Plot – A personal shopper in Paris refuses to leave the city until she contacts her twin brother who previously died there. Her life becomes more complicated when a mysterious person contacts her via text message – Personal Shopper.
Director – Olivier Assayas
Starring – Kristen Stewart, Lars Eidinger, Sigrid Bouaziz
Genre – Drama | Mystery | Thriller
Released – 2017
Personal Shopper saw Assayas team up with Stewart for the first time since Clouds of Sils Maria and this combination is producing quite an artistic connection that leads to plenty of awards wins, however, from the way this film was advertised, you would be forgiven for expecting this film to mostly be about Kristen Stewart spending most of her time shopping for high-end clients and trying on new clothes like a dark version of Devil Wears Prada, however, there’s more to Assayas supernatural thriller, which depending on the viewer, may delight or disappoint.
Personal Shopper is a film that’s almost unclassifiable in terms of genre, with Assayas comfortably moving between drama, mystery, horror and thriller as the film progresses and Maureen (Stewart) delves deeper into the world beyond, layering the narrative and taking the audience on unexpected routes, before finishing with one of those cinematic endings that leaves you with multiple theories about the events and their deeper meaning.
As you may have guessed, this isn’t an easy film to watch, the pacing is rather slow, pretty much every character appears unlikeable and Assayas’s makes some strange choices when looking to create a moody atmosphere, however, a lot of this can be forgiven due to Stewart delivering one of her best performances as Maureen.
Both Stewart and Pattinson have been tainted by the stink of Twilight however, since then, both have been doing their best to make their days in teen-fiction a distant memory. Here Stewart gave a brave and impactful performance, holding together the film during some rougher patches of dialogue or more unbelievable situations, although I’m not overly convinced that her nudity was completely warranted.
Clearly not a film that’s made for mass appeal, Assayas has produced a beautifully shot and well-acted film that mixes up genres to create a supernatural mystery designed to unnerve the audience and stay with you long after the credits roll.
If you liked – The Invitation, Devil, Dark Places
This sounds like it could be a very Marmite type of film. I hated Unbreakable for its slow, moody pace but loved The Number 23 for that same reason, ha!
Yeah it’s a very slow boil and spans a few different genres, but well worth checking out if it turns up on any streaming services, I watched it on BBC IPlayer
I’ve got that. I’ll give it a go with some beers for Halloween.