Review of Clouds of Sils Maria (2014) by Kasia B — 02 Mar 2015

This is an english version of a "french film" so it is already supposed to be artsy. The scenery was beautiful which they take advantage of by spending a lot of time walking all over its trails and sitting to look at the views which is part of the story. Clouds of Sils Maria is a Swiss town where the clouds at some times of the year follow and snakes through the canyons of the alps as it moves and undulates into the mountain/lake town. The topic is also promising, it is about an aging actress struggling to still be relevant as she is being replaced by younger more outrageous, scandal/paparazzi hyped stars. The scenes spends so much time developing the characters and the conflicts that you are promised so much as you follow it...suffering through its editing techniques (it shows the characters without conversations going in and out of houses, cars, etc...just to elaborate the narrative) and filming gimmicks (filmed in 35 mm, which made the beautiful scenery flat). The actors were sufficiently effective...but it all felt so "written" and contrived. One of the main characters just vanishes from the story without explanation or reaction after so much time spent developing the character and the relationship. It's all set up and the end so small, it just felt uneven. It had an interesting topic but makes no lasting impression on them. So much atmosphere but ultimately as insubstantial as a cloud.

It was written and directed by Olivier Assayas and it won the Louis Delluc Prize for Best Film in December 2014 but here's where the rubber meets the road: it was made for $6.6M and made $1.5M.

Ahhh we uncouth viewers don't know a thing about art french films!