The stage is set for a clash of generations, cultures and possibly sexual appetites, when Juliette Binoche and Kristen Stewart’s worlds collide, but Olivier Assayas’s high-altitude thespian drama maintains a controlled intensity rather than flaring into an all-out All About Eve. It’s mature, complex and talky – Bergmanesque. Binoche almost plays a version of herself: a grande dame of European screen and stage who’s not above the odd Hollywood paycheck. She agrees to reprise her breakthrough play, a destructive lesbian romance – except now, 20 years on, she’s taking the role of the older woman rather than the young seductress. That part has gone to a Hollywood teen star (Chloë Grace Moretz), but it’s another hot young American Binoche is more preoccupied with: her round-the-clock personal assistant, played by Stewart. With the pair holed up in an Alpine retreat, their relationship shifts and drifts fascinatingly between rivalry, sisterhood and the odd erotic frisson, all stoked by the play they’re rehearsing. The lines between art and life blur, to the extent it’s often unclear whether they’re speaking the film’s dialogue or lines from the play-within-the-film, and the clash in acting style between Binoche’s natural expressiveness and Stewart’s cool, confident concision enhances the contrast beautifully.
