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In Clouds of Sils Marie Juliette Binoche plays an aging actor confronting mortality. As trite as that might sound the success of the film depends in large part upon the gravitas Binoche is able to summon and transmit as protagonist Maria Enders whose theatrical and romantic relationships converge in an alpine play crafted by a recently deceased former mentor, Wilhelm Melchior.

 

The style employed by director Oliver Assayas mixes media, interspersing cell phones, the ubiquity and outsized influence of the web with vintage footage of the Swiss Alps whose serene, serpentine clouds, visible early in the morning, give texture to the title of a film and play by the late Melchior, The Meloja Snake.

 

The play is especially poignant for Enders, Binoche’s character, because in her youth she played its protagonist and now later in life is called upon to play her more mature employer and lover.  The revival of this play has eerie and discomforting echoes of her past as she moves from ingenue to dame. Even more unsettling is the director’s decision to cast a fiery, seemingly reckless newcomer in the role she herself originated, plunging her into further emotional turmoil.

 

What is especially intriguing about Clouds of Sils Marie, is the manner in which it juxtaposes details of how actors live and pursue their creative processes. Central to both Enders and the person she plays and indeed to the success and believablility of each of these situations is the role of the personal assistant. Kristen Stewart’s performance as Valentine, who quite literally is everything for Enders makes this point. She provides the space enable the artist to prepare, running interference through legal minefields, navigating chaotic crises and literally traversing terrain in order to keep her boss comfortably centered on her craft.

 

Especially effective is the way in which director Assayas sets scenes that seem more suited to stage than screen. While we see dissolves and fades we are also being moved from set to set. In this sense, the film is very much about theater and the theatrical process, as distinct from what unfolds in cinematic time.

 

All of this adds up to an invigorating if at times emotionally challenging aesthetic experience. Clouds of Sils Marie is a sensuous and sensual tour de force.

 

This is David H. Anthony.