Clouds of Sils Maria

Clouds of Sils Maria (known simply as Sils Maria in some territories) is a 2014 psychological drama film[7] written and directed by Olivier Assayas, and starring Juliette Binoche, Kristen Stewart, and Chloë Grace Moretz. The film is a French-German-Swiss co-production.[8] Principal photography took place from August to October 2013, with most of the filming taking place in Sils Maria, Switzerland. The film follows an established middle-aged actress (Binoche) who is cast as the older lover in a romantic lesbian drama opposite an upstart young starlet (Moretz). She is overcome with personal insecurities and professional jealousies—all while sexual tension simmers between her and her personal assistant (Stewart). The screenplay was written with Binoche in mind and incorporates elements from her life into the plot.[9]

Clouds of Sils Maria
French theatrical release poster
Directed byOlivier Assayas
Written byOlivier Assayas
Produced byCharles Gillibert
Starring
CinematographyYorick Le Saux
Edited byMarion Monnier
Production
companies
Distributed by
  • Les Films du Losange (France)
  • NFP Marketing & Distribution (Germany)
  • Filmcoopi Zürich (Switzerland)
Release dates
  • 23 May 2014 (2014-05-23) (Cannes)
  • 20 August 2014 (2014-08-20) (France)
  • 18 December 2014 (2014-12-18) (Germany)
Running time
123 minutes[2]
Countries
  • France
  • Germany
  • Switzerland
LanguageEnglish[3][4]
Budget€5.1 million[5]
Box office$4.7 million[6]

Clouds of Sils Maria was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or in the main competition section at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival on 23 May 2014, and also screened at the Toronto International Film Festival and New York Film Festival. The film received positive reviews, with critics lauding the work as psychologically complex and praising the lead actresses' performances. It won the Louis Delluc Prize for Best Film in December 2014, and received six César Award nominations. Stewart received the César Award for Best Supporting Actress in February 2015, the first time an American won the award.

Plot

Maria Enders is an international film and stage actress. She travels with a loyal and young American assistant, Valentine. Twenty years earlier, Maria got her big break when she was cast and successfully performed as a young girl Sigrid in both the play and film version of Maloja Snake by Wilhelm Melchior, a Swiss playwright who is now elderly. The play centers on the tempestuous relationship between Sigrid and Helena, a vulnerable older woman. Helena commits suicide after Sigrid takes advantage of her and dumps her.

While traveling to Zürich to accept an award on behalf of Wilhelm, and planning to visit him at home the following day at his house in Sils Maria—a remote settlement in the Alps—Maria learns of his death. His widow Rosa later confides that Wilhelm had ended his life and had been terminally ill. During the awards ceremony, Maria is approached by Klaus Diesterweg, a popular theater director. He wants to persuade her to appear onstage in a revival of Maloja Snake, but this time in the role of Helena.

Maria is torn and reluctantly accepts. To prepare for the role, she accepts Rosa's offer to stay at the Melchiors' house in Sils Maria. Rosa is leaving to escape her memories of Wilhelm. Maria's discussions with Valentine and their read-throughs of the play's scenes evoke uncertainty about the nature of their relationship. A young American actress, 19-year-old Jo-Ann Ellis, has been chosen to portray the role of Sigrid. Researching her on Google and the Internet, Valentine tells Maria, who is out of touch with social media, that Ellis has been involved in numerous scandals.

Questions soon multiply regarding aging, time, culture and the blurring line between the Sigrid/Helena and the Valentine/Maria relationships. Maria and Jo-Ann finally meet, but their relationship is complicated. Jo-Ann appears to be implicated in the attempted suicide of the ex-wife of her new boyfriend.

During their time at Sils Maria, Maria and Valentine spend much of their days hiking in the Alps. On one such final outing, they hike to the Maloja Pass to observe the Maloja Snake (both the "Maloja Snake" of the play's title and the "Clouds of Sils Maria" in the film's title). When discussing the play’s ending, in which Helena walks into the mountains never to return, Valentine suggests that Helena can still be alive and walk away to start a new life. Maria protests that Helena must be dead because she doesn’t return. After suggesting that their approaches to the play are too different for her (Valentine) to be a useful assistant, Valentine disappears without explanation.

