Clouds of Sils Maria (2015), R, ★★★1/2

Juliette Binoche...where has she been since Chocolat?

What happens when not just an actress but a person transform her persona into a different and her own character and communicates with people in a different way? She is lost but for an actress or actors in general, it is called method acting. However, we have seen some movies regarding to male acting as other characters or psychos. One grand example is Martin Scorsese's The King of Comedy with Robert De Niro aspiring to be a comedian by kidnapping a talk show host to have the spotlight to himself. It is an underrated dark comedy. But, this movie focuses on a woman in show business and what it takes. It is a reflection of actresses in that business and two actresses give strong performances in a solid film.

Maria Enders (Juliette Binoche) is a successful actress who is propelled to stardom thanks to a director named Wilhelm Mechior, a playwright and director. She and Valentine (Kristen Stewart), her personal assistant, are on their way to an event to accept an award on Wilhelm's behalf. It was a play that balances a relationship between a young girl and older woman driven to commit suicide. But, Valentine gets a call from someone saying that Wilhelm has passed away which changes the tone of the ceremony.

When Maria attends the ceremony, she receives a call from her widow, Rosa, who says to her that she is glad that Maria is there to accept the award. Rosa tells Maria that if she understands him less, the better and if she knows nothing about him, he is excellent.

Maria and Valentine head to Sils Maria after Maria denies Klaus (Lars Edinger), a director who was going to remake the movie that propelled Maria the stardom, the opportunity to be in the movie. However, she does not need the money. They go to Wilhelm's house as they are greeted by Rosa and she replies that they can stay as long as they want. They both get along quite well when they research Jo-Ann (Chloe Grace Moretz) for the play and also go over lines until an argument erupts.

Kristen Stewart as Valentine. 

This is a fairly interesting movie about the process of revealing information about certain people but also regarding one's inner self and also towards people who she condescends in the beginning but then, reveals that a person is actually nice. This movie is more a character study and relationship film between two characters that unfolds beautifully especially the "Maria" character as they talk about their personal lives and opinions regarding themselves and other people. It's enigmatic that the movie produces questions regarding age, celebrity status and love. The movie is a slow process and it gets more interesting along the way. Granted, the movie produces two parts and an epilogue and it's quite clever as all three are different chapters of Maria's life at that point.

Juliette Binoche gives a raw performance that distinguishes her vulnerability and celebrity status in quite a different point of view as she processes both herself and the character and the movie ravels into a brilliant revelation and implication. Kristen Stewart, thankfully, gave an astounding and subdued performance that has great chemistry with Binoche and you can see they develop a nice mutual relationship. Moretz, even though she has some depth in her character, kind of is one-note in her role.

The epilogue portion of the film sort of hurts the movie as it is hurried and also becomes less interesting as we see Maria and Jo-Ann play each other and it becomes a bit cartoonish and self-indulgent towards the society of our era today and also celebrities in general. But, the final scene of the movie redeems it a little bit. This is a movie that should be watched and talked about in film classes as how the two great characters develop throughout the whole movie. It is a provocative film with enigmatic ideas.

***1/2