Film
Clouds of Sils Maria
A celebrated actress, invited to revive the play that made her famous twenty years earlier, is now asked to take the older role rather than the ingénue she once played. Retreating to a house in the Swiss Alps with her sharp young personal assistant, she rehearses the part — and the boundaries between the play, her career and her relationship with her assistant begin to blur.
About
Olivier Assayas's Clouds of Sils Maria (2014) competed for the Palme d'Or and made history when Kristen Stewart became the first American actress to win a César, for her supporting role. A reflexive drama about acting, ageing and female rivalry, it is among the most admired works of Assayas's career.
Juliette Binoche plays Maria Enders, the star confronting her own mortality through the role reversal of the play that launched her, with Stewart as Valentine, the assistant whose rehearsal-room sparring with her grows ever more charged, and Chloë Grace Moretz as a scandal-prone young Hollywood actress. Assayas sets much of the film amid the shifting mists of the Swiss mountains — the title refers to a real meteorological phenomenon — and lets the lines between performance and life dissolve, particularly in the electric two-handers between Binoche and Stewart.
Critics praised its intelligence and the chemistry of its leads, with Stewart's performance widely seen as the moment she was reassessed as a serious actress. Cerebral, ambiguous and beautifully played, Clouds of Sils Maria is a film about performers that doubles as a meditation on time and self. It confirmed Assayas as a master of the talky, idea-rich European drama at its most absorbing. Stewart's César win marked a turning point in her critical reputation, and the film's electric two-handers with Binoche stand among the most absorbing screen depictions of acting, ageing and the rivalries between women.
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Streaming availability via JustWatch. Last checked 2026-06-16.
Top Cast
Juliette Binoche
Maria Enders
Kristen Stewart
Valentine
Chloë Grace Moretz
Jo-Ann Ellis
Lars Eidinger
Klaus Diesterweg
Johnny Flynn
Christopher Giles
Awards, Festivals & Mentions
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Winner — César Best Supporting Actress (Kristen Stewart, 2015)
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Cannes Film Festival 2014 — In Competition