I'll tell you why so serious

Good concept, poorly executed.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

Rehearsing for a revival of the play that made her famous proves unexpectedly challenging for an esteemed actress in this French drama starring Juliette Binoche. While she knows all the dialogue, the difficulty is being asked to the play the older of the two protagonists (a la Michael Caine assuming the Laurence Olivier role in the remake of 'Sleuth'). Further tensions arise as the older protagonist is manipulated by the younger one in the play with Binoche wondering how close she may be to the older character. Fascinating as all this might sound, the film is nevertheless hard to get through at times with the plot not really taking off until 40 minutes in when Binoche views online clips of her bratty co-star to-be and tries to rehearse knowing what her co-star is like. At its best, the film blurs reality as Binoche and her personal assistant practise with it often ambiguous whether the pair are really fighting or simply rehearsing. There are also some memorable bits as the pair discuss whether science fiction dramas can have merit and the notion that "thinking about a text is different to living it", but these sparks unfortunately fizzle out before the film is over. As others have observed, the movie has a curious meta quality with Binoche playing an actress character very similar to herself, but the protracted first forty and final fifteen minutes oddly leads the film succeeding best in its middle section.

Did the director of this movie have a plan when he built this pretentious and "décousue" story? Like most French movies that pretend to be artistic this one is terribly boring and one wonders why the writer/ director has Miss Binoche burst into laughing other than using Miss Binoche's famous laugh. Is this movie a story about ageing actresses or a biography of Juliette Binoche? We get it, actresses have personal assistans and photographers and pretend to live a glamorous life. The only thing interesting in this pitiful movie was the comparison of the ageing actress with the clouds that predict bad weather in the Alps chain. The actress is so into her role that she becomes her character, at the beginning Binoche looks attractive with beautiful hair and when she is rehearsing for her role she has short hair and a duller complexion and looks older. Although I did not enjoy the movie I watched it to the end, sometimes fastforwarding to make it less painful and to see if there was another point to the movie...but no...

I watched this movie in a cinema in Paris - more or less by chance because I only went there to see the cinema - not the movie. The cinema is a Japanese pagoda. It used to be the Japanese ambassador and his wife's residence. There is a nice zen garden in front and impressive wall paintings with Japanese war battle scenes.When the film was half over it became interesting, because Juliette Binoche (> 50) and her assistant Kristen Stewart (< 30) are stripping in a lake. Binoche gets completely naked but Stewart unfortunately does not. She keeps her bra on. For the rest of the movie I was upset that it had not been the other way round.But one could have known this before, because Juliette gets naked in almost every movie she makes and Kristen Stewart is American.Then the assistant leaves because she finds Switzerland "too provincial", which makes the whole story a bit implausible because she was herself too provincial to take her clothes off before.Then the actress (Binoche) feels frustrated because she is old.In the end the "clouds of Maria Sils" move through the valley.I was nevertheless lucky because I was sitting in this fancy Japanese cinema to watch the wall paintings all the time. If ever you come to Paris, do go there an buy a ticket - whatever the movie is...

'CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA': Four Stars (Out of Five)Critically acclaimed drama flick; about a middle-aged movie star, that's asked to costar in a revival of the play that made her famous (20 years earlier). The film stars Juliette Binoche, Kristen Stewart and Chloe Grace Moretz. All three actresses received rave reviews for their performances; with Stewart becoming the first American actress to ever win a Cesar Award (for Best Supporting Actress). The movie was written and directed by Olivier Assayas. I enjoyed the great performances, and the film's clever dialogue.Maria Enders (Binoche) is an international movie star, and veteran stage actress, that's been popular for 2 decades now. She's asked to costar in a revival of the play 'Maloja Snake'; which made her famous 20 years earlier. This time she's asked to play an older role though; of two female leading characters, in a lesbian love story of betrayal. Maria reluctantly takes the part, and struggles with it deeply. She rehearses the role, with her assistant Valentine (Stewart); whom she also has feelings for. The movie is a pretty insightful look at stardom (in the film and play world). It's an especially interesting look at what it's like to be an aging star; watching someone younger, replace you (in many ways). The performances are all great, and the dialogue always kept me interested. It's a little long, at 2 hours, but it never feels too slow-paced. If you're interested in film, you should probably enjoy it.Watch our movie review show 'MOVIE TALK' at: https://youtu.be/EuKmXpjFt-k