Clouds of Sils Maria Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.5

Clouds of Sils Maria Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov May 24, 2016

Nominated for the prestigious Palme d'Or Award at the Cannes Film Festival and winner of Cesar Award for Best Supporting Actress, Olivier Assayas' "Clouds of Sils Maria" a.k.a. "Sils Maria" (2014) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. The supplemental features on the disc include an original trailer for the film; exclusive new video interview with director Olivier Assayas; exclusive new video interviews with Juliette Binoche and Kristen Stewart; and more. The release also arrives with an illustrated leaflet featuring an essay by critic Molly Haskell. In English, with optional English and English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

Maria Enders

Juliette Binoche is Maria Enders, a successful actress whose first role was in a challenging play about a tragic lesbian affair. Now, more than twenty years later, she is on her way to Sils Maria in the Swiss Alps, where she will participate in a ceremony honoring the author of the play. She is traveling with her young and very energetic personal assistant, Valentine (Kristen Stewart).

But the elderly man unexpectedly dies and Maria is urgently asked to deliver an entirely different speech. Valentine makes sure that the speech is elegant but respectful.

In a posh hotel, Maria is approached by director Klaus Diesterweg (Lars Eidinger, Everyone Else), who wants her to be the star of his new film, a revival of the original play. Initially, Maria rejects the offer, but later on changes her mind and requests the script for the film.

Maria remembers the play well but is nervous because this time she will play Helena, the older businesswoman who is seduced, abused, and abandoned by her younger assistant, Sigrid. The young actress (Chloe Grace Moretz, Kick-Ass 2) Diesterweg has chosen to play Sigrid also makes Maria feel uncomfortable because in the online images and videos she looks as fearless and unapologetic as she was years ago.

While rehearsing her lines with Valentine, Maria slowly begins to realize that she has become emotionally attached to her -- a lot like her character, Helena, feels about Sigrid. She attempts to hide her feelings, but reciting Helena’s lines in front of Valentine makes it awfully difficult.

Binoche is perfectly cast as the aging actress. When the cameras are flashing she looks confident and strikingly elegant, like a true star that enjoys the attention her work has rightfully earned her. Alone, without the makeup and high heels, however, she appears vulnerable and brittle, well aware that her best days are behind her. Indeed, these are drastically different identities, but Binoche makes the transformations look incredibly natural.

Stewart is excellent as the pragmatic personal assistant who clearly enjoys directing the actress’ life -- or at least initially while the line that separates the employer and the employee is visible. She has a different, much more vulnerable side that is also exposed when her boss shows genuine interest in the young actress she has been paired with.

The idea behind Clouds of Sils Maria is quite similar to Assayas’ Irma Vep, in which a beautiful Maggie Cheung arrives in Paris to shoot a remake of the legendary Les Vampires and her character gradually alters her real identity. Clouds of Sils Maria, however, adds a second character (Stewart’s) that essentially serves as a litmus test for Maria’s transformations.

The original idea for Clouds of Sils Maria apparently came from Binoche. She approached Assayas with it and he wrote the script for the film. Exactly thirty years ago, Assayas also wrote the script for André Téchiné’s Rendez-vous, which effectively launched Binoche’s career at the Cannes Film Festival.

The film was shot on location in Switzerland, Italy, and Germany and features some exceptionally beautiful panoramic vistas. It was lensed by Yorick Le Saxu, who also collaborated with Assayas on the award-winning mini-series Carlos.

Clouds of Sils Maria Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.40:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Olivier Assayas' Clouds of Sils Maria arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion.

The following text appears inside the leaflet provided with this Blu-ray release:

"Supervised by director of photography Yorick Le Saux and approved by director Olivier Assayas, this new digital transfer was created in 2K resolution on an ARRISCAN film scanner from the 35mm original camera negative. The film features a fully digital soundtrack. The 5.1 audio for this release was mastered from the original digital audio master using Pro Tools HD.

Color supervisor: Yorick Le Saux.
Colorist: Charles Freville/Digimage, Paris."

The release has been sourced from the master French label Orange Studio and British label Artificial Eye accessed when they prepared their releases of Coulds of Sils Maria (you can see our reviews of these releases here and here. Predictably, the basic characteristics of all three releases are virtually identical. Depth and clarity are outstanding while fluidity is as good as one can expect it to be in such a recent film. Color are stable, vibrant and healthy. There are various wonderful nuances as well. The density fluctuations that we mentioned in the previous reviews are also retained here, but they are part of the original cinematography. Also, the same minor skip that appears around the 00.17.15 and the 00.17.26 marks on the previous releases is present here around the 00.17.30 mark. Overall image stability is outstanding. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

Clouds of Sils Maria Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (with a few tiny bits in French and German). There are optional English and English SDH subtitles for the main feature. The English subtitles are for the French/German bits. When turned on, they appear inside the image frame.

The film does not have a prominent music score, but depth, clarity and fluidity are excellent. There are plenty of natural sounds and noises that are very easy to identify. Also, the dialog is always crisp, clear, and exceptionally easy to follow. There are no pops, audio dropouts, or digital distortions to report in our review.

Clouds of Sils Maria Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - original trailer for Clouds of Sils Maria. In English, not subtitled. (3 min, 1080p).

• Olivier Assayas - in this new video interview, writer and director Olivier Assayas discusses the genesis of Clouds of Sils Maria, his collaborations with Juliette Binoche (who approached him with the original idea for the film) during the years, the use and significance of the mountain footage, the visual style of the film and the relationship between the visible and the invisible, the special relationship between the two female characters, etc. The interview was exclusively for Criterion in Paris in 2015. In English, not subtitled. (38 min, 1080p).

• Juliette Binoche and Kristen Stewart - presented here are two new video interviews with Juliette Binoche and Kristen Stewart. The stars of Clouds of Sils Maria discuss the dilemmas their characters face and whether any variations of them have impacted their real lives, how the relationship between their characters evolves throughout the film, the shooting process, etc. The interviews were conducted exclusively for Criterion in Paris and New York City in 2015. In English, not subtitled. (38 min, 1080p).

• Cloud Phenomena of Maloja (1924) - presented here is Arnold Fanck's silent short film, portions of which are used in Clouds of Sils Maria. It is accompanied by a score by the Sardinian jazz trumpet player Paolo Fresu, recorded during a live performance at the Festival della Montagna in Cueno, Italy, in 2010. Also included is a separate discretion of the film in text-format. With German intertitles and optional English subtitles. (11 min, 1080i).

• Leaflet - an illustrated leaflet featuring an essay by critic Molly Haskell.

Clouds of Sils Maria Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

More than thirty years ago, Olivier Assayas wrote the script for André Téchiné's film Rendez-vous, which launched Juliette Binoche's career. The two have reunited in Clouds of Sils Maria, an elegant and thought-provoking film about an aging star who accepts a role from a play that launched her career. Criterion's upcoming release is sourced from the same master that was used for different European releases of Clouds of Sils Maria and looks wonderful. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.