“Clouds of Sils Maria”
Juliette Binoche, Kristen Stewart, Chloe Grace Moretz
A
“Clouds of Sils Maria” had the distinction of playing in both the Cannes Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival last year. It is a very intelligent and entertaining film and boasts wonderful performances from nearly every cast member.
“Clouds of Sils Maria” stars Juliette Binoche as Maria Enders, an international movie star in her 40s. Enders’ big break as a teenager came when the playwright Wilhelm Melchior cast her as the beautiful and scheming Sigrid, who seduces and abandons a 40-year-old woman named Helena. Now, after the death of Melchior, she reluctantly accepts a theater director’s offer to play Helena opposite a young American movie star named Jo-Ann Ellis, who will play Sigrid.
The majority of the film portrays the dynamics of Enders relationship with her assistant Valentine, played by Kristen Stewart, in a great performance. She’s likable and mysterious as well as great at articulating her opinions.
Her relationship with Binoche evolves and remains enigmatic to a degree, but it is never uninteresting. Their conversations are the focus of several of the film’s best sequences.
In fact, this film is at its best when its characters engage in verbal fencing matches with one another. The dialogue is both cerebral and blunt. It is more opaque than the dialogue of conventional Hollywood movies and, paradoxically, more straightforward, making them fight each other with their words.
The film makes use of an innovative postmodern technique in establishing a presence for Jo-Ann Ellis, whom Chloë Grace Moretz plays. She is mostly shown in the various forms of media that Enders watches, such as clips from her films and paparazzi footage.
“Clouds of Sils Maria” also makes good use of its Alpine locations. They are beautifully shot and add to the visual pleasure of watching this film.
Although it’s a long film, Binoche’s performance alone is worth the price of admission. It contains fascinating characters whose interactions with one another are rarely boring.
