THOUGHTS ON CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA

Olivier Assayas’ most recent achievement tells the story of a famous actress, Maria Enders (played by Juliette Binoche) cast in a play in which she has already acted twenty years previously. However this time, her part has changed. She is cast to play the part of the older woman, rather than the part of the young twenty year old character.

The play, Maloja Snake, is about a woman who falls in love with her young assistant. The two begin a compassionate, and arduous affair. The young assistant takes control of their relationship, and ends up leaving her boss for a better job. The younger part is interpreted by Chloë Grace Moretz who plays the part of a famous up-and-coming provocative star, Jo-Ann Ellis. She is subject to many tabloid scandals. This does not impress Maria who spends a large portion of the film reflecting and questioning whether or not she should really take the job. She is unable to leave it, the conditions of her contract are too strict, and withdrawing would be too costly. Maria rehearses her part with her loyal assistant Valentine (Kristen Stewart), and frequently questions her identity as well as her status as an actress. 

These sequences all take place against the backdrop of the picturesque mountains of Zurich where Maria and Valentine are offered to stay at the home of Maria’s recently deceased friend, Wilhelm Melchior, who is also the author of Maloja Snake.

The mise-en-abime, the play in a film effect (which is also explored in Assayas’ Irma Vep, as a film in a film) takes on a much wider and epic scale, quite unlike any other Assayas’ movies. Clouds of Sils Maria does not take on the same independent feel that some of Assayas’ earlier works seem to have (Summer Hours first comes to mind for example). The film is a combination of Mainstream and Independent, and embarks the viewer on a scenic journey, as well as dense retrospective on the identity of its characters. Maria and Valentine revise, and repeat the lines for the play. Their emotion seems genuine and raw. The rehearsals take on such a real feel that the audience is confused, and tricked into thinking whether or not the characters are rehearsing for the play or in fact reciting their actual lines for the film. Assayas blends the lines between the reality of the play rehearsal, and the actors acting for the film.

Juliette Binoche plays the part of the older character and her young assistant Valentine, keeps her in touch with the modern world. The two worlds collide with one another. The classical music blaring loud throughout somehow blends naturally with the electronic music over the view of the mountains. The film also shows the impact of technology not only intruding the life of the individuals but also as a key to their development. Maria contradicts herself when she first conveys that the “internet tells lies,” and goes on to adopt quite a voyeuristic behavior when she constantly looks up pictures and Youtube videos of Jo-Ann Elis on her Ipad. Jo-Ann’s videos show her in her most vulnerable state, where she gets arrested and is ridiculed during interviews on the news. Maria’s character is inevitably drawn to technology as a means of comforting and confirming her negative judgment towards Jo-Ann.

The roles of the characters are duplicated between their role in Maloja Snake and their roles in Clouds of Sils Maria. This duplication is often conveyed through the  numerous reflections of the characters on the windows, the cars and mirrors. Nature is also reflected in direct juxtaposition with the characters. One of the sequences that come to mind is when the characters are being driven, and the clouds are reflected on the windows of the car. The images of the clouds and the protagonists directly overlap one another. 

The overwhelming presence of the clouds highlight the power of nature balanced with the characters in the film. The cars not only direct the characters from one location to the other, but the emphasis is given to the scenery of the journey as if it were directly attributed to the journey of the protagonist. The visual effect takes over the presence of the characters who seem superimposed against the clouds, as if they were floating directly into them. The scene takes on a more abstract and celestial tone as if the characters were removed from the reality of the scene. The audience is encouraged to not only think outside the box, but to simply allow themselves to dream in harmony with the elements they are exposed to.  

Binoche fits the part perfectly. Some might argue that the ending of the film is open ended because there is not much of a denouement. However, Binoche’s character sits assertively on her office chair, on stage, as the curtain is about to come up. She lights a cigarette and reveals a brief tension in her jaw, as if she were smiling and contemplating her future. The cigarette might expose a sense of vulnerability but the overall sense we get from her character is acceptance of her situation. This is refreshing to say the least. Maps to the Stars (2014, David Cronenberg) is also a modern interpretation of the concept of the the aging celebrity. However, it is much more explicit and clear that Havana Segrand (played by Julianne Moore) is defeated by her own pride and contempt, when she is murdered by her assistant Agatha Weiss (played by Mia Wasikowska) at the end of the film. (SPOILER Agatha murders Havana because she couldn’t stop herself from sleeping with Agatha’s lover as a way to prove to herself that although she is older, she is also still attractive) Binoche’s character in Clouds of Sils Maria reveals nothing of the sort. She is in no way defeated by her ego as Moore’s character was in Maps to the Stars.

One could write a whole dissertation about this 124 min long feature (this could seem relatively long considering that most of the scenes are centered around two - four protagonists). Assayas has achieved a rich celebration of themes previously explored in his films. However, he is in no way “recycling,” but rather perfecting and extending those themes through the challenging use of the lost in translation feel through an all-international cast (French, American, Swiss- German). Clouds of Sils Maria also plays with the diversity of genres. While watching the Star-Trekesque Sci-Fi sequence with Chloe Grace Morretz who appears in an extract of her latest blockbuster, one is instantly reminded of the dream sequence in Irma Vep  when Maggie Cheung after having stolen the necklace, escapes on a rainy rooftop in Paris wearing her leather suit. 

Assayas merges the universe of the film in a film with the reality of the film. The association is clever until the very end, and somehow Assayas manages to find resolution within this dense story. He does so by presenting the unexpected, another demonstration of his great strength as a writer and director.