A few weeks later, a young filmmaker who has previously sent a script to Maria visits her by appointment five minutes before the curtain rises on the opening night of Maloja Snake in London. Maria seems preoccupied, being so close to the start of the performance, and dismisses his suggested ideas about the proposed film role he is offering her as "too abstract for me". When she says the role he has written is too young for her and would suit Jo-Ann better, he suggests that the character is ageless and that he does not relate to his era with its Internet scandals and trashy values. Maria does not give him a reply as to whether she will take part in the film. She then appears onstage, smoking and waiting for Sigrid.

Cast
Juliette Binoche, Olivier Assayas, and Chloë Grace Moretz promoting the film at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival.

Production

Principal photography of Clouds of Sils Maria began on 22 August 2013 and ended on 4 October.[11] The film was shot on location in the titular village of Sils Maria, Switzerland as well as Zürich; Leipzig, Germany; and South Tyrol, Italy.

In an interview, Assayas said that all the film's interiors were shot in Germany. The production moved to Sils Maria to film the hiking scenes, and moved again to film the scenes in and around the chalet in South Tyrol.[12]

The Chanel company debuted in film financing with this production. In addition it supplied the actresses with clothes, jewelry, accessories, and makeup, and the brand was scripted in as a provider of the same to Maria. Chanel provided some of the budget to allow Olivier Assayas to fulfill his dream of shooting a film on 35-mm film instead of digitally.[13]

Assayas has described the fictional play Maloja Snake as a "condensed, brutalized version" of The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, a play by Rainer Werner Fassbinder (it was later adapted as a film of the same name).[14]

The American title of the film is Clouds of Sils Maria. In France the film was released as Sils Maria, Assayas' original name.

Release

Marketing

The first trailer for the film was released on 22 May 2014.[15] Another international trailer followed on 7 July.[16]

Film festivals

The film was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or in the main competition section at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival on 23 May 2014.[17] It also screened at the Toronto International Film Festival and New York Film Festival.[18][19]

Reception

Critical response
Kristen Stewart's portrayal garnered widespread critical acclaim.

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 91% of 179 critics have given the film a positive review, with an average rating of 7.6/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Bolstered by a trio of powerful performances from its talented leads, Clouds of Sils Maria is an absorbing, richly detailed drama with impressive depth and intelligence."[20] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 79 out of 100, based on 41 reviews from critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[21]

Clouds of Sils Maria premiered at the Cannes Film Festival to positive reviews. Robbie Collin of The Daily Telegraph stated, "This is a complex, bewitching and melancholy drama, another fearlessly intelligent film from Assayas." He said, "Binoche plays the role with elegance and melancholic wit – her character slips between fiction and fact in a way that recalls her role in Abbas Kiarostami's Certified Copy. But it's Stewart who really shines here. Valentine is probably her best role to date: she's sharp and subtle, knowable and then suddenly distant, and a late, surprising twist is handled with a brilliant lightness of touch."[22]

Peter Debruge of Variety said it was Assayas' "daring rejoinder, a multi-layered, femme-driven meta-fiction that pushes all involved—including next-gen starlets Kristen Stewart and Chloë Grace Moretz — to new heights."[23] Matt Risley of Total Film called it "an elegant, intelligent drama, enlivened by strong performances by Binoche, Moretz and especially Stewart, for whom this will surely usher in a new dawn."[24]

Stephanie Zacharek of The Village Voice wrote: "But the movie's true center, the meteorological phenomenon that makes it so pleasurable to watch, is the half-prickly, half-affectionate interplay between Binoche and Stewart."[25] Ben Sachs of Chicago Reader wrote: "This recalls Ingmar Bergman's chamber dramas in the intensity and psychological complexity of the central relationship, yet the filmmaking is breathtakingly fluid, evoking a sense of romantic abandon."[26]

However, Kyle Smith of the New York Post writes: "A backstage drama that has all the sizzle of a glass of water resting on the windowsill, [...] Clouds of Sils Maria mistakes lack of dramatic imagination for smoldering subtlety."[27] Richard Brody from The New Yorker writes: "Clouds of Sils Maria, as the title suggests, is a sort of travelogue, a commercial for European cultural tourism, and, as such, it's the perfect image of the very system that created it. There's almost no independent filmmaking in France, and there isn't supposed to be. If there were, it would stand as a threat to the system that, by way of training, enticements, and restrictions, is the source of the comforts that the movie depicts and that the movie reflects. The mediocrity is stifling."[28]

Box office

Clouds of Sils Maria opened in France on 20 August 2014 in 150 theaters for a $3,663 per theater average and a box office total of $549,426 as of 24 August 2014.[29] The film expanded to 195 theaters in its second week of release, and the box office increased to an estimated $1,150,090.

