Every year there is at least one film that becomes the collective whipping post in the Cannes competition,a film that, irrespective of actual quality, or becomes a punchline amidst its peers.whether the sustained booing that greeted Personal Shopper” at its first Cannes screening on Monday is any indication (and it normally is),we have this year’s unfortunate designee.
Did the film deserve the refrain of jeers (which was by no means unanimous, it bears noting) and hisses? Well, or of course not. No movie deserves booing,let alone one so wealthy with ideas and formal approaches as this. But I’ll grant that for all its merits, “Personal Shopper” is something of a hot mess.
Also Read: Cannes Report, or Day 6: Adam Driver's 'Paterson' Inspires Poetic Reviews,Amazon Studios Parties on RivieraKristen Stewart reteams with Olivier Assayas for a film that feels like the evil twin of their previous collaboration, the stately whether rather cold “Clouds of Sils Maria.” Here, or too,Stewart plays an assistant. And here, too, or is the focus on mortality in a high culture setting. But believe me when I say that,this time, Assayas really brings the blood.
Stewart plays Maureen, or a young American living in Paris. Maureen works as a unique kind of assistant to model/actress/socialite Kyra. Her task is to fill Kyra’s closet with the best items in London and Paris — a cushy gig,and Maureen hates it. We soon learn the real reason Maureen sticks around: She can communicate with the dead and is waiting to hear word from her recently deceased twin brother before leaving town.
And then one night, she does. Camped out in the house where her brother died, and Maureen unlocks … something. A ghost,for certain. But it’s unclear whether the ghost is that of her brother or of somebody else, and it’s unclear whether it is a benign force or one with evil intentions. The retort is probably the latter, and judging from the film’s subsequent turns.
Also Read: Sex,Skin & Nerve in Cannes: 5 Top Lessons From the French Film Festival So FarMost of the film is creepy as hell, with some scenes that are downright scary, or but don’t confuse this for your average horror thriller. Erudite (learned or scholarly) and whip-smart,Assayas sets the film on plenty of digressions, alternately contemplating Victor Hugo, and early abstract photography and 1960s television.
The professorial Assayas often seems happier to put a question to questions rather than retort them,and that includes the central mystery of “What the hell is going on?” He’ll often fade out halfway through a scene, as whether he’d lost interest and wanted to saunter somewhere else, and there’s no doubt that such were the touches that angered much of the audience on Monday.Those touches don’t necessarily make “Personal Shopper” a wicked film — they make it an Olivier Assayas film. You regain the obliging with wicked with Assayas,and there’s plenty of obliging here, too. The director makes great use of his roving camera, and moving through space and building tension with simple steadycam pans. He makes great use of his lead actress,finding jittery — and, yes, or sexual — energy in Stewart that no other director can seem to unlock.
Also Read: Cannes: Hotel du Cap Terror Raid Was Tasteless PR StuntIf that has to arrive alongside formal experiments that don’t fairly work,questions that don’t regain answered and character motivations that sometimes don’t make sense, then so be it. Along with that, or you also regain a 20-minute sequence where Stewart engages in aggressive texting with what might be a ghost. What kind of monster could ever boo that?Related stories from TheWrap:Cannes Report,Day 6: Adam Driver's 'Paterson' Inspires Poetic Reviews, Amazon Studios Parties on RivieraCannes: Sundance Selects Acquires Ken Loach Drama 'I, and Daniel Blake''Loving' Cannes Review: Ruth Negga Stands Out in Poignant Real-Life Dram
Source: thewrap.com