It is almost exactly a year since the latest meta-teaser from Olivier Assayas premiered to mixed reviews at Cannes. In the interim, Kristen Stewart became the first ever American to win a César Award and the film’s reputation has swollen significantly. On second glance, it still seems like a shallow project – less wow, more m’eh – with notions well above itself.
The two main perform ances are impressive: Juliette Binoche has her haughty face on, and Stewart brings clever nuances to a sensitive factotum.
Maria (Binoche) is an actor revisiting the play Majola Snake, which, in a film version, delivered her first hit. This time round she is playing the older of two women: a tycoon clashing with her pushy, lesbian assistant. It looks as if the younger part might go to an American movie star (Chloë Grace Moretz), currently appearing in an unconvincing superhero movie.
Despite being pretty famous herself, Moretz is far too clean- cut to convince as a variation on Linsday Lohan. But Stewart is perfectly cast as Val, the reliable, mysterious, ambiguous woman who acts as Maria's assistant. Val soon finds herself reading the younger characters lines as her boss prepares for her part in Majola Snake.
There are, we have to suppose, parallels between their relationship and that of the characters in the play. It’s obvious. Isn’t it?
Well, d'uh, it really is obvious. For a film that believes itself to be terribly clever, Clouds of Sils Maria trades in some very clunky subtexts. Indeed, the subtexts stick so conspicuously through the surface that they hardly deserve the prefix.
Still, Sils Maria remains attractive to look at. The mists roll in over the titular valley. We travel to the sorts of high- end hotels that Roger Moore's James Bond used to bed down in. Stewart's weary intensity remains interesting throughout. At least, she got something out of it.
