CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA
Starring Juliette Binoche, Kristen Stewart
Directed by Olivier Assayas
It's no secret that the film industry isn't particularly kind to actresses of a certain age. Consequently, it's little surprise that, as we meet Maria Enders (Juliette Binoche) on a train speeding through Switzerland, she finds her career idling at a crossroads. With little interest in SFX-laden blockbusters, she yearns for meaningful work. It finally presents itself in the form of a return to the stage for a revival of the play that originally vaulted her to stardom decades earlier. However, on this occasion, she's to play the older woman in the psychological drama rather than the young temptress.
Having affectionately mined his own rebellious youth for 2012's dreamy Something in the Air, writer-director Olivier Assayas now takes the opportunity to slyly illustrate the anxieties that can arise when reflecting on one's past. And while the film trades in some of the film industry satire that fuelled Assayas' Irma Vep, it's primarily a character study exploring insecurity, identity and the inescapable ravages of time.
It's primarily Maria's interactions with two other women – Valentine (Kristen Stewart), her savvy assistant, and Jo-Ann (Chloë Grace Moretz), the scandal-plagued inheritor of her breakout role – that incrementally reveal Maria's wounds and frailty. As Maria and Valentine run lines incessantly (and increasingly passionately), Assayas effectively blurs the lines between roles and reality. In turn, he offers an intelligent, compelling and darkly amusing commentary on our tendency to reinterpret and rewrite the past. And as Maria discovers that it isn't the same play she's returning to – time and experience have had their way with it – we're left to consider what might lay in wait should we dare throw ourselves back into our own formative experiences.
