Clouds of Sils Maria (2015)

Star Powered: Juliette Binoche (foreground) and
Kristen Stewart (background) in "Clouds of Sils Maria."

Clouds of Sils Maria

⭐⭐⭐½

In “Clouds of Sils Maria”—the title is a reference to a majestic cloud phenomenon that takes place within a valley of the Swiss Alps—Juliette Binoche plays Maria Enders, a highly accomplished, somewhat supercilious film and theater actress, now in her forties, faced with the chance to work with an acclaimed stage director in a remake of a story she did many years earlier. The story, called Maloja Snake, told of a lesbian relationship that develops between Helena, an emotionally damaged older actress, and Sigrid, her cruelly manipulative younger assistant.

But complications cause Maria to hesitate. Indeed, when she first performed Maloja Snake, she played the role of the youthful, empowered Sigrid to such significant fanfare that it launched the career of what was then an 18-year-old ingénue. Now, the director wants her to play the more fragile and victimized Helena, a switch she reluctantly agrees to even though it plunges her into a soul-searching examination of the past and present.

For Maria, the role of Sigrid reflected a position of vitality and strength. The difficultly she faces in taking on the mature woman’s role suggests not just a desperation to hold on to her past and a fear of growing older—it’s also a reflection of the artistic landscape itself naturally tilting towards youth.

Meanwhile, Kristen Stewart plays Maria’s whip-smart, hard-working assistant, Valentine, who keeps her up to date on the latest scuttlebutt in the industry while helping her navigate changes in technology. Valentine encourages Maria to play Helena, but then is pulled into her boss’s strange, whirling existential crisis when she rehearses the play reading Sigrid’s part.

A multilayed, mesmerizing study of behavior, acting and the changes that impact people through time, “Clouds of Sils Maria” was expertly helmed by the French writer/director Olivier Assayas, who seems to delight in toying with fundamental questions about psychology and artistic interpretation. Is Maria succumbing to age by playing Helena? Does she become jealous of Valentine for “becoming” Sigrid? Does Maria’s reading of Helena’s part alter the tone of the material? These and many more are explored to teasing and tantalizing effect.

But perhaps the greatest pleasure of the film is watching two sublime actresses—Binoche, the beautiful, commanding French actress still at the peak of her powers; and Stewart, the largely misunderstood but discerning and increasingly formidable young star—trade tense moves, facial expressions and bracing pauses in a classic game of on screen chess. Moreover, Chloe Grace Moretz also impresses in her few scenes.

There’s a paucity of movies with interesting roles for women, but “Clouds of Sils Maria” is not one of them.