Post by t-bob on Feb 25, 2022 21:52:13 GMT -5
A beautiful movie - the story, great dialogue & the writer. Astounding Mother Nature And Juliette - what can I say? Kristen - she's a much better actress. I would have to say - four stars out of five stars.
In Clouds of Sils Maria, the landscape is the universe, as it is not only the physical space of the events, but also the metaphorical space of time and memory. Juliette Binoche plays an actress that isolates herself with her secretary, played by Kristen Stewart, to rehearse her role in the play “Maloja Snake”.
When she originally acted in the play, she played the young woman, Sigfried, who seduces the older Helena, but now that she has been cast as Helena, and coincidentally the director who originally cast her has died a few days before, she has to come to terms with her inevitable aging, and with the idea that the play might not be about what she thought it was in the first place.
The landscape that Assayas shows is a peaceful corner of the Swiss Alps, that allows the film to breath after the softly lit interiors of the beginning. The natural setting is influenced by Bergman, as the mountain becomes an “existential theatre”, where the two figures, that come to symbolize Binoche’s character’s old and young age, confront each other.
The entire setting is photographed in a way that is meant to achieve a Wagnerian serenity, to create a sense of operatic tragedy, doomed passions and solemnity. A crucial element of the landscape is one that is barely seen but constantly evoked and present in the film, and that is the “Maloja Snake”, a weird cloud formation that resembles a snake slithering through the mountain peaks.
The characters look for the snake, as it becomes part of the scenery despite not being physically there. Because the play is named after the cloud phenomenon, and the play ideally captures a particular moment in the life of Binoche’s character, the “Maloja Snake” becomes a symbol of time and lost youth.
The misty quality of the snake also becomes a symbol of the forgotten, the unknown and perdition. When we finally see the Maloja Snake, in a sort of Beckettian twist where Godot finally shows up, Kristen Stewart’s character, the film’s carrier of youth, disappears, never to be found again.
The landscape in the film is never harsh, it is gentle, the sun softly caresses the rocks and the lakes, the snow falls quietly, the clouds glide inexorably, as to represent the inexorable gentleness of the decline of the protagonist, the slow but steady passing of time, the almost unperceived shift between youth and old age, the tender touch of memory and the bittersweet contemplation of death.
In Clouds of Sils Maria, the landscape is the universe, as it is not only the physical space of the events, but also the metaphorical space of time and memory. Juliette Binoche plays an actress that isolates herself with her secretary, played by Kristen Stewart, to rehearse her role in the play “Maloja Snake”.
When she originally acted in the play, she played the young woman, Sigfried, who seduces the older Helena, but now that she has been cast as Helena, and coincidentally the director who originally cast her has died a few days before, she has to come to terms with her inevitable aging, and with the idea that the play might not be about what she thought it was in the first place.
The landscape that Assayas shows is a peaceful corner of the Swiss Alps, that allows the film to breath after the softly lit interiors of the beginning. The natural setting is influenced by Bergman, as the mountain becomes an “existential theatre”, where the two figures, that come to symbolize Binoche’s character’s old and young age, confront each other.
The entire setting is photographed in a way that is meant to achieve a Wagnerian serenity, to create a sense of operatic tragedy, doomed passions and solemnity. A crucial element of the landscape is one that is barely seen but constantly evoked and present in the film, and that is the “Maloja Snake”, a weird cloud formation that resembles a snake slithering through the mountain peaks.
The characters look for the snake, as it becomes part of the scenery despite not being physically there. Because the play is named after the cloud phenomenon, and the play ideally captures a particular moment in the life of Binoche’s character, the “Maloja Snake” becomes a symbol of time and lost youth.
The misty quality of the snake also becomes a symbol of the forgotten, the unknown and perdition. When we finally see the Maloja Snake, in a sort of Beckettian twist where Godot finally shows up, Kristen Stewart’s character, the film’s carrier of youth, disappears, never to be found again.
The landscape in the film is never harsh, it is gentle, the sun softly caresses the rocks and the lakes, the snow falls quietly, the clouds glide inexorably, as to represent the inexorable gentleness of the decline of the protagonist, the slow but steady passing of time, the almost unperceived shift between youth and old age, the tender touch of memory and the bittersweet contemplation of death.
