Clouds of Sils Maria
Director: Olivier
Assayas
Writer: Olivier
Assayas
Starring: Juliette
Binoche, Kristen Stewart, Chloe Grace Moretz
Rating: Four and a
half stars out of five
Available in
theaters now.
Perception is
slippery. Nothing lasts. Impressions change as perspectives mutate.
Beauty and the search for meaning are the only things that matter,
until self preservation and legacies complicate things.
These are the
concerns of Clouds of Sils Maria, the latest from
writer-director Olivier Assayas, a backstage drama that is more
Ingmar Bergman than All About Eve. Juliette Binoche stars as
Maria Enders, a film and stage star nearing her Hollywood-mandated
sell-by date. She's in the middle of a divorce, about to lose her
Paris apartment to her soon-to-be-ex-husband. She learns at the
film's opening that her mentor, the playwright who discovered her,
has died on the eve of a celebration of his life's work. Now, instead
of toasting the man she loves more than just about anyone, she must
eulogize him. In her mourning, she is pitched on the idea to return
to the play that began her career, her dead friend's magnum opus, but
this time she will play the elder character beside Chloe Grace
Moretz's Jo-Ann Ellis in the ingenue part that made Maria famous. One
rash agreement later and the existential crisis begins.
Maria has her
assistant, Valentine (Kristen Stewart) beside her through all this.
Valentine is a terrific substitute for a support system, an
invaluable resource for deep insight into themes and character
motivations when running lines with Maria. She is there to check
Maria's vanity at times and to reassure her at others. She makes
mistakes, and a divide grows between the women. This is not a divide
inherent in their age difference, or even necessarily a sign of
friendship incompatibility, but more about how circumstances affect
the ways people look at the world.
Val is able to see
the depth in the things Maria dismisses as silly. They see the
superhero movie launching Jo-Ann into stardom and Val recognizes an
inner life to Jo-Ann's character, an ability in the young actress to
portray meaning and motivation, heartbreak and desperation in an
outlandish setting. Maria is unimpressed, probably more than a little
because she sees her vitality slipping in comparison.
This young girl is
only one force shoving Maria off the stage in the film. Wherever
Maria looks, there's a specter of mortality, loss of importance, a
lack of a sufficient – in her mind – legacy. Jo-Ann is vibrant,
brash, a wild child star, giving paparazzi the finger and being
arrested for DUIs. In a world that rewards attention, Jo-Ann is the
richest kid on the block and Maria has to shop at Target. In another
direction is her friend's death. They may have had an age difference,
but Maria is closer to his 72 than Jo-Ann's 19. In the most heart
wrenching direction is Val, the trusted advisor slowly turning into a
critically thinking foe, even if she is right to deny Maria her
fantasies and vanity.
Val's bluntness and
incisive mind push Maria to her best possible performance of this
part she probably should not have taken, but their different
positions in life might make it impossible to remain friends. Maria
is lashing out, grappling with irrelevance, but Val is clearly a
person on the rise, working this assistant job on the way toward
something bigger and more influential to the entertainment world.
Where Assayas,
Binoche, and Stewart pull off a trick of greatness is in how they
make this all okay. There is no reason for the audience to choose
sides. The film doesn't. These life changes are scary for Maria, as
they are for anyone. At her heart is an attempt to create something
that matters to people, an inclination for seeking beauty – hence
her regular hikes through the Alps – that is more noble than
selfish. Too bad her pesky humanity often gets in the way. The same
goes for Val's driven striving. She is a person of vast intellect and
as such should look to utilize her mind in the most satisfying ways
possible. She handles herself with grace and kindness, but with the
unspoken – nor should it need to be spoken – promise that this
isn't her destination in life. The companionship these two share is
comforting in many ways, though, and they grow codependent, at times
stunting each other's greatest growth potential.
The way these
actresses and their director handle this delicate back and forth is
exquisite filmmaking, and the place they reach is one of hopeful
closure. A cathartic, if fluid, understanding of everyone's place is
reached. Beauty is found, but it's a rough beauty, one you have to
squint to appreciate. It's bittersweet but right. And it's great.
No comments:
Post a Comment