Clouds of Sils Maria Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.0

Clouds of Sils Maria Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov August 14, 2015

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 British distributors Artificial Eye. The supplemental features on the disc include an original trailer for the film and video interview with the French director. In English, without optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "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 British distributors Artificial Eye.

The release appears to have been sourced from the same master French label Orange Studio accessed earlier this year (you can see our review of the French Blu-ray release here). Indeed, detail and clarity are fantastic. The various panoramic vistas, in particular, look absolutely magnificent. The same minor contrast fluctuations are retained, but they are clearly part of the original cinematography (the film is broken into three contrasting sections). Colors are stable, lush, and healthy. On the French release I noticed a quick skip that appears around the 00.17.15 mark. Exactly the same skip appears around the 00.17.26 mark (obviously, because of the longer company logo in the beginning of the film there is a small discrepancy), which makes it clear now that it is on the master. Finally, there are no serious encoding anomalies to report in our review. All in all, this is an excellent technical presentation of what I consider to be one of the year's best looking new films. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you need to have a Region-B or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

Clouds of Sils Maria Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are two standard audio tracks on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and English LPCM 2.0. There are no optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature.

There are a couple of lines in French and German (in the back), but they are not part of the main exchanges, which are in English. I was told that they were not subtitled when the film was screened theatrically in the United Kingdom, but some listings indicate that partial subtitles were included. Either way, these are very short lines.

The film does not have a prominent soundtrack, but depth, clarity and especially separation are excellent. Obviously, this isn't a film that will impress you with great surround movement, but the 5.1 track is definitely preferable as it opens up the film much better. 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).

• Interview - in this video interview, director Olivier Assayas explains how Clouds of Sils Maria came to exist and why it was shot in English, and discusses his professional relationship with Juliette Binoche, the film's unique narrative structure (which features a performance within a performance), Kristen Stewart's performance, his decision to shoot the film in 35mm, etc. In English, not subtitled. (22 min).

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

Thirty years ago, Olivier Assayas wrote the script for André Téchiné's 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. A preliminary date for a U.S. Blu-ray release is yet to be revealed, but I would be very surprised if this excellent film does not enter Criterion's catalog via its partnership with IFC Films. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.