to work with him on his new play. This new play is however not new to Maria, it is the same play that kickstarted her career all those years ago.
Juliette Binoche as Maria Enders
In the play the first time round, Maria played a young woman who seduces a female coporate boss, has an affair with her and then leaves her. This time she has been asked to play the role of the older female who is seduced by the young assistant who will be played by Hollywood's latest IT girl. This is confronting for Maria who has to let go of a role she holds so close to her heart at such a traumatic time as well as coming to terms with the fact that she is no longer a young IT girl, that page in her life has turned.
Maria and her assistant are invited to stay at Melchior's house by his widow while she is away dealing with her grief. And so, high in the Alps, Maria rehearses her new line with Valentine reading the part of the seductive assistant in Melchior's home and on long-ass hikes through the mountains.
Kristen Stweart as Valentine
All sounds a bit odd right? Well it is. The whole thing is just a bit odd. I'm not sure if it was just odd, or if Assayas intended the viewer to feel like that. Valentine drives the windiest mountain road ever and hops out for a bit of a vom on the side of the road and I felt so giddy myself that I probably could have had a vom! There is a real uncertainty throughout the whole film as to whether the dialogue belongs to Maria and Valentine, or whether it is just them rehearsing the script. Where does their relationship end and their fictional play rehearsal one begin? To this day I still don't know. I spent a lot of time processing this week and talking it thorugh and I am still a bit unsure about the whole thing.
The majority of this film is in English, there are a few moments where you will need to read the subtitles, but the whole film has the feel of a really poorly translated foreign novel; over written, clunky and not quite natural English. Again, not sure if that was just me or if that's what Assayas was going for.
Maria and Valentine - real dinner or are they the characters?
I think this film is going to be seriously devisive. People will love it, people will hate it, and then there are those who like me will be not wuite sure what to make of it. I think the unreality has a poiint, althought it's taken me a week to work it out! The film is about actors, and the world of the famous, which has it's own set of rules and regulations that separate it from the life of the normal people. It's unreal to us and doesn't make any sense and makes us feel confused and unsettled. At least I think that's what the point is.
Next comes Jo-Ann Ellis (Chloë Grace Moretz) the new IT girl who is slated to play opposite Maria in her old role. This whole section of the film is fragmented and confusing and I struggled to follow along...we jump from Maria looking at internet gossip on Jo-Ann to a clip from Jo-Ann's latest Hollywood blockbuster, to her being on a date with a married man, to her meeting Maria for the first time. It's all very tumultous and confusing, and perhaps it represents Jo-Ann's life which is tumotuous and confusing and intense.
Chloë Grace Moretz as Jo-Ann
There are a few twists and turns at the end of this film that will leave you reeling and make the film even more confusing than it already was and then it just ends.
So, after a more analytical review than usual, I summarise by saying I still don't know if I liked it or not. I probably wouldn't recommend spending the 20-something dollars on it unless you really like this existential type of film or you have seen Assayas' other films and have loved them.
2 or maybe 2.5 out of 5 I think
xoxo
The Blonde Bombshell
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