Personal Shopper - directed by Olivier Assayas
Kristen Stewart seems to get some flak on occasion and I don't know why.
There are many YouTube videos dedicated to showing how talentless she is and how unattractive she is (how dare she not smile!)
Well there can be no greater counter-argument to the naysayers than this film.
Stewart dominates this film and is exceptional.
Her performance is very, very strong and she looks stunningly beautiful.
And even more importantly - the movie itself is a genre spanning little treat.
I guess you could call it a ghost story but there is a pretty decent dollop of Hitchcock about it too.
There is suspense and some scares but the real joy in this film is skillfully posed questions it raises in the viewer's mind about the lead character - Kristen Stewart's 'Maureen'.
Maureen is mourning the loss of her twin brother Lewis.
The young man died as the result of a congenital heart disorder of the same kind that Maureen is also inflicted with.
Her grief is amplified by a vow that the pair made that whoever dies first would try to find a way to communicate from the afterlife if such a thing existed.
So Maureen spends time in Lewis's French mansion trying to make contact with him.
Now the movie doesn't waste any time in letting us know that ghosts do exist.
There are are two scenes early on- one subtle, the other absolutely the opposite- that make it clear that ghosts are a thing that could happen here.
The question is is Lewis one of them?
This is a hard movie to pin down then because almost as soon as the presence of a ghost or ghosts is confirmed the film loses interest in them for quite some time.
Maureen is a personal assistant to a famous model and spends most of her time picking up clothes and running errands for her and we will see much of her doing these things.
At one point she tries to obtain a moment of her employers time to ask a question but is unable to as the woman is involved in a three way conversation with a speaker phone and a lawyer trying to sort out some minor crisis involving gorillas!
It is clear very quickly that Maureen doesn't like her job much.
Maureen is forbidden from trying on any of Kyra's clothes but on a few occasions does so.
In normal attire she is tomboyish - plain - the girl next door at best.
She is far from the glamour of her employer.
But when we see her try on one of Kyra's dresses she becomes someone else entirely.
She becomes confident, sensual... beautiful.
When she starts receiving mysterious text messages from an unknown person she confides in him/her that the clothes make her feel like someone else.
She also confides that it scares her trying them on.
And this crisis of identity seems to be Maureen's defining characteristic.
She is a twin - one half of a set - but she has lost the other half.
She is unglamorous and yet works for and around glamourous people.
There is no doubt that she is good at it but as she says at one point the job prevents her from doing the things that she really wants to do.
I got the impression that she doesn't know what these other things are anyway.
This dichotomy and the ambiguity of the character requires a very specific kind of actress and Stewart is perfect in the role.
I have always been fascinated by her and this movie cements my admiration for her work.
I can't recall more than one or two scenes in which she doesn't appear so dominant is her character and her performance.
Whether she is involved in some otherworldly spookiness, collecting some expensive clothes, shoes or jewelry or travelling to London on a train Stewart is fascinating to watch.
The text message exchange goes on for something like 30 minutes of running time but they ever so slowly peel back more and more layers of Maureen's character and indeed of the films intention.
"Personal Shopper" seems like it could head in several directions.
There is a ghost story, a murder mystery and character struggling to find herself.
Writer-director Assayas who worked with Stewart on "The Clouds of Sils Maria" positions the early narrative for a Conjuring like spookfest but then veers away from it.
In many ways this feels like three movies playing out at the same time and it is very fitting for a movie whose protagonist is seemingly unsure of who she is.
Watching Stewart transform from a leather jacket and beanie clad everygirl to a glamourous beauty reminiscent of a Grace Kelly Hitchcock character is quite fascinating.
She is nude on two occasions and the effect is very different each time.
The first time she is very vulnerable and shot in strong light giving her an aura of almost virginal purity and vulnerability.
The second time she is powerful, sexual, confident and it pushes the limits of the M rating.
Figuring out which persona is truly her is not only the point for the character but also for the audience.
I had a great time doing it and am very keen to have another look at this film.
Unlike "The Sixth Sense" which has at least some common ground with "Personal Shopper" there isn't a trick or a gimmick here that can be knowingly enjoyed on second viewing.
Whatever unrevealed layers that there are will no doubt require careful picking and scraping to expose.
It is a rare film that can bear such scrutiny but this is very definitely one.
Really terrific stuff.
RATING: 85 / 100
CONCLUSION: A unique film that owes more to Hitchcock and Antonioni than it does to Stephen King or The Conjuring. It's still spooky when it wants to be but it is its thought provoking ambiguity that proves to be the most rewarding aspect and the ironically the most haunting.
Starring: Kristen Stewart, Sigrid Bouaziz, Lars Eidinger, Anders Danielsen Lie, Ty Olwin, Nora von Waldstätten, Hammou Graïa, Benjamin Biolay, Leo Haidar, Audrey Bonnet
Screenplay: Olivier Assayas
Music Score by: N/A
Cinematography: Yorick Le Saux
Edited by: Marion Monnier
Running Time: 105 minutes
Language: English
Rated: M -Violence, nudity, profanity (pushes the M pretty hard)
Running Time: 105 minutes
Language: English
Rated: M -Violence, nudity, profanity (pushes the M pretty hard)
Kristen Stewart seems to get some flak on occasion and I don't know why.
There are many YouTube videos dedicated to showing how talentless she is and how unattractive she is (how dare she not smile!)
Well there can be no greater counter-argument to the naysayers than this film.
Stewart dominates this film and is exceptional.
Her performance is very, very strong and she looks stunningly beautiful.
And even more importantly - the movie itself is a genre spanning little treat.
I guess you could call it a ghost story but there is a pretty decent dollop of Hitchcock about it too.
There is suspense and some scares but the real joy in this film is skillfully posed questions it raises in the viewer's mind about the lead character - Kristen Stewart's 'Maureen'.
Maureen is mourning the loss of her twin brother Lewis.
The young man died as the result of a congenital heart disorder of the same kind that Maureen is also inflicted with.
Her grief is amplified by a vow that the pair made that whoever dies first would try to find a way to communicate from the afterlife if such a thing existed.
So Maureen spends time in Lewis's French mansion trying to make contact with him.
Now the movie doesn't waste any time in letting us know that ghosts do exist.
There are are two scenes early on- one subtle, the other absolutely the opposite- that make it clear that ghosts are a thing that could happen here.
The question is is Lewis one of them?
This is a hard movie to pin down then because almost as soon as the presence of a ghost or ghosts is confirmed the film loses interest in them for quite some time.
Maureen is a personal assistant to a famous model and spends most of her time picking up clothes and running errands for her and we will see much of her doing these things.
At one point she tries to obtain a moment of her employers time to ask a question but is unable to as the woman is involved in a three way conversation with a speaker phone and a lawyer trying to sort out some minor crisis involving gorillas!
It is clear very quickly that Maureen doesn't like her job much.
In normal attire she is tomboyish - plain - the girl next door at best.
She is far from the glamour of her employer.
But when we see her try on one of Kyra's dresses she becomes someone else entirely.
She becomes confident, sensual... beautiful.
When she starts receiving mysterious text messages from an unknown person she confides in him/her that the clothes make her feel like someone else.
She also confides that it scares her trying them on.
And this crisis of identity seems to be Maureen's defining characteristic.
She is a twin - one half of a set - but she has lost the other half.
She is unglamorous and yet works for and around glamourous people.
There is no doubt that she is good at it but as she says at one point the job prevents her from doing the things that she really wants to do.
I got the impression that she doesn't know what these other things are anyway.
This dichotomy and the ambiguity of the character requires a very specific kind of actress and Stewart is perfect in the role.
I have always been fascinated by her and this movie cements my admiration for her work.
I can't recall more than one or two scenes in which she doesn't appear so dominant is her character and her performance.
Whether she is involved in some otherworldly spookiness, collecting some expensive clothes, shoes or jewelry or travelling to London on a train Stewart is fascinating to watch.
The text message exchange goes on for something like 30 minutes of running time but they ever so slowly peel back more and more layers of Maureen's character and indeed of the films intention.
"Personal Shopper" seems like it could head in several directions.
There is a ghost story, a murder mystery and character struggling to find herself.
Writer-director Assayas who worked with Stewart on "The Clouds of Sils Maria" positions the early narrative for a Conjuring like spookfest but then veers away from it.
In many ways this feels like three movies playing out at the same time and it is very fitting for a movie whose protagonist is seemingly unsure of who she is.
She is nude on two occasions and the effect is very different each time.
The first time she is very vulnerable and shot in strong light giving her an aura of almost virginal purity and vulnerability.
The second time she is powerful, sexual, confident and it pushes the limits of the M rating.
Figuring out which persona is truly her is not only the point for the character but also for the audience.
I had a great time doing it and am very keen to have another look at this film.
Unlike "The Sixth Sense" which has at least some common ground with "Personal Shopper" there isn't a trick or a gimmick here that can be knowingly enjoyed on second viewing.
Whatever unrevealed layers that there are will no doubt require careful picking and scraping to expose.
It is a rare film that can bear such scrutiny but this is very definitely one.
Really terrific stuff.
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