Personal Shopper [Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray]

Director: Olivier Assayas, Charles Gillibert Olivier Assayas

Overview

"After a successful collaboration on 2014's Clouds of Sils Maria, director Olivier Assayas reunites with star Kristen Stewart in this drama about a young woman working as a personal shopper to an egotistical celebrity in Paris. While spending much of her time buying expensive clothes and jewelry for Kyra Nora von Waldstätten, Stewart's Maureen is also a spiritual medium trying to make contact with her deceased twin brother who recently died of a congenital heart condition that she also shares."

Product Details

Release Date:	10/24/2017
UPC:	0715515205214
Original Release:	2016
Rating:	R
Source:	Criterion Collection
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	1:45:00
Sales rank:	10,127

Special Features

2K digital transfer, supervised by director of photography Olivier Assayas, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack; New interview with Assayas; 2016 Cannes Film Festival press conference featuring actor Kristen Stewart and other members of the film's cast and crew; Theatrical trailer

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Kristen Stewart	Maureen Cartwright
Lars Eidinger	Ingo
Sigrid Bouaziz	Lara
Anders Danielsen Lie	Erwin
Ty Olwin	Gary
Hammou Graïa	Police Officer
Nora von Waldstätten	Kyra
Benjamin Biolay	Victor Hugo
Audrey Bonnet	Cassandre
Pascal Rambert	Jérôme
Aurélia Petit	Chanel Press Attache
Olivia Ross	Attachée de presse maison de couture Londres
Thibault Lacroix	Attachée de presse maison de couture Paris
Calypso Valois	Assistante séance photo
Benoit Peverelli	Photographer
Dan Belhassen	Cardiologist
Léo Haidar	Kyra's Lawyer,Kyra's Lawyer
Mickaël Laplack	Réceptionniste de l'hôtel
Vianney Duault	Vendeur Cartier
Célia Ouallouche	Réceptionniste Louboutin
Khaled Rawahi	Oman Driver
Julie Rouart	Saleswoman
David Bowles	Jules Allix
Nora Von Waldstatten	Actor
Anna von Hausswolff	Composer

Technical Credits

Olivier Assayas

Christelle Meaux

Olivier Assayas	Director,Screenwriter
Charles Gillibert	Producer,Director
Christelle Meaux	Screenwriter
Sylvie Barthet	Executive Producer
Olivier Goinard	Sound/Sound Designer
Nicolas Maoreau	Sound/Sound Designer
Antoinette Boulat	Casting
Genevieve Lemal	Executive Producer
Nicolas Cantin	Sound/Sound Designer
Nicolas Moreau	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

Writer/director Olivier Assayas' Personal Shopper opens on Maureen (the truly stellar Kristen Stewart), a young woman who's supposedly clairvoyant, as she spends a night in her recently deceased twin brother's suburban Parisian home in order to contact his spirit. The gorgeous camerawork and Stewart's poignant body language successfully convey that gaping, melancholic loneliness that often accompanies grief; it's a striking opening scene that immediately tethers the audience to Maureen and immerses them in Assayas' world. While dealing with a frustrating, all-consuming job as a personal shopper for a monstrous model named Kyra (Nora von Waldstätten), Maureen continues attempting to access the spirit world until she is successful (which eventually happens in a wonderfully creepy scene). Unfortunately for her, the spirit that reached out to her wasn't the one she wanted, and she regrets her actions once she starts receiving strange texts from an unknown person who seems to know far too much about her. The overwhelming majority of this film is quite solid: Assayas manages to capture both the beauty and the monotony of Parisian life through the character of Maureen, while evocative cinematography and an ambient score lead the viewer on the same journey as the protagonist as she navigates her way through an increasingly disturbing chain of events seemingly sparked by her spectral interaction. Unfortunately, once the movie reaches its climax, the denouement leaves much to be desired... and an unseemly number of loose ends. Subtle hints and perceived foreshadowing throughout the film are completely ignored (and thus wasted), as though Assayas got 90 percent of the way through his script and then forgot what he was writing or why. He builds an unsettling, ethereal world, and within that setting he constructs a new and potentially interesting take on a modern ghost story (linking supernatural activity with technology!), but he lets his house of cards topple with a perplexingly reductive ending that's as trite as it is unsatisfying. What the film woefully lacks in the writing department, it almost compensates for with its lush direction and Kristen Stewart's performance. Between her facial expressions, her line readings, and her finely tuned attention to the smallest bits of body language, she shines as Maureen. If you're a fan of hers -- and even if you aren't -- her acting makes Personal Shopper worth a watch... just don't expect a great feat of storytelling.