Clouds of Sils Maria opened in the United States on 10 April 2015 in three theaters and grossed $69,729 on its opening weekend for an average of $23,243 per. As of 4 June 2015, the film has grossed an estimated $1,743,577 after expanding theaters.[30][31]

Awards and nominations

The film won the Louis Delluc Prize for Best Film in December 2014.[32] The film received six César Award nominations including best film, best director, best actress, best original screenplay, and best cinematography, while Stewart won for best supporting actress, becoming the first American actress to win a César and the third American actor to win after Adrien Brody in 2003 and Christopher Lambert in 1985.[33][34]

YearAwardsCategoryNomineeOutcome
2014Prix Louis DellucBest FilmOlivier AssayasWon
Munich Film FestivalBest International FilmOlivier AssayasNominated
Lumières AwardBest ActressJuliette BinocheNominated
2015Alliance of Women Film JournalistsBest Actress in a Supporting RoleKristen StewartWon
César AwardBest Supporting ActressWon
Best ActressJuliette BinocheNominated
Best Original ScreenplayOlivier AssayasNominated
Best DirectorOlivier AssayasNominated
Best FilmCharles Gillibert & Olivier AssayasNominated
Best CinematographyYorick Le SauxNominated
New York Film Critics CircleBest Supporting ActressKristen StewartWon
National Society of Film CriticsBest Supporting ActressWon
Boston Society of Film CriticsBest Supporting ActressWon
Los Angeles Film Critics Association AwardsBest Supporting ActressRunner-up
Online Film Critics SocietyBest Supporting ActressNominated
Detroit Film Critics SocietyBest Supporting ActressNominated
San Diego Film Critics SocietyBest Supporting ActressRunner-up
St. Louis Gateway Film Critics AssociationBest Supporting ActressRunner-up
Best Original ScreenplayOlivier AssayasNominated
Austin Film Critics AssociationBest Supporting ActressKristen StewartNominated
Chicago Film Critics AssociationBest Supporting ActressNominated
Florida Film Critics CircleBest Supporting ActressWon
Toronto Film Critics AssociationBest Supporting ActressRunner-up
London Film Critics CircleSupporting Actress of the YearNominated

Soundtrack

Home media

The film was released on DVD and Digital HD by Paramount Home Media on July 14, 2015; the company also handles the digital entertainment sales, with IFC handling the video on demand sales.[35]

The Criterion Collection released a DVD and Blu-ray edition on 28 June 2016.[36]

References
  1. Keslassy, Elsa (16 May 2013). "Charles Gillibert Launches CG Cinema (Exclusive)". Variety. Retrieved 26 October 2013.
  2. "CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA (15)". British Board of Film Classification. 8 April 2015. Retrieved 8 April 2015.
  3. McCarthy, Todd (23 May 2014). "'Clouds of Sils Maria': Cannes Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 18 November 2016. ...Olivier Assayas' English-language character study...
  4. Lodge, Guy (28 April 2014). "Cannes Check 2014: Olivier Assayas' 'Clouds of Sils Maria' with Kristen Stewart". HitFix. Retrieved 18 November 2016. Assayas, several of whose films have been multilingual, returns to the English language with this German-French-Swiss co-production.
  5. Lemercier, Fabien (7 August 2014). "Charles Gillibert • Producer". Cineuropa. Retrieved 6 April 2018.
  6. "Clouds of Sils Maria (2015) - International Box Office Results". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 6 April 2018.
  7. Muir, Kate. "Clouds of Sils Maria". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 8 September 2021.
  8. Blaney, Martin (17 December 2013). "German-French fund backs Pitts, Sokurov". Screen Daily. Retrieved 17 December 2013.
  9. Goss, Terry (28 September 2015). "From Ingenue To Antigone: Juliette Binoche Discusses Acting, Aging And Family". Fresh Air. NPR. Retrieved 14 March 2016.
  10. Jagernauth, Kevin (20 August 2013). "Daniel Bruhl, Bruno Ganz & More Join Olivier Assayas' 'Sils Maria' With Juliette Binoche, Chloe Moretz & Kristen Stewart". IndieWire. Archived from the original on 5 November 2013. Retrieved 6 April 2018.
  11. "Clouds of Sils Maria (2013-2014)". Crew United. Archived from the original on 21 December 2012. Retrieved 6 April 2018.
  12. Hendrickson, Kim (producer) (April 2015). Beyond Time: Olivier Assayas on Clouds of Sils Maria [DVD extra included in Criterion Collection release of Clouds of Sils Maria] (DVD). Criterion Collection. Event occurs at 25:25.
  13. Diderich, Joelie (23 May 2014). "Chanel Finances Film Debuting in Cannes". Women's Wear Daily. Retrieved 6 April 2018.
  14. Whitney, E. Oliver (9 October 2014). "Kristen Stewart Addresses The Irony Of 'Clouds Of Sils Maria'". HuffPost. Retrieved 18 November 2016.
  15. Bramlett, Matthew (22 May 2014). "Kristen Stewart Assists an Insecure Juliette Binoche in 'Clouds of Sils Maria' Debut Trailer (Video)". TheWrap. Retrieved 5 June 2014.
  16. Anderton, Ethan (7 July 2014). "Kristen Stewart in New International 'Clouds of Sils Maria' Trailer". First Showing. Retrieved 8 July 2014.
  17. "2014 Official Selection". Cannes Film Festival. Archived from the original on 19 April 2014. Retrieved 17 April 2014.
  18. Raup, Jordan (12 August 2014). "TIFF '14 Adds 'Clouds of Sils Maria,' 'Two Days, One Night,' 'The Cobbler,' 'Paradise Lost,' and More". The Film Stage. Retrieved 6 April 2018.
  19. "Cronenberg, Godard in New York Film Fest Lineup". The Washington Times. Associated Press. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
  20. "Clouds of Sils Maria (2015)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 13 December 2021.
  21. "Clouds of Sils Maria Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 13 December 2021.
  22. Collin, Robbie (23 May 2014). "Clouds of Sils Maria, review: 'bewitching'". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 16 June 2014.
  23. Debruge, Peter (23 May 2014). "Cannes Film Review: 'Clouds of Sils Maria'". Variety. Retrieved 16 June 2014.
  24. Risley, Matt (16 June 2014). "Cannes 2014: Clouds of Sils Maria reaction review". GamesRadar+. Retrieved 6 April 2018.
  25. Zacharek, Stephanie (8 April 2015). "In Clouds of Sils Maria Olivier Assayas Pits Juliette Binoche Against Time Itself". The Village Voice. Archived from the original on 11 May 2015. Retrieved 8 April 2015.
  26. Sachs, Ben. "Clouds of Sils Maria". Chicago Reader. Archived from the original on 14 April 2015.
  27. Smith, Kyle (8 April 2015). "Juliette Binoche can't save 'Clouds of Sils Maria' from being dramatically gray". New York Post. Retrieved 6 April 2018.
  28. Brody, Richard (16 April 2015). "The Enemy of Youth". The New Yorker. Retrieved 6 April 2018.
  29. "France Box Office: August 20–24, 2014". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 6 April 2018.
  30. "Clouds of Sils Maria (2015) - Weekend Box Office Results". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 6 April 2018.
  31. Lang, Brent (12 April 2015). "Box Office: 'Furious 7' Dominates Competition With $60.6 Million". Variety. Retrieved 6 April 2018.
  32. Richford, Rhonda (15 December 2014). "'Sils Maria' Wins France's Louis Delluc Critics' Prize". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 16 December 2014.
  33. Richford, Rhonda; Szalai, Georg (28 January 2015). "Juliette Binoche, Marion Cotillard, Kristen Stewart Among France's Cesar Awards Nominees". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 20 August 2015.
  34. Tartaglione, Nancy (20 February 2015). "César Awards: 'Timbuktu' Best Film; Kristen Stewart In Historic Supporting Actress Win". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 20 August 2015.
  35. McNary, Dave (28 May 2015). "Paramount Takes Home Media on Four IFC Releases". Variety. Retrieved 6 April 2018.
  36. "Clouds of Sils Maria (2014)". The Criterion Collection. Retrieved 6 April 2018.
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