Personal Shopper

Personal Shopper
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Olivier Assayas
Produced by	Charles Gillibert
Written by	Olivier Assayas
Starring	Kristen Stewart Lars Eidinger Sigrid Bouaziz Anders Danielsen Lie Ty Olwin Hammou Graia Nora von Waldstatten Benjamin Biolay Audrey Bonnet Pascal Rambert
Cinematography	Yorick Le Saux
Edited by	Marion Monnier
Production company	CG Cinéma Vortex Sutra Detailfilm Sirena Film Arte France Cinéma Arte Deutschland/WDR Canal+ Ciné+
Distributed by	The Searchers (Belgium) Artcam Films (Czech Republic) Les Films du Losange (France) Weltkino Filmverleih (Germany)
Release date	17 May 2016 (2016-05-17) (Cannes) 14 December 2016 (2016-12-14) (Belgium & France) 19 January 2017 (2017-01-19) (Germany) 27 April 2017 (2017-04-27) (Czech Republic)
Running time	106 minutes
Country	France[1] Germany[1] Czech Republic[1] Belgium[1]
Language	English French Swedish
Budget	$1 million
Box office	$2.2 million[2]

Personal Shopper is a 2016 supernatural psychological thriller film written and directed by Olivier Assayas,^[3] The film stars Kristen Stewart as a young American woman in Paris who works as a personal shopper for a celebrity and tries to communicate with her deceased twin brother.

An international co-production between Belgium, Czech Republic, France and Germany, the film was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival.^[4][5] At Cannes, Assayas shared the Best Director Award with Cristian Mungiu, who directed Graduation.^[6] The film was released on 14 December 2016 in France and 10 March 2017 in the United States. The film received positive reviews from critics, with particular for praise for Stewart's performance. Her performance in the movie was critically praised with some naming it her best work to date.

Plot

Maureen (Kristen Stewart) is a personal shopper in Paris for Kyra (Nora Waldstätten), a celebrity. She travels to European capitals to shop for her, buying clothes, accessories and jewels. Her twin brother Lewis recently died from a heart attack; they shared the same genetic