Review of Clouds of Sils Maria (2014) by Alberto A — 25 Sep 2015

In the visually bewildering corners of the Swiss Alps and the secluded comfort of Sils Maria, a mid-life French actress called Maria Enders (Juliette Binoche) is pushed into facing the inevitable fugacity of life through her own craft by acting on the play that gave her her break as an actress 20 years prior, however, this time she would be playing the older character. The play is about the relationship of a young woman, Sigrid, with her significantly older boss, Helena, who ends up infatuated by the youthfulness of her employee. In the end, Helena realizes that Sigrid played her all along, and heartbroken, ends up killing herself.

Olivier Assayasâ?? â??Clouds of Sils Mariaâ?? is about that phenomenon almost every human being knows is inevitable, yet we are all still reluctant to accept (it is not death, in this particular case): the fear of aging and seeing youth fade away. As Maria gets prepared for exchanging roles with the help of her assistant Valentine (Kristen Stewart), the plot of the play comes to life in Mariaâ??s mind and begins to reflect on her career, life, age, and her relationship with Valentine, thus revealing one of the most terrifying qualities of the performing arts: that it can easily be â??de-fictionalizedâ?? given how open to assimilation some works of art are. As disinclined as she was to play the role of Helena, Maria started to understand the character through her own life.

At the same time, Maria has to reluctantly welcome the fresh new breed of young actresses, who live off of social media and scandals, when she hears which actress is going to take the role she did when she was young; an American actress Jo-Ann (Chloë Grace Moretz). The aforementioned is quite important in the film because it showcases the significant change in the art of acting: while Maria was still clinging onto a quite passionate, theatrical, and European form of acting, Jo-Ann comes from the generation where sci-fi franchises maker her famous, not plays.

Juliette Binoche gives a fantastic performance. She manages to figuratively strip her character, but simultaneously maintain the the agency she carries from film to film. I donâ??t think Iâ??ve ever seen a Binoche character so exposed and vulnerable. Kristen Stewart also gives one of her best performances so far as Mariaâ??s assistant, who helps her rehearse and is directly involved with making Maria face her similarities with her role, Helena. Chloë Grace Moretz does not grace the screen for too long, but when she does, she dazzles; she literally is the definition of the chaotic young movie star.

â??Clouds of Sils Mariaâ?? is a quite complicated film with several miles of character and storytelling depth. I really recommend this one, especially if you want to see Kristen Stewartâ??s acting redemption go on.