Kristen Stewart is coming for Cannes this year – first as the star of the festival’s opening title, Woody Allen’s Cafe Society, and once again in french director Olivier Assayas‘ Personal Shopper. Stewart has become somewhat of muse for the latter director as of late, starring in his previous film Clouds of Sils Maria, which also won her a Cesar Award for Best Supporting Actress (the first of its kind to be bestowed on an American).
In Personal Shopper she plays Maureen, a self proclaimed Medium working in the fashion world. After coming to Paris following her brother’s death – whom with she shared her spiritual gift – a ghost story ensues within the french fashion underbelly.
In a recent interview with The Guardian, Assayas commented on this film’s tonal similarities to Sils Maria:
I wrote this movie really fast and it has ended up as a sort of continuation of our first film together. Clouds opened doors for me. Things I couldn’t touch before I was able to do: mixing realistic and genre elements, dealing with the invisible…A personal shopper is the most alienated job you can find,” he explains. “You’re dealing in surfaces, but it’s not even for yourself. Maureen is doing a job she doesn’t like, and the film is about her trying to come to terms with her own identity. She’s darker than Val. And the film is darker. Clouds can be seen as comedy. This can’t.
Before Personal Shopper opens at Cannes, audiences have been given a sneak peek into the dark film. The following clips feature a scene in which Stewart’s Maureen explains her spiritual arrival to Paris and a scene depicting her interactions with a fellow personal shopper.
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