‘Personal Shopper‘ (Best Director award at Cannes in 2016 tied with Cristian Mungiu‘s ‘Graduation‘) is the second collaboration between the French director Olivier Assayas and American actress Kristen Stewart after the excellent ‘Clouds of Sils Maria‘ released in 2014. I liked their first film more, but without a doubt ‘Personal Shopper‘ is a very interesting film, one of those movies that can lead to very different and extreme reactions. Some viewers will disregard it from the start for his belonging to the genre of ghost movies that they cannot take seriously. Others will be fascinated by the complexity of the story and the ambiguous and open approach, open to multiple interpretations. The blogs and discussion groups of the thriller and horror enthusiasts are full of passionate debates, analyzes and theories about what viewers saw on screen. Most viewers will find many reasons for satisfaction in a film in which the details require constant attention. It’s one of the few movies I’d like to see again right after watching it. But there are also enough disappointed viewers, and those who follow the viewers comments on IMDB will also find several 1 grades. The least numerous are, I think, the viewers who will remain indifferent after watching.
How you perceive this film as viewers depends on the extent to which you believe in spiritism and other means of communication with those who have crossed the threshold of death, or at least you are prepared to accept them as a premise for thriller, horror, or ghost movies. The main heroine named Maureen (Kristen Stewart) is a young American whose twin brother, Lewis, died a few months ago due to a heart defect, which she also suffers from and which endangers her at any time. The two siblings had spiritualistic abilities and had promised that in the event of the death of one of them, the departed would send a sign to the survivor. The film tells the story of the waiting for this sign by Maureen, who lives in Paris as a personal shopper, a.k.a. shopping assistant for luxury toilets and jewelry of a star. How will this sign come about? By the classical methods of spiritualism used already by Victor Hugo during his exile on the island of Jersey in the 19th century? Maybe through the beautiful objects (clothes, jewelry) purchased by Maureen for her employer or through art, as the painter Hilma af Klimt, the pioneer of abstract art, did at the beginning of the 20th century? Or, if we are in the 21st century, through iPhone messaging?
The story gathers enough complexity for an interesting thriller, including a corpse and situations in which our heroine risks becoming a murder suspect or even a victim. I will not reveal more because almost everything I tell risks being a spoiler, and the film is interesting enough to offer reasons of interest to amateurs of various genres. A second theme of the film is the difficulty of communication, not only with those in the other world but also with those around us. Maureen hardly exchanges a word with her mistress. Communicating with anonymous people on the Internet is an alternative that is proving to be very dangerous. In my opinion, Kristen Stewart‘s performance is outstanding, a combination of vulnerability and determination, between involvement and the search for communication with the world beyond. The cinematography is also exceptional. Some of the scenes filmed in the abandoned house where the missing brother had lived are illuminated in such a way that the color palette is almost completely reduced to black and white, as a tribute to the classics of the horror genre. The streets of Paris and London bring us back to a reality that should assure us, but which instead only increases our worries. The soundtrack also contributes to this effect. Some scenes include windows, which makes us constantly wonder where they open. Some overly obvious ‘ghostly’ effects could have been avoided, but overall the film looks great visually. I recommend watching. One more thing. I believe that ‘Personal Shopper‘ is a movie whose status has good chances to grow over time. Some of the viewers risk being already absorbed in the fan discussion forums about the significance of what they have seen on the screen.