At eighteen, Maria Enders was successful in theatre with MalojaSnake. She played Sigird, an ambitious girl with disorder charm who fascinated and led to suicide Helena, a mature woman. This role has changed her life. Now she is being asked to step into the other role, that of the older Helena. She departs with her assistant to rehearse in Sils Maria; a remote region of the Alps. A young Hollywood starlet with a penchant for scandal is to take on the role of Sigrid, and Maria finds herself on the other side of the mirror, face to face with an ambiguously charming woman who is, in essence, an unsettling reflection of herself.
Binoche, on whom the camera affectionately lingers, makes herself achingly vulnerable. Though the film feels at times a bit cloudy and enigmatic, it's often fascinating in its juxtapositions.
Less a narrative than a character study, it's a sometimes-frustrating but nonetheless curious, enthralling experience seeing the very low-key American Stewart do battle with Binoche's elegant, European diva.
Clouds of Sils Maria is a lot more interesting than just being an arthouse takedown of the mainstream. Unfortunately, director Olivier Assayas is self-aware of this and his movie frequently comes across as too clever for it's own good.
It meditates long and hard on questions of age, sincerity, celebrity and love, piling irony on irony. And it features a remarkably natural performance by Kristen Stewart that's so unastounding it's astounding.
The real star turns out to be the play itself: the early masterpiece of a now-deceased writer, a work of such mirrorlike perfection that it reveals entirely different things to different people.
Brilliant performances aside, "Clouds of Sils Maria" is overlong and much too self-indulgently an "art film." It might have benefited from being just a bit more grounded.
Clouds of Sils Maria is fiendishly wise to the ways of show business, particularly the boxes in which it places women. But the film offers more than that.
As Valentine and Marie argue over their interpretations of the play, it sparks an ongoing discussion about youth, aging, memory, superstition and fame.
