DIRECTOR: Olivier Assayas STARRING: Kristen Stewart, Lars Eidinger, Sigrid Bouaziz, Anders Danielsen Lie, Ty Olwin, Hammou Graïa, Nora von Waldstätten, Benjamin Biolay, Audrey Bonnet, Pascal Rambert, Aurélia Petit, Olivia Ross, Thibault Lacroix FRANCE/GERMANY 2016
9
Kristin Stewart is teaming up once again with Olivier Assayas two years after their collaboration in Clouds of Sils Maria, along with the amazing Juliette Binoche. Personal Shopper is very tough to pin down as it’s almost impossible to pigeonhole it in a category but it is undeniably stylish and terrifying. By day, American in Paris Maureen (Stewart) works as a personal shopper, by night, she attempts to channel the spirits of the dead, hoping to make contact with her recently deceased twin brother.
Assayas’ script is very simple but it works like an open story, where scenes are totally open to different interpretations. This leaves the audience both thrilled and spooked as it’s hard to guess what’s going to happen next. A movie that brings to the audience all of the director’s simplicity and intuition. We could easily say that Personal Shopper is a contemporary ghost story, but that leaves behind all the intimacy, sensuality, complexity and psychological challenge of this film.
Personal Shopper clearly invokes Lars Von Trier’s analytical and almost cerebral approach, Hitchcock’s brilliance to scare, turning an intentional simplistic plot into this weird and scary flick. Kristin Stewart continues to shine, her role is solidly strong and emotionally oscillates between grief and some kind of personal crisis, but the way she keeps her calm and levels the deepness of her emotions is impressive and deeply human. An instant classic.