‘I felt that he saw things which I didn’t…’
Ok… so it’s happened again, hasn’t it. The old monkey brain. I watched Personal Shopper. There is absolutely no doubt about that. And I also enjoyed it on numerous levels. But. I also understand that I didn’t understand it. Sure, on a surface level it’s a meditation on loss and spirituality, but there is more going on here that I didn’t catch. All sorts of symbolism, I imagine. A metaphor here. Some imagery there. All that sort of stuff. Things that intelligent people would probably appreciate. For me though, dear reader, I just enjoyed Oliver Assayas’ movie as a simple ghost story…
Maureen (Kristen Stewart) is sad. Disaffected in her job as a personal shopper for moody movie star Lara (Sigrid Bouaziz), she is also profoundly affected by the death of her twin brother, Lewis, whom she attempts to contact in her side hustle as a medium.
As this is a Kristen Stewart movie, we get many shots of Kristen Stewart sulking or staring into the middle distance. As the saddest of all the sad actresses, Stewart is perfect for this kind of thing, and snarky comments aside, she is genuinely excellent here, showcasing an impressive talent for the less-is-more school of acting also favoured by her former co-star Robert Pattinson.
Assayas, directing from his own script, shoots Personal Shopper like an arthouse horror movie and this ensures that the whole thing has an ethereal quality, particularly as Stewart is often shot in either shadow or total darkness, her lone voice the only thing piercing the gloom. Having said that, this isn’t a horror film. It’s something a lot more morose than that. Think Casey Affleck’s A Ghost Story, but without the Scooby-Doo ghoul wandering around the place.
So, yeah. Maybe I didn’t quite get everything on offer here, but as a cinematic experience, Personal Shopper is both moving and unique. Even for an idiot like me.