New Trailer for 'Clouds of Sils Maria' Starring Juliette Binoche and Kristen Stewart

If you're looking for a reason why Kristen Stewart just got a "Razzie Redeemer" award nomination this morning rather than your typical Razzie dishonor, look no further than Clouds of Sils Maria. She stars opposite Juliette Binoche in the All About Eve-esque drama directed by Olivier Assayas, and the two share nearly every scene together. Stewart gives as good as she gets, and you can see a little bit of that in the new U.S. trailer for it.

Binoche plays a world renowned actress who is asked by an old friend to star in a revival of the play that made her famous two decades earlier. Only now she has to take on the much older older, with the character she played going to a young and self-involved actress played by Chloe Grace Moretz. This leads Binoche's character to explore her own career, getting older, and more while Stewart, who plays her assistant and best friend, deals with the fallout. Beautifully shot but oddly edited, it's a film that I still enjoyed last year for being a complex and often humorous look at the celebrity culture.

Clouds of Sils Maria opens April 10th.

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Middleburg Review: Olivier Assayas' 'Clouds of Sils Maria' with Juliette Binoche, Kristen Stewart, and Chloe Moretz

Movies about actors lamenting the twilight of their career and reflecting on the past are extremely common and tend to say the same things. They all tread on the similar ground laid forth by All About Eve, commenting on aging, celebrity, and sexism in Hollywood. Oliver Assayas, the great director behind such accomplished films as Carlos, Summer Hours, and Something in the Air, doesn't really add anything new to the discussion with his most American film to date, Clouds of Sils Maria. But what he does have to say is told well, given breadth and life by the performances of Juliette Binoche and Kristen Stewart, who rise above Assayas' overly-manufactured production.

Divided into three chapters of varying length, the story largely centers on the relationship between Maria Enders (Binoche), a world-renowned actress, and her young assistant Val (Stewart). Maria had been made famous years ago when at the age of 18 she starred in a production of Maloja Snake, playing a young woman who sexually manipulates and uses an older woman. When the film begins she's on the way to a ceremony honoring the play's director, a man she considers a friend. However, he dies the night before, and Maria is convinced to star in a remake of Maloja Snake, only this time as the much older, abused woman. It's not something she's comfortable with for a variety of reasons, including her co-star Jo-Ann Ellis (Chloe Grace Moretz), who will now take on the role Maria still sees herself capable of playing. Jo-Ann is basically a patchwork quilt of any number of TMZ regulars: Lindsay Lohan, Amanda Bynes, you name it. She's a trouble magnet, and while Maria doesn't get the appeal, Val likes Jo-Ann for being herself in the "antiseptic" world of Hollywood.

It's not the only difference of opinion between Maria and Val, as their readings of the script expose numerous insecurities and jealousies. Residing in the Swiss Alps home of Maria's late friend, the rehearsals gradually increase in intensity, to the point where it's hard to know where reality ends and the fiction begins. The parallels between Maria and Val, which is closer to friendship than boss/employee, and the play's script are obvious yet Assayas doesn't go overboard in pounding them home. He allows the superb Binoche and Stewart to draw those lines for us in their performances for the most part, but occasionally his screenplay gets occupied with telling us how the characters feel rather than showing us. It's the closest Assayas has come to an English-language film (it's about 80% English) and sometimes you get the impression he's still not completely familiar with the wording. While the setting is absolutely breath-taking, especially frequent imagery of the "Maloja Snake" clouds winding through the Alps, it doesn't hold any real significance to the story, which wouldn't be a problem if Assayas didn't seem so enraptured by it. Oddly edited at times, we're left baffled every time the momentum is halted so we can watch the admittedly-gorgeous clouds rolling in for what seems like minutes at a time. It's a little too artsy and indulgently ambiguous when clarity is probably called for.

