'Clouds of Sils Maria' Review: Film Shows Actress Tackling Realities of Aging
In the business of theater, music, fashion, TV and movies – as it is in real life – the process of aging is looked upon as an inevitable bane as new and definitely younger artists crop up and drive home the point even further.
Sadly, this is especially true for women more than men.
In the movie "Clouds of Sils Maria," Juliet Binoche plays Maria Enders, who shot to fame playing a young lesbian who drove her older lover to suicide. Two decades later, Maria is offered the part of the tragic older woman. She is a woman at the cusp of the conflict, as she navigates the tricky road of accepting that she no longer is the ingénue she started out to be, and that she has become, tragically, the "older woman."
Written and directed by noted French director Oliver Assayas, the movie also stars Kristen Stewart as Maria's assistant, Valentine; and Chloe Grace Moretz, as Jo-Ann Ellis, the young tabloid fodder star who plays the role of the young woman who eventually seduced and drove her boss to suicide.
Maria, an acclaimed and glamorous actress, is in the middle of a divorce and an ad campaign for Chanel, when she decides to go on a trip to Sils-Maria, in the Grison Alps with her girl Friday, Valentine, to see an old friend, the writer of "Maloja Snake," the play that launched Maria's career. What she didn't know was that her friend has committed suicide.
At the tribute cum memorial service, Maria is approached by an up-and-coming director who is staging "Maloja Snake" in London with the young-adult-sci-fi franchise star, Jo-Ann Ellis playing the role of Sigrid, the role that catapulted Maria to stardom when she was starting out. The director offered Maria the part of Helen, the woman Sigrid ultimately destroys.
Sils-Maria is a Swiss mountain village near St. Moritz known for strange weather conditions that cast a cloud over the valley like a shroud. It is the setting where Maria hides out with Valentine, as they read and rehearse for the play (with Valentine reading the part of Sigrid). Maria's and Valentine's relationship mirrors eerily the roles they are reading. The slow pace of the movie, coupled with the exquisite location, seems like the perfect setting for Maria to contemplate realities of her own aging process, balancing it with her pride and instinct for self-preservation.
A movie review focused on the parallelisms and subtexts implied. Jo-Ann, Moretz's role, is famous for a series of movies aimed at the young-adult market, so much like how Kristen Stewart shot to fame not so many years ago. Stewart, on the other hand, has already won a Best Supporting Actor Cesar for the movie, and it just drives home the point that she got famous for the wrong roles. Binoche also had her breakout role in "Rendez-Vous," which was written by Assayas.
Another review commented on the greyness of the setting, the slowness of the pacing and the fact that not too many things happen, leaving the feeling that the film was incomplete, almost like it was not yet a film, but still an idea of a film.
What reviewers agree on though was that Binoche and Stewart turn in excellent performances as Maria and Valentine, respectively, with Moretz also essaying Jo-Ann with more depth than the role suggests.