Clouds of Sils Maria (2014)

A film star comes face-to-face with an uncomfortable reflection of herself while starring in a revival of the play that launched her career.

Director:

Olivier Assayas

Writer:

Olivier Assayas

Stars:

Juliette Binoche, Kristen Stewart, Chloë Grace Moretz

19 wins & 44 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Juliette Binoche	...	Maria Enders
Kristen Stewart	...	Valentine
Chloë Grace Moretz	...	Jo-Ann Ellis
Lars Eidinger	...	Klaus Diesterweg
Johnny Flynn	...	Christopher Giles
Angela Winkler	...	Rosa Melchior
Hanns Zischler	...	Henryk Wald
Nora von Waldstätten	...	Actress in Sci-fi Movie
Brady Corbet	...	Piers Roaldson
Aljoscha Stadelmann	...	Urs Kobler
Claire Tran	...	Maria's London Assistant
Stuart Manashil	...	Maria's Agent
Peter Farkas	...	Journalist in Zürich
Ben Posener	...	Journalist in London
Ricardia Bramley	...	Talk Show Host

Storyline

The first real professional success for famed French actress Maria Enders was twenty years ago as the co-lead in writer Wilhelm Melchoir's play and subsequent movie "Maloja Snake", he who picked Maria, then an unknown, personally. She played Sigrid, an opportunistic eighteen year old in an emotionally dependent lesbian relationship with forty year old Helena, who was at a vulnerable stage of her life. Maria has turned down the play's upcoming London revival in which she would now play Helena, it remounted by director Klaus Diesterweg. Her reasons for turning down the role are many including: being at a vulnerable stage of her own life going through a painful divorce; remembering the suicide of Susan Rosenberg, the original Helena, following the original run of the play, the suicide purportedly mirroring what happens to Helena; and the painful memories of the production in still having hard feelings toward who was her older male costar, Henryk Wald, with who she had an affair at the ...

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Plot Keywords:

female pubic hair | female full frontal nudity | female removes her clothes | female rear nudity | nudity | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language and brief graphic nudity

Did You Know?

Trivia

Valentine's three visible tattoos: an eye, three fish, and a smile at the foot of a ladder, refer to Pablo Picasso's Guernica, a David Foster Wallace speech, and Henry Miller's novella "The Smile at the Foot of a Ladder." It was Stewart's idea to give Valentine so many tattoos as an indication of her inner life, and loved the Guernica image so much that after filming, she chose it as her first permanent tattoo.

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Goofs

Juliette Binoche, 50, is an odd choice to play the role of a woman in her late 30s.

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Quotes

Piers Roaldson: [Piers proposes new movie mutant role for Maria] I'm trying to consider genetics from a more human point of view.
Maria Enders: When I was reading it, I imagined someone much younger. Maybe me younger, actually, but you were seeing me in movies that were made years ago. I - I've changed.
Piers Roaldson: She has no age. Or else, she's every age at once. Like all of us.
Maria Enders: Can I be frank? Maybe it's because I'm working with her, but as I was reading it, I - I kept thinking about Jo-Ann.
Piers Roaldson: Yeah, well personally, I never think about ...
[...]

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Crazy Credits

During the closing credits, four of the actors are shown under the heading "guest appearance by".

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Connections

References Forbidden Planet (1956)

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Soundtracks

Sonata No. 2 in D Minor
Composed by George Frideric Handel
Performed by Phoebe Lin (cello), Katarzyna Nawrotek (violin), David Seghezzo (oboe) and Claire-Anne Piguet (harpsichord)

User Reviews

As beautiful a film as its Alps location.

We witnessed the kinetic energy of the Oscar-winning Birdman about an aging actor making a comeback on the Broadway stage. Now with the expert and engaging Clouds of Sils Maria we witness a middle-aged actress, Maria (Juliette Binoche), contend with both her 20-year return to the same play but as the older character and the energy of a personal assistant, Valentine (Kristen Stewart), that reminds Maria of time's passage and the changes in her profession.

Writer/director Olivier Assayas delights us with stunning camera work in an early sequence on the train;Hitchcock would love the camera and editing if you remember Strangers on a Train. Assayas also features the Alps with such loving cinematography you'll be booking a trip. Credit Yorick Le Saux for the editing and Marion Monnier for cinematography.

The heart of an excellent drama such as this is its words, the best way to convey the complex emotions each actress must display. Besides Binoche's up-close glamour, Kristin Stewart's sassy, dark beauty is there to remind us that youth rules.

The screenplay offers advice about the changing nature of dynamic dialogue: "The text is like an object. It's gonna change perspective based on where you're standing." (Valentine). In the case of Maria and Valentine, the sometimes screwball-comedy-like repartee reveals layers of perception and emotion heightened by the fact that we are witnessing the deconstruction of the acting experience: Maria holds to classical interpretation while Valentine's thesis is that spontaneity and electricity are the key components.

The plot of Maria's accepting a stage role for a play she acted in 20 years ago as the young lead loosely parallels the scenario of this film (young assistant provoking the older actress) until a climactic moment on the mountain, a moment whose ambiguity will demand you complete the scene for yourself. Regardless, you will know you have seen one of the best films of the year depicting the rigorous working of the art of acting given by two of the best actresses today in film (Stewart won a Cesar for this role, Binoche won an Oscar for English Patient, and a mature Chloe Grace Moretz is sure to be Oscar nominated soon!).

Details

Official Sites:

Juliette Binoche: The Art of Being - Official Fansite Official site [Japan]

Country:

France Germany Switzerland

Language:

English French German Swiss German

Release Date:

20 August 2014 (France)

Also Known As:

Clouds of Sils Maria

Filming Locations:

Sils-Maria, Kanton Graubünden, Switzerland

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$61,810, 12 April 2015

Gross USA:

$1,851,517

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$4,728,401

Company Credits

Production Co:

CG Cinéma, Pallas Film, CAB Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

124 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital EX

Color:

Color Black and White (archive footage)

Aspect Ratio:

2.40 : 1