What will come as a surprise to many of her detractors is how easily Stewart holds her own opposite Binoche. In fact, it can be argued her performance is actually the better of the two, tinged with her own taste of celebrity razzle-dazzle. But that's just it; her character is neither a celebrity nor a thespian, she's just a young woman with very clear, intense opinions defending contemporary celebrities and their questionable career choices. It's a great role for her, one that allows her to put distance from her Twilight past, while also commenting on it. And of course Binoche adds depth to Maria, a complex woman who is at times pretentious and vulnerable, yet always strong and willing to explore her own celebrity. Her mocking of today's studio culture of superhero movies (there's a really lame comic book movie Moretz's character stars in) sounds genuine and probably is. Moretz, who has never really been the subject of sex tape rumors or had her mug shot splashed across the Internet, doesn't get as much screen time as the others but her presence is important throughout. As an actress quickly tumbling into Lohan territory she's believably vain and arrogant. At two hours in length the film does sag and Assayas can't stop from repeating his target themes over and over just to keep things going, but the effect is stagnation during the latter chapter. The middle section is the longest and works best as Maria and Val jockey for position in their relationship. Binoche and Stewart have fantastic chemistry, enough to lift a very familiar film up to the clouds.

 Rating: 3.5 out of 5

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Middleburg Film Festival Reveals Full Slate: 'Escobar: Paradise Lost', 'Clouds of Sils Maria', and More Added

In only its second year of operation, the Middleburg Film Festival has already established itself as the "must-attend" festival in the DC/VA area. The first year got off to a strong start with a small but prominent slate of awards-caliber films, and now as the event gears up once again they have unveiled an even more impressive line-up. Today the Middleburg Film Festival has revealed the main slate of 20 movies, and it's a list that should have moviegoers extremely excited.

The opening night film on October 30th will be musical The Last Five Years, led by Pitch Perfect star Anna Kendrick and directed by Richard LaGravanese. It will be joined on November 1st by the centerpiece film, Morten Tyldum's Alan Turing biopic, The Imitation Game, which stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley. The TIFF award-winner has Cumberbatch eyed for a potential Best Actor nomination for his role as the cryptanalyst and WWII code-breaker.

Other major additions include Escobar: Paradise Lost, starring Benicio Del Toro and The Hunger Games' Josh Hutcherson in an offbeat look at the infamous drug kingpin. Kristen Stewart and Juliette Binoche star in Clouds of Sils Maria, teaming with acclaimed director Olivier Assayas; Mike Leigh's Mr. Turner, which earned Timothy Spall Cannes' Best Actor award this year, is also part of the slate; and so is the Tommy Lee Jones-directed western, The Homesman, starring Hilary Swank.  The Dardenne Brothers are back with another tough human drama in Two Days, One Night starring Marion Cotillard; and the prized Irish historical drama '71 stars red-hot actor Jack O'Connell, who features in Angelina Jolie's upcoming film, Unbroken.

Along with the impressive gathering of narrative features there are also a wealth of high-profile documentaries, including Sundance Award-winner The Overnighters, Gabe Polsky's Red Army, and Ethan Hawke's Seymour: An Introduction.  With the festival taking place over Halloween, there will also be special screenings of Wes Craven's classic, Scream, and Tim Burton's Edward Scissorhands.

The Middleburg Film Festival runs from Oct. 30th to Nov. 2nd. For more information or to get your tickets now (better do it quick!), please go here. The full slate of films is below.

MIDDLEBURG FILM FESTIVAL

Films & Descriptions

'71

Director: Yann Demange

2014, 99 minutes

Country: Ireland

Genre: Narrative

'71 takes place over a single night in the life of a young British soldier (Jack O'Connell) accidentally abandoned by his unit following a riot on the streets of Belfast in 1971. Unable to tell friend from foe, and increasingly wary of his own comrades, he must survive the night alone and find his way to safety through a disorientating, alien and deadly landscape.

ALL FALL DOWN

Directors: Emily Topper and Mary Posatko

2014, 90 minutes

Country: USA

Genre: Documentary

ALL FALL DOWN tells the story of one family's complex reaction to a violent tragedy. Filmmaker Emily Topper's grandfather was the victim of a murder in Baltimore in 1972 that no one understood - or talked about it. Now, from behind a camera, she asks why.  The answers in this timely documentary by Topper and her co-director, Mary Posatko, reveal an America still far from post-racial.

CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA

Director: Olivier Assayas

2014, 123 minutes

Country: France/Germany/Switzerland

Genre: Narrative

At the peak of her career, Maria Enders (Juliette Binoche) is asked to perform in a revival of the play that made her famous twenty years ago. But back then she played the role of Sigrid, a young girl who disarms and eventually drives her boss Helena to suicide. Now she is being asked to play the older Helena. She departs with her assistant (Kristen Stewart) to rehearse in Sils Maria, a remote region of the Alps.

DIOR AND I

Director: Frédéric Tcheng

2014, 90 minutes

Country: France

Genre: Documentary

DIOR AND I brings the viewer inside the storied world of the Christian Dior fashion house with a privileged, behind-the-scenes look at the creation of Raf Simons' first haute couture collection as its new artistic director. The film is a colorful homage to the seamstresses who serve Simons' vision.

EDWARD SCISSORHANDS - Tribute to Costume Designer Honoree Colleen Atwood

Director: Tim Burton

1990, 105 minutes

Country: USA

Genre: Narrative

Funny, satiric and sincere, gothic and modern, EDWARD SCISSORHANDS is a timeless classic and wonderfully, brilliantly different. Johnny Depp plays Edward, an "unfinished" creation who has scissors for hands. He is taken in by a suburban family and falls in love with their teenage daughter. This quintessential Tim Burton film put the director on the map for his unique yet accessibly strange films, and also garnered much recognition for Costume Designer Colleen Atwood, who has since gone on to win Oscars for her costume designs in Alice in Wonderland, Memoirs of a Geisha and Chicago.

ESCOBAR: PARADISE LOST

Director: Andrea Di Stefano

2014, 120 minutes

Country: USA

Genre: Narrative

For Pablo Escobar (Benicio Del Toro), family is everything. When young surfer Nick (Josh Hutcherson) falls for Escobar's niece, he finds his life on the line when he's pulled into the dangerous world of the family business.

FORCE MAJEURE

Director: Ruben Östlund

2014, 118 minutes

Country: Sweden

Genre: Narrative

FORCE MAJEURE tells the story of a model Swedish family on a skiing holiday in the French Alps. During a lunch at a mountainside restaurant, an avalanche suddenly bears down on the diners. With people fleeing in all directions and his wife and children in a state of panic, Tomas makes a decision that will shake his marriage to its core and leave him struggling to reclaim his role as family patriarch. Sweden's submission for the foreign language film category at the Oscars.

THE HOMESMAN

Director: Tommy Lee Jones

2014, 120 minutes

Country: USA

Genre: Narrative

When three women living on the edge of the American frontier are driven mad, the task of saving them falls to the pious Mary Bee Cuddy (Hilary Swank). Transporting the women by covered wagon to Iowa, she employs a low-life drifter, George Briggs (Tommy Lee Jones), to join her. The unlikely pair and the three women head east, where a waiting minister and his wife (Meryl Streep) have offered to take the women in.

HUMAN CAPITAL

Director: Paolo Virzì

2014, 110 minutes

Country: Italy

Genre: Narrative

HUMAN CAPITAL begins at the end, as a cyclist is run off the road by a careening SUV the night before Christmas Eve. As details emerge of the events leading up to the accident, the lives of the well-to-do Bernaschi family will intertwine with the Rovellis, struggling to keep their comfortable middle-class life, in ways neither could have expected. Italy's submission for the foreign language film category at the Oscars.

THE IMITATION GAME

Director: Morten Tyldum

2014, 114 minutes

Country: USA

Genre: Narrative

During the darkest days of World War II, British mathematician Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch) heads up a top-secret mission to break the German's enigma code, helping to bring an end to the war and save millions of live. 

THE LAST FIVE YEARS

Director: Richard LaGravenese

2014, 94 minutes

Country: USA

Genre: Musical

THE LAST FIVE YEARS is a musical chronicling a love affair and marriage taking place over a five-year period. Jamie Wallerstein (Jeremy Jordan) is a young, talented up and coming novelist who falls in love with Cathy Hiatt (Anna Kendrick), a struggling actress. Their story is told almost entirely through song.  

LOW DOWN

Director: Jeff Preiss

2014, 114 minutes

Country: USA

Genre: Narrative

Based on Amy-Jo Albany's powerful memoir of growing up in the care of her gifted and absent musician father, jazz pianist Joe Albany. LOW DOWN focuses on the years when Amy (Elle Fanning) had few resources other than the love of her grandmother (Glenn Close) and a ragtag bunch of Hollywood outcasts. While Joe struggles to find gigs, and stay out of jail, Amy grows up quickly in a hotel on the fringes of Hollywood.

MR. TURNER

Director: Mike Leigh

2014, 149 minutes

Country: UK

Genre: Narrative

MR. TURNER explores the last quarter century of the great if eccentric British painter J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851). Profoundly affected by the death of his father, he forms a close relationship with a seaside landlady with whom he eventually lives incognito in Chelsea. Throughout this, he travels, paints, visits brothels, and is both celebrated and reviled by the public and by royalty.

THE OVERNIGHTERS

Director: Jesse Moss

2014, 90 minutes

Country: USA

Genre: Documentary

When hydraulic fracturing unlocks a vast oil field in North Dakota's Bakken shale, tens of thousands of unemployed men descend on the state with dreams of six-figure salaries. In the tiny town of Williston, busloads of newcomers step into the sad reality of slim work prospects and nowhere to sleep. Over at Concordia Lutheran Church, Pastor Jay Reinke is hell-bent on delivering the migrants some dignity.

RED ARMY

Director: Gabe Polsky

2014, 76 minutes

Country: Canada

Genre: Documentary

RED ARMY is about the Soviet Union and the most successful dynasty in sports history: the Red Army hockey team. Filmmaker Gabe Polsky tells an extraordinary human story from the perspective of its captain Slava Fetisov, the friendships, the betrayals, and the personal dramas, which led to his transformation from national hero to political enemy.

LA SAPIENZA

Director: Eugène Green

2014, 100 minutes

Country: France/Italy

Genre: Narrative

Alexandre is a successful French architect. In the midst of a marital and creative crisis he leaves for Italy with his wife Alienor to work on a project he'd interrupted years earlier. On reaching Stresa they happen to meet two youngsters, Goffredo and Lavinia, who will end up changing the course of their journey.

SCREAM - Tribute to Film Composer Honoree Marco Beltrami

Director: Wes Craven

1997, 112 minutes

Country: USA

Someone with a twisted love for scary movies is victimizing the residents of a small American town.  As this masked predator continues to mimic horror films with real life acts of terror, it becomes clear that solving this mystery is going to be murder!  An instant favorite with audiences world wide for its unique style and humor, this chilling one-of-a-kind thriller will make you laugh until you scream.  Receiving much acclaim and awards for the SCREAM score early in his career, Marco Beltrami has since been nominated for Oscars for his film scores for The Hurt Locker and 3:10 to Yuma. 

SEYMOUR: AN INTRODUCTION

Director: Ethan Hawke

2014, 81 minutes

Country: USA

Genre: Documentary

Living in a small Manhattan apartment at age eighty-five, Seymour Bernstein he appears fully content with his choice to forgo a promising career as a concert pianist in order to teach music. Now Ethan Hawke, one of his greatest admirers, takes us into Bernstein's world with this delicately crafted film, offering a wise and charismatic reflection on art and life.

SOUL OF A BANQUET  

Director: Wayne Wang

2014, 78 minutes

Country: USA

Genre: Documentary

SOUL OF A BANQUET takes us into the world of Cecilia Chiang, the woman who introduced America to authentic Chinese food. Chiang opened The Mandarin in 1961 in San Francisco and went on to change the course of cuisine in America. The film is a delectable showcase of gastronomy and a touching portrait of Chiang's journey from a childhood in Beijing to accidental restaurateur on the west coast of the United States.

TIMBUKTU

Director: Abderrahmane Sissako

2014, 97 minutes

Country: France

Genre: Narrative

Set during the fundamentalist takeover of northern Mali in 2012, foreign jihadists are enforcing bans against sports, music, loafing, and bare-headed women. Mild-mannered herdsman Kidane runs afoul of the rebels when his beloved cow, affectionately named "GPS," goes astray. Forced to shoot the film in neighboring Mauritania due to unsafe conditions in Mali, writer-director Sissako has made a vibrant, graceful film depicting a fracturing community and fraying family which, nevertheless, achieve moments of joy and fun under forced occupation. Mauritania's submission for the foreign language film category at the Oscars.

TWO DAYS, ONE NIGHT

Director: Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne

2014, 95 minutes

Country: France

Genre: Narrative

Sandra (Marion Cotillard) has just returned to work after recovering from an illness. Realizing that the company can operate with one less employee, management tells Sandra she is to be let go. Over the course of a weekend, Sandra races against time to convince each of her fellow co-workers to sacrifice their much-needed bonuses in order for her to keep her job. Belgium's submission for the foreign language film category at the Oscars.

THE WAY HE LOOKS

Director: Daniel Ribeiro

2014, 96 minutes

Country: Brazil

Genre: Narrative

Leo is a blind teenager who's fed up with his overprotective mother and the bullies at school. Looking to assert his independence, he decides to study abroad to the dismay of his best friend, Giovana. When Gabriel, the new kid in town, teams with Leo on a school project, new feelings blossom in him that make him reconsider his plans. Brazil's submission for the foreign language film category at the Oscars.

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First Trailer for 'Clouds of Sils Maria' Starring Juliette Binoche, Kristen Stewart, and Chloe Moretz

As Cannes winds down, one film still left to make its mark is Olivier Assayas' Clouds of Sils Maria. It arrives on a wave of solid early buzz just from the preview clips released over the last few days, suggesting an insightful and funny look at the struggles women face growing older in the cut throat world of Hollywood. And now the first official trailer has been unveiled and whether it wins the Palm d'Or or not this is definitely one to keep an eye on.

Juliette Binoche, perhaps pulling from some of her own experiences, plays an aging actress forced to confront reality when she agrees to star in a new version of the film that made her famous. Only now the role she's known for has been taken by a younger and more popular actress. Kristen Stewart, looking more natural and at ease in a film of this size, is Binoche's loyal assistant and friend who isn't afraid to tell her the truth even when it hurts.

Clouds of Sils Maria is expected to open later this year.

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Juliette Binoche and Kristen Stewart Meet Chloe Moretz in New 'Clouds of Sils Maria' Clips

Debuting towards the end of the Cannes Film Festival and competing for the prestigious Palm d'Or is Clouds of Sils Maria, the latest from Summer Hours director, Olivier Assayas. The film stars Juliette Binoche as Maria Elders, an older actress who takes a role in a new version of the film that made her famous, with Chloe Moretz playing the young, beautiful, and somewhat shallow actress in her former part. Kristen Stewart is Binoche's assistant and we see in one of the two new clips just released, that her character and Maria don't exactly see eye-to-eye. This looks like a continuation of the conversation they had in the clip released a few days ago, dealing with Maria's insecurity over growing older. The other scene introduces us to Moretz's character, who still has a lot to learn.

Clouds of Sils Maria should hit theaters later this year courtesy of IFC Films.

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Kristen Stewart and Juliette Binoche in First 'Clouds of Sils Maria' Clip

Venturing as far away from the world of tentpoles as possible, Kristen Stewart has a pair of indie films on the way that are unlike anything she's done before. At Sundance she starred in the military drama, Camp X-Ray (she's quite good, too, check out my review), and towards the end of Cannes she'll star in Clouds of Sils Maria, opposite the great Juliette Binoche.

The first clip from Clouds of Sils Maria has been released, and while it's brief we get a taste of the tension between the two lead characters. Directed by Olivier Assayas, the film has Binoche as an aging actress who agrees to join an updated version of the play that made her famous. However, her role is now being played by a young upstart (Chloe Moretz), with Binoche now playing a much older character. And as we see in this clip, Binoche's character might just be a little jealous.

Clouds of Sils Maria should hit theaters later this year courtesy of IFC Films.

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