Clouds of Sils Maria

One of the last screenings at this year’s festival at Cannes was the eagerly awaited Clouds of Sils Maria from Olivier Assayas.

Following the death of her film mentor, international actress Maria Enders is asked to perform in a revival of his play that made her famous 20 years earlier. Back then, she played the role of Sigrid, an alluring young girl who has an ambiguous relationship with her boss Helena. Now Enders has to play the role of Helena, and while she rehearses with her assistant in the Swiss town of Sils Maria, she has to face multiple reflections of herself.

With his new movie, Assayas goes deeper and deeper into the human mind and the art of storytelling. Its characters set between origin and destiny, the feature is highly disturbing as real life, movie and play seem to be one and the same. Juliette Binoche is undeniably tremendous as she interprets a beautiful actress refusing to grow old, even if ageing means being wiser and better. Kristen Stewart and Chloé Grace Moretz are her mirror in the film, and also in real life as rising, young stars. The performances of these actresses are brave and truthful, allowing the movie a certain interesting poetry.

Every sentence, every dialogue is real, and yet isn’t. Theatre becomes life but most of all life is theatre. Words take greater importance and resonate with the spectator’s own interior monologues. The director’s wish was to depict “the necessity to revisit the past – not to elucidate it, but rather to find the keys to our identity, which has made us who we are, and which continues to push us forward.”

Clouds of Sils Maria is slow, artful and majestic, as the snaking cloud that makes its way through the vast alpine mountains.

Liloïe Cazorla

The UK release date for Sils Maria is yet to be announced.

Read more reviews from Cannes Film Festival 2014 here.

For further information about the festival, visit the official website here.

Watch the trailer for Sils Maria here: