You can tell after the first ten minutes of watching Clouds Of Sils Maria that it is not a Hollywood production; one, because Juliette Binoche's character Maria is still alive, and two, because Kristen Stewart is actually allowed to act, and she's pretty great at it by the way.

In yet another year of middling roles for women, Sils Maria is a dream come true. Masterfully directed by Olivier Assayas, the film centers on an aging actress preparing to play the older, more pitiful female role in a revival of a stageplay that made her famous years ago when she played the younger, sexier role. Life imitates art, as it so often does, and an admittedly shallow conceit is given…

Such a layered work; a film not only about the process of an actor coming to terms with a difficult role, but also about a woman coming to terms with the fact that she is getting older.

This is just my completely subjective
interpretation of the film's ending.

Spoilers for the remainder of the review:

Val's disappearance - and I believe it could be argued that Val was a wholly symbolic presence in the film, a representation and/or reminder of Maria's youth, but I'm not behind the argument that she only existed within Maria's imagination as I've heard some argue; her external social life would be inexplicable then.

I merely think that, while her enigmatic disappearance occurred under quite mysterious…

"The text is like an object. It's going to change perspective depending on where you're standing."

And as the director, Klaus Diesterweg (Lars Eidinger) tells the journalist, the experience of the play, Maloja Snake, will be different for every audience member, each bringing his or her own personal subjective weight to bear on that elusive textual object.

So, I have to ask, would this film have played differently for me were I 20-something, instead of 40-something? Would I, perhaps, be more interested in Valentine (Kristen Stewart) or Jo-Ann (Chloë Grace Moretz), than Maria Enders (Juliette Binoche), a woman confronted by youth - as something startlingly distant from herself - at every turn? I am drawn to Valentine, particularly, of course,…

67/100

Second viewing, no change, though I moved Kristen Stewart from Supporting Actress to lead and her performance is now officially my favorite of the year (so far) across all four categories. What cinches it is how little acting Valentine does when she's running lines with Maria—her register doesn't alter in the slightest, yet she's still clearly giving a performance rather than just providing cues, which only serves to wind Maria up further. I'd like the film considerably more if I could find a coherent place for Jo-Ann Ellis in this dynamic of vulnerability and power, or if Assayas seemed to even vaguely understand Hollywood celebrity culture. (One can charitably interpret the superhero movie as parody, but I honestly have…

It's uncanny how Assayas' movies open up for me on second viewing (same thing happened with Irma Vep and Summer Hours), it doesn't happen with any other director. Maybe it's because he tends to present a question then explore its different facets (the old joke of calling him 'Olivier Essayist' is in fact appropriate), so knowing what to look for in advance really helps.

In this case, for instance, the question is what prompts Helena (in the play, and by extension Maria the actress) to be destroyed by her young assistant Sigrid, i.e. what's the relationship between them. Are they opposites, as Maria claims in the early conversation with the director (a key scene), or is Helena in fact the…