Although she has worked all over Europe and Hollywood, Juliette Binoche is still synonymous with French cinema; an actress of style and subtlety who is equally at home in art films and blockbusters. It is this chameleon quality she brings to Clouds of Sils Maria by Olivier Assayas, a beautiful meditation on art and stardom that competed in last year’s Cannes film festival.
The film has been chosen to launch the Carte Noire Film Collection with Everyman, a selection of prestigious French films that begins at London’s Screen On The Green on 20 May. The event will also see the premiere of Le Baiser (The Kiss), created by Carte Noire to celebrate cinema that brings a special intensity to the screen (see right).
As the Cannes film festival gets under way in the south of France, audiences here can get their own taste of Cannes’ glamour and special screenings at this exclusive event, and Everyman Cinemas is giving away a number of pairs of tickets to readers.
In Clouds of Sils Maria – released in the UK on 15 May – Binoche stars as Maria Enders, a famous, recently retired actress who is travelling to Zurich to accept an award on behalf of the playwright who launched her to fame. On the way, she discovers that her former mentor is dead, but she attends the ceremony anyway, reconnecting with an old flame and receiving an unexpected offer of work. Kristen Stewart plays Enders’s personal assistant and Chloë Grace Moretz is the troubled, self-destructive Hollywood It Girl Jo-Ann Ellis.
Assayas’s film won six prizes at this year’s César awards – the French equivalent of the Oscars – where it made history by landing a supporting actress award for Stewart, the first US actress to be so honoured. But the film truly belongs to Binoche, who oozes class as the fractious but vulnerable Enders. Further screenings will follow in a season hand-picked to reflect the emotional intensity of French cinema and the rich, velvety flavour of Carte Noire.
Sealed with a Kiss
On 20 May, don’t miss the world premiere of Carte Noire’s new short film Le Baiser (The Kiss), an emotional short that brings to life the intensity of Carte Noire and celebrates the enduring legacy of French popular culture. Directed by up-and-coming Londoner Jamie Muir, it is a lively, surreal comic love story that encapsulates the intense spirit of French cinema.
