Kristen Stewart faces ghosts and spirits in Olivier Assays 'Personal Shopper'

Record ID: 103083

  • Title: Kristen Stewart faces ghosts and spirits in Olivier Assays 'Personal Shopper'
  • Date: 17th May 2016
  • Summary: CANNES, FRANCE (MAY 17, 2016) (REUTERS) ****WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** ACTRESS KRISTEN STEWART, DIRECTOR OLIVIER ASSAYAS , ENTERING NEWS CONFERENCE ROOM / PEOPLE TAKING PHOTOS OF STEWART PEOPLE TAKING PHOTOS NEWS CONFERENCE STARTING (SOUNDBITE) (English) DIRECTOR, OLIVIER ASSAYAS, SAYING: "I think what I tried to do in this film was to connect the reality we live in with our own imagination, I think we live on both sides of the mirror. We do a job and we have our imagination and also we have the people we've lost, we have our memories and it's a very inhabited solitude. And I think that the character of Maureen in this film is looking for those, she's looking for passages between those two worlds."
  • Embargoed: 1st June 2016 17:38
  • Keywords:
  • Location: CANNES, FRANCE AND UNKNOWN FILMING LOCATIONS
  • Reuters ID: LVA0014I75WST
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Director Olivier Assayas and actress Kristen Stewart shrugged off the negative response their Cannes Palme d'Or competitor "Personal Shopper" received at the film's premiere.
    The film's press and general audience screenings ended with a peppering of boos on Monday (May 17), as the viewers seemed disappointed by the conclusion of the film, which sees Stewart, an American personal shopper in Paris, trying to connect with her dead brother. She sees ghosts, receives mysterious text messages and finds herself embroiled in a brutal murder as she goes through what Stewart describes as an "identity crisis".
    Brushing aside questions about the negative reactions, Assayas said the film is an attempt to illustrate the connections between the two worlds people live their lives in - the 'real' world, and the world crafted by our imaginations.
    "I think what I tried to do in this film was to connect the reality we live in with our own imagination, I think we live on both sides of the mirror. We do a job and we have our imagination and also we have the people we've lost, we have our memories and it's a very inhabited solitude. And I think that the character of Maureen in this film is looking for those, she's looking for passages between those two worlds," he told a news conference on Tuesday (May 17), adding that he had originally wanted to make the film consist entirely of communication by text message.
    "It's not just a form of written communication, it implies physical things, and even a bit fantastic. And then obviously I thought it was a bit excessive but this idea remained of building a film with an big part of it in this tension that can happen through imaginary communication," he said.
    Initially expecting a "surreal" process, Stewart said she was surprised by how frightening the film was.
    "I was surprised every day about how scary the movie was, I thought that it was trippy when I read it. I thought it was dreamy and surreal and really existential, not to sound too pretentious, but what surprised me was the adrenaline of the momentum. It's like it doesn't... It just persists, it just doesn't let her alone and the constant nature of life is so terrifying, you can't get away from it. Like right now, I can't get out, I can't get out of here. And that is scary and I that was just really the kind of stuff I was thinking about," she said.
    Stewart, who was directed by Assayas in "Clouds of Sils Maria" in 2013, won praise for her commitment to a role from her co-actor Lars Eidinger.
    "I have to say that my day with Kristen in Prague where we were shooting the long scene was one of my best experiences ever acting-wise. Because I was so inspired by her way of acting, because in a way it's very different to the way I am working but it's in a way that is ideal for me how to be as an actor. Because, just to describe it, some people think that acting is about lying or it's about pretending. I think it's the other way around, and it's something you can see when you play with Kristen, because she is truthful in every moment, not only with herself, with her partner, with the situation, with everything," he told reporters.
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