Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.0

Personal Shopper Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov October 24, 2017

Olivier Assayas' "Personal Shopper" (2016) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. The supplemental features on the disc include an original trailer for the film; new video interview with dierctor Olivier Assayas; and a video presentation of a press conference from the Cannes Film Festival. The release also arrives with an illustrated leaflet featuring critic Glenn Kenny's essay "Freedom 2016" and technical credits. In English and French, with optional English and English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

The shopper

The great George Orwell is credited to have said the following: “There are some ideas so absurd that only an intellectual could believe them.” Olivier Assayas’ latest film, Personal Shopper, might very well be one of the best examples that Orwell was right.

Kristen Stewart is Maureen, a young American woman who lives in the City of Lights and makes ends meet as a 'personal shopper'. She is always on the move buying or renting ultra-expensive dresses, shoes, and jewelry for a very high-profile celebrity (Nora von Waldstätten) with a seemingly bottomless bank account. Most of the time Maureen shops in the French capital, but occasionally she also travels to London to pick up a rare piece from a local boutique that the celebrity absolutely must have in her wardrobe. Maureen is fast, reliable, and with the same body structures as her employer -- the perfect person for the job.

But Maureen is not a professional shopaholic and there is an entirely different reason why she is in Paris -- she is a medium and is waiting to establish contact with her deceased brother. You see, they were born with serious heart abnormalities and as they grew older and their conditions worsened the two agreed that the first to die will try to contact the other from… well, whatever that place is that the soul is dispatched to after it exists the body. So, while doing all the expensive shopping for her employer, Maureen is always on the lookout for signs that her dead brother is trying to get in touch with her.

Maureen frequently visits the empty house where her brother used to live and from time to time sees and hears things, but the signs are never as clear as she needs them to be and she can’t quite tell if it is him trying to break though the invisible barrier that is keeping him on the other side. At first the experiences frustrate her, but when a mysterious stranger begins sending her messages on her phone and engages her in an ongoing bizarre conversation she concludes that she has made the wrong contact and panics.

Assayas is a very talented director who understands how to create unique ambience and there is a good portion of this film where he does precisely that. The trouble with it is that here he essentially uses it only as a bartender’s shaker that shakes up a few interesting but ultimately incompatible ideas about the afterlife, wandering souls, and paranormal experiences. Unsurprisingly, the end product that comes out of the shaker is more than a bit suspicious.

The decision to cast Stewart as the ill medium is also rather strange because virtually from the moment she steps in front of the camera until the final sequence in the garden she looks completely detached from her character – and not by design. Perhaps some of her behavior can be explained with the refusal of her character’s mind to decisively separate the real from the unreal, but there are so many examples where the body language and attitude make it awfully easy to tell that Stewart is actually bored to tears.

The subplot that sends the medium to the French police is also very weak. It gives Assayas a few extra opportunities to expand the narrative, but as it quickly becomes obvious for all the wrong reasons. A very uneven film and a rare misfire from Assayas.

Personal Shopper 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' Personal Shopper 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 dierctor Olivier Assayas, this digital master was created in 2K resolution on a Northlight film scanner from the 35mm original camera negative. The film features a fully digital soundtrack. The 5.1 surround audio for this release was mastered from the original digital audio files using Pro Tools HD.

Color supervisor: Yorick Le Saux.
Colorist: Lionel Kopp/Film Factory, Paris."

The film looks very clean and crisp, and boasts impressive depth. There is plenty of darker footage where light is restricted that is also very nicely balanced, which allows plenty of interesting nuances to be easily identified. Detail is excellent, but this is hardly surprising considering the fact that the entire film was shot with modern equipment that is very sensitive and makes it quite easy to deliver hugely impressive results. Colors appear very healthy and natural, with properly balanced nuances. Image stability is excellent. (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).

Personal Shopper 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 portions of French). Optional English and English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature. When turned on, they appear inside the image frame.

The film features a fully digital soundtrack so the 5.1 lossless track essentially replicates the final mix that was approved by its creators. Depth and especially clarity are fantastic, and there is an excellent range of nuanced dynamics that help really well the intended atmosphere. The footage where Maureen sees the ghosts has some small but quite neat effects. There are no audio dropouts, pops, or digital distortions to report in our review.

Personal Shopper Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - original trailer for Personal Shopper. In English, not subtitled. (2 min, 1080p).

• Olivier Assayas - in this new video interview, director Olivier Assayas explains what motivated him to shoot Personal Shopper and discusses some of the main themes in it. The interview was conducted exclusively for Criterion in Toronto in 2017. (17 min, 1080p).

• Cannes Film Festival, 2016 - presented here is a press conference featuring Olivier Assayas, actors Kristen Stewart, Lars Eidinger, and Sigrid Bouaziz, and producer Charles Gillibert, which was held at the Cannes Film Festival where Personal Shopper was nominated for the prestigious Palme d'Or Award and won Best Director Award. In English and French. (46 min, 1080i).

• Leaflet - an illustrated leaflet featuring critic Glenn Kenny's essay "Freedom 2016" and technical credits.

Personal Shopper Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

When Olivier Assayas' Personal Shopper was screened at Cannes apparently at the end of the film quite a few people booed, and not because they were utterly disappointed with what they had just seen, but because many reportedly felt that too many of its pieces and themes were unceremoniously abandoned. I don't have a problem with the finale. In fact, I think that it is the only part of the film that actually works quite well. The problem with the film is that it mixes a lot of different ideas without having the knowledge and authority to go as far as it wants to go, but it demands to be taken seriously while offering only bits of proper atmosphere. I enjoy Assayas' work, but this is a very uneven film and a rather strange misfire from him. If you like the film and wish to own it on Blu-ray, you will be pleased to know that Criterion's technical presentation is excellent.