Clouds of Sils Maria

 Clouds of Sils Maria 2014

• Director: Olivier Assayas
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Juliette Binoche, Kristen Stewart, Chloë Grace Moritz, Lars Eidinger, Johnny Flynn, Angela Winkler
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Juliette Binoche – Ghost in the Shell, The 33, Dan in Real Life, Breaking and Entering, Paris je t’aime, Chocolat, The English Patient, The Rd, White and Blue films, Wuthering Heights, Les amants du Pont-Neuf
• Kristen Stewart –The Runaways, Welcome to the Rileys, Twilight, Jumper, Into the Wild, Undertow
• Chloë Grace Moritz – The Fifth Wave, Dark Shadows, Hugo, 500 Days of Summer
• Johnny Flynn – Song One, Twelfth Night
• Why? Binoche and Stewart
• Seen: 2 August 2022      

       Maria Enders (Binoche) is a renowned film actor. Val (Stewart) is her personal assistant. Maria is on her way to accept an author’s award for her dear friend Wilhelm when she’s reached by the news that he has been found dead in the snow near his home in Sils Maria.

       Her first starring role was as a young woman in one of Wilhelm’s plays twenty years earlier. She is now offered the role as the older woman in a revival of the play starring an up-and-coming actor Jo-Ann Ellis (Moritz). She reluctantly agrees. To prepare for the rehearsals Maria and Val go to Wilhelm’s home in the Alps.

       The friendship and professional relationship between Maria and Val are complex and often tense. Maria’s confrontation with her own profession, past and present, is even more so.

       The film is multi-layered and intelligent. Binoche and Stewart carry it, together with the Alps, but everyone is good.

 5* of 5