Review of Clouds of Sils Maria (2014) by Drauchdoes2015 — 09 Apr 2015

Clouds of Sils Maria has finally received a much belated release after premiering at Cannes nearly a year ago. For this cinephile, it was worth the wait. This is a work abundant with engaging, legitimately stimulating discussions on the medium of acting made so by their depth of understanding of the craft, emotional honesty, and eerie, meta-nature in the context of the story. Clouds of Sils Maria is a movie-about-movies simultaneously self-aware and yet pitched so realistically devoid of false self-importance that it stands above other Hollywood-centered works (Maps to the Stars, to name one recent effort), putting commentary as it's prime focus, rather than succumbing to a winking, surface-level vanity project.

The pacing is sluggish at times and the narrative has it's passages of arid aimlessness, but the dialogue, delivered with multi-faceted gravitas by the central three actresses (Stewart in particular strikes a nerve) never ceases to provoke thought. Assayas never opts a declaration of any outright theme, yet provides enough fervent discussion for the audience to come to conclusions of their own regarding any wholesome statement. To me, the meaning of Clouds of Sils Maria comes in small doses, during the conversations between Stewart and Binoche or their walks over the scenic mountain range, rather than any obvious cumulative final act. The ending leaves the viewer at somewhat of a loss if they are looking for narrative finality, but this isn't a bad thing; this is a film driven not by it's plot so much as it's ideas.

Some of the things that linger with me most in Clouds of Sils Maria is the metaphorical interconnectedness of the characters, and what, if any, legitimate significance it has. Binoche occasionally mirrors the character she is portraying on stage and Stewart, as her assistant, often resembles many of the qualities of the assistant to her character in the play, blurring the line between reality and rehearsal, as the two will often fade in and out of line readings into actual dialogue. There are so many similar instances of strange, almost cryptic synchronicity: Binoche's divorce and Moretz leading to the divorce of her author boyfriend, Binoche's character's arc ending in a disappearance in the mountains and the same fate befalling Stewart, etc.

I do have a gripe with that final exit of Stewart's, by the way. She is, in my mind, the most surprisingly thoughtful, vanity-free portrayal in the film and her character's arc ends on a bizarrely ambiguous decrescendo. It is a conclusion that feels muted and unceremonious for her, leaving the third-act devoid of the same level of titillating banter that elevated Clouds of Sils Maria to such highs before.

Repeated viewings may yield more of a wholesome takeaway; I'd certainly recommend seeing it again for clarity regardless of it's slow pace and less than climactic delivery. Binoche is perfect here, a performance testament to her devotion to the craft of acting in defiance of ageism. Moretz is also worth note, a role that, minus the behind-the-camera melodrama that befalls her character, is a fitting mirror to the youthful, ambitious image she has crafted for herself in such a short span of time. However, it is Stewart, who exudes such a naturalism and fidgety authenticity, that really steals the show. This is a performance so devoid of the cloying Hollywood performances she's given as of recent, that it is, frankly, shocking, and it should go down as a highlight of her career. And, hey, the movie she's in is on par to boot.