Film ReviewsPersonal Shopper: Chagrin prêt-à-porter
May 26, 2017 Anchorage Press
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Olivier Assayas wrote and directed Personal Shopper. The film stars Kristen Stewart as Maureen Cartwright, a young American killing time in Paris as she waits for her dead twin brother to make contact, because of course, the twins are also mediums. The premise is not too shabby, and could have gone in any direction considering the wide variety of work that the director has under his belt. Regardless of the genre chosen by the director, one thing that is consistent in his work and makes Assayas one of France’s and the world’s best living directors is his gift to bring out the best in his protagonists, particularly females ones. This, along with his ability to collaborate with top notch talent on and off the camera gives Assayas’ work an aesthetic signature that is easily identifiable by fans and viewers. So of all the possible genres in the world, and with such a hefty rolodex of stars at his fingertips did Assayas choose to make Personal Shopper a psychodrama-thriller drama with aspirations towards the supernatural? That is the question that will likely remain in viewers mind after seeing the disappointing execution of the film.
Assayas’ film Clouds of Sils Maria presented Kristin Stewart with a unique opportunity to pivot into the art film world and away from more mainstream roles. Under Assayas’ direction in Sils Maria, Stewart broke through and put herself into a more prominent position among serious actresses. The dynamic between Juliette Binoche and Stewart left audiences wanting to see more from Stewart. Going from a supporting role in Sils Maria to a leading role in Personal Shopper seems like an exciting and promising proposition, after all, Assayas is capable of bringing out the best in his actors. Nothing epitomizes Assayas’ gift of directing actresses as the work he’s done with Maggie Cheung in both Irma Vep and Clean. In the former, Assayas delivers Cheung as a vulnerable character of a Chinese movie actress slated to do a remake on Les Vampires and the cultural push back the actress receives in the French cinema industry; in the latter, Cheung plays a drug addict trying to get her life back together to regain custody of her son. In Clean, the character experiences a tremendous loss but has to temper her emotions and feelings just to be able to survive. The internal struggle is beautiful so that when it finds resolution, it is not only moving but sublime. In the case of the character of Maureen in Personal Shopper, Assayas is unable to bring the character to an emotional depth, and it’s hard to say if it’s simply that Stewart and the director simple don’t connect, or if Stewart simply cannot break out of her mold. Stewart delivers an aloof character who spends her time waiting for a sign and makes cash on the side being a personal shopper for a temperamental, spoiled Yvanka-like character. Maureen goes into the finest shops in Paris securing the latest fashions and jewels for her celebrity boss and then carting these around in her moped. Personal Shopper is lacking the emotional complexity that is found when grief and loss are suppressed due to other and more immediate conditions. In the case of Maureen, mourning makes her very vulnerable to the dead and living alike, and this is one of the great truths of Personal Shopper, except, that Maureen doesn’t transcend her grief in a meaningful way for viewer’s to feel a connection with her.
At the age of 62, and having started making films in the late 1970s, this is hardly Assayas’ first rodeo, and the direction into the psychodrama-thriller drama also isn’t new to him but he hasn’t been particularly successful in this milieu, as evidenced by the Demonlover (2002) about corporate espionage in the manga pron industry. Dreamlover just seems to unravel into inexplicable fantasy scenarios that forget to follow any kind of rhyme or reason. The good news is that Personal Shopper never devolves into the mess that Dreamlover did, it has flaws all its own. Among the many frustrations with Personal Shopper is the fact that it starts off being filled with possibility that Assayas builds a structure with parallel passages that promise rich intellectual and artistic plot and relationships that then go nowhere. For example, Assayas brings in references of the art and history of Hilma af Klint, a Swedish painter born in 1862 known for her spiritual and philosophical work through which she explores the inner workings of the supernatural. Maureen’s curiosity leads her to google the artist and subsequently buy an actual book of af Klint’s work…and the thread just lingers there without any further exploration, or tie to the plot or character development.
Personal Shopper doesn’t have a huge cast, and it’s not surprising due to a very modest budget of about only a million bucks. If success if measured by returns, then the film has done okay and it has made it’s money back and then sum with a total worldwide box office at just under $2 million. The core cast is relatively small, and this means that ideally the plot must to be super tight and well developed to avoid giving it all away… unfortunately, the loose ends, the small cast, and adherence to Chekovian principles makes Personal Shopper predictable, to everyone’s chagrin.
Showtimes: Mon 5/29 8:00 PM
Run time: 1:45 h
Movie Rating: R.
Assayas’ film Clouds of Sils Maria presented Kristin Stewart with a unique opportunity to pivot into the art film world and away from more mainstream roles. Under Assayas’ direction in Sils Maria, Stewart broke through and put herself into a more prominent position among serious actresses. The dynamic between Juliette Binoche and Stewart left audiences wanting to see more from Stewart. Going from a supporting role in Sils Maria to a leading role in Personal Shopper seems like an exciting and promising proposition, after all, Assayas is capable of bringing out the best in his actors. Nothing epitomizes Assayas’ gift of directing actresses as the work he’s done with Maggie Cheung in both Irma Vep and Clean. In the former, Assayas delivers Cheung as a vulnerable character of a Chinese movie actress slated to do a remake on Les Vampires and the cultural push back the actress receives in the French cinema industry; in the latter, Cheung plays a drug addict trying to get her life back together to regain custody of her son. In Clean, the character experiences a tremendous loss but has to temper her emotions and feelings just to be able to survive. The internal struggle is beautiful so that when it finds resolution, it is not only moving but sublime. In the case of the character of Maureen in Personal Shopper, Assayas is unable to bring the character to an emotional depth, and it’s hard to say if it’s simply that Stewart and the director simple don’t connect, or if Stewart simply cannot break out of her mold. Stewart delivers an aloof character who spends her time waiting for a sign and makes cash on the side being a personal shopper for a temperamental, spoiled Yvanka-like character. Maureen goes into the finest shops in Paris securing the latest fashions and jewels for her celebrity boss and then carting these around in her moped. Personal Shopper is lacking the emotional complexity that is found when grief and loss are suppressed due to other and more immediate conditions. In the case of Maureen, mourning makes her very vulnerable to the dead and living alike, and this is one of the great truths of Personal Shopper, except, that Maureen doesn’t transcend her grief in a meaningful way for viewer’s to feel a connection with her.
At the age of 62, and having started making films in the late 1970s, this is hardly Assayas’ first rodeo, and the direction into the psychodrama-thriller drama also isn’t new to him but he hasn’t been particularly successful in this milieu, as evidenced by the Demonlover (2002) about corporate espionage in the manga pron industry. Dreamlover just seems to unravel into inexplicable fantasy scenarios that forget to follow any kind of rhyme or reason. The good news is that Personal Shopper never devolves into the mess that Dreamlover did, it has flaws all its own. Among the many frustrations with Personal Shopper is the fact that it starts off being filled with possibility that Assayas builds a structure with parallel passages that promise rich intellectual and artistic plot and relationships that then go nowhere. For example, Assayas brings in references of the art and history of Hilma af Klint, a Swedish painter born in 1862 known for her spiritual and philosophical work through which she explores the inner workings of the supernatural. Maureen’s curiosity leads her to google the artist and subsequently buy an actual book of af Klint’s work…and the thread just lingers there without any further exploration, or tie to the plot or character development.
Personal Shopper doesn’t have a huge cast, and it’s not surprising due to a very modest budget of about only a million bucks. If success if measured by returns, then the film has done okay and it has made it’s money back and then sum with a total worldwide box office at just under $2 million. The core cast is relatively small, and this means that ideally the plot must to be super tight and well developed to avoid giving it all away… unfortunately, the loose ends, the small cast, and adherence to Chekovian principles makes Personal Shopper predictable, to everyone’s chagrin.
Showtimes: Mon 5/29 8:00 PM
Run time: 1:45 h
Movie Rating: R.