Olivier Assayas Looks Beyond the Male Gaze
French director Olivier Assayas has been associated with the New French Extremity movement, known for transgressive films such as Demonlover (2002). He began his career as a more rebellious, anti-establishment figure working with alternative, underground bands such as Sonic Youth. Now, as a veteran of the industry, he has perhaps reluctantly joined the mainstream, collaborating with Twilight star Kristen Stewart on his recent films Personal Shopper and Clouds of Sils Maria.
While Assayas may have mellowed since the quirky days of Irma Vep, his focus on the feminine continues. In many of his films, he looks at the inner, private life of women – their hopes, fears and desires. Some might find this disconcerting and even offensive, as how can a man really understand what women experience? Somehow, Assayas sees more than we might expect, focusing on themes of women’s relationships, anxiety over the ageing process and societal expectations of femininity.
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Searching for Identity in Personal Shopper
The title of this film is deliberately banal – of course the main character is much more than that, but so often others define us by our occupations. Stewart plays the titular personal shopper (Maureen) buying eye wateringly expensive clothes for a socialite too busy and famous to buy her own. Of course this comes with resentment while Maureen lives in a tiny Paris flat, wearing the same clothes most days but coveting the life her boss enjoys. It’s clear she’s in a job she hates with a toxic boss, existing rather than really living.
In contrast with the superficial, material world of high fashion in her day job, Maureen is also on a spiritual journey. She is grieving for a recently deceased twin brother, which prevents her from moving on with her life. By a strange coincidence (or is it), she also claims to be a ‘medium’, who strangely can’t decide whether she truly believes in an afterlife or not.
At first a ghost story, then a murder mystery, you’re left wondering, what was it really all about? One of the key lines that stood out to me was Maureen’s answer to the question ‘What are you doing in Paris?’ – ‘I’m waiting’. When she finally does leave Paris, the final scenes of the film point to a much more complicated and existential meaning than a first watch might suggest, and we wonder, which ‘side’ is she really on? It stayed with me for days.
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Finding Self Acceptance in the Clouds of Sils Maria
Rather than self discovery, Cloud of Sils Maria examines an older woman’s journey towards self acceptance. Assayas takes inspiration from Juliette Binoche’s own life and experiences, looking at the alienation of an older actress. In the film she plays Maria, who reluctantly accepts the offer to revisit ‘Maloja Snake,’ a play she starred in 20 years ago. It examines the toxic relationship and power dynamic between an older woman and her manipulative intern. This time, Maria will take the part of the older woman (Helena) rather than the younger woman (Sigrid). Initially only empathising with Sigrid, who she played all those years ago, lines blur between fiction and reality as Maria gradually inhabits the new part of Helena through ‘rehearsals’ with her personal assistant Valentine (Kristen Stewart).
“Because you were Sigrid, only you can be Helena now…”
A cloud hangs over proceedings as Maria ruminates on the ending of the play – the ‘disappearance’ of Helena and her presumed death. This is Maria’s fear, not only of death, but that older women are forgotten and hidden away – certainly by Hollywood and the media. As Maria and Valentine go hiking to see the real Maloja Snake cloud phenomenon in the mountains, they discuss their perspectives on the play’s ending:
Maria: I spent all night thinking about Helena’s death.
Val: Her death? She doesn’t necessarily die. She disappears.
M: That’s your interpretation.
V: It’s pretty ambiguous.
M: She goes out for a hike and never comes back. Seems clear enough to me.
V: You don’t know that. She could reinvent herself somewhere else. There’s no real way of knowing.
Shortly after, Valentine goes for a hike and disappears, which forces us to consider our own perspective on the matter. As she’s a young woman, we don’t necessarily assume she has died. We think she’s probably going to leave Maria and move on to something else.
Rehearsals for the play could have taken place anywhere. Naming the play Maloja Snake is a clever narrative device Assayas exploits to give the events of the film a dramatic and beautiful backdrop in the mountains of Sils Maria. He also uses the setting to make a life affirming point, though:
M: I don’t know why you’re so dead set on making this play say the opposite of what it was meant to say.
V: At twenty, you saw Sigrid’s ambition and you saw her violence because you felt it in yourself.
M: So?
V: So that’s what I’m saying. The text is an object. It’s going to change perspective based on where you’re standing.
From the valley, the ‘snake’ is just a cloud hanging over them, but from the mountains, it’s a majestic experience they don’t want to miss. Depending on your perspective, Maria/Helena’s life could be ending, or she could be reinventing herself. There’s no real way of knowing.
