Day 4 @ MSPIFF 2015: 'Clouds Of Sils Maria' Reviewed
Of all the contemporary name-brand directors on the festival circuit today, Olivier Assayas may be one of the most enigmatic. His films usually play with a high degree of clarity, though just as often it may be difficult to discern exactly where he's going with his material. His newest film, Clouds of Sils Maria, pushes back on both those qualities. It features some of the most open, attractive performances he's ever presented, and then challenges his characters to explore Ingrid Bergman Persona territory.
Juliette Binoche is in full-tilt diva mode as Maria, an international star actress who is about to pay tribute to the writer-director Wilhelm Melchior, whose play Maloja Snake gave Maria her big breakout success. His celebration is dramatically altered, though, when he dies on the eve of the gala, and that sends Maria into a psychological tailspin, leading up to her accepting a proposition from a blazing young theater director to star in a revival of Maloja Snake, playing the older of the two romantically intertwined characters this time.
Against this straightforward story, Assayas studies the relationship between Maria and her personal assistant Valentine (Kristen Stewart), who seems almost scarily good at her job sometimes. Especially when the two begin rehearsing lines from the play and Valentine displays an almost unfailing ability to reposition its dramatic undercurrents in a way that most flatters the reeling Maria.
Assayas' puzzle-box apparatus is cute, if hardly a patch on either Persona or Abbas Kiarostami's Certified Copy (in which Binoche also starred). But when it comes down to it, even he seems unwilling to allow the movie's enigmatic gestures to step in front of his galvanizing two lead performances. Early in the film, the hotshot director explains to Maria who her new co-star in the Maloja Snake reboot is: an underestimated, volatile talent who is tired of wasting herself in tacky, crowd-pleasing blockbusters. It could be the film's most meta moment, for he could just as easily be describing Kristen Stewart, an actress who languished in the Twilight series, but who, whenever she's given a meaty dramatic role, refutes all skeptics. Stewart won the César Award for Sils Maria, a first for an American actress.
And then Binoche, a genre unto herself. Nothing more need be said.
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Other Highlights For Sunday, April 12
No One's Child (Vuk Ršumovic, Serbia-Croatia) OK, so we've all seen stories of children raised by wolves, but this Serbian-Croatian entry uses that cliched device only as the starting point for an even more savage look at supposedly "civilized" human nature. (11 a.m.)
The Dinkytown Uprising (Al Milgrom & Dan Geiger, USA) It took at least a decade (probably actually a lot longer) for Twin Cities cinephile legend Al Milgrom to put together this look at the halcyon days of Dinkytown. (Do I spy the old Oak Street Cinema in the background of one of those interviews?) (6 p.m.)
Pot: The Movie (Michael Hope, USA) As profiled by Natalie Nyhus Saturday night, Pot: The Movie is a both amusing and serious look at the argument in favor of legalizing medical cannabis, framed around Minnesota's own Angela Brown. (4:20 6:40 p.m.)
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For the festival schedule, and a complete listing of all the movies being shown, click here. Ticket information is available here.
Throughout the entirety of the 2015 Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival, WCCO.com will be spotlighting one notable movie each day, along with other notable screenings. To see WCCO.com's complete coverage on the MSPIFF, click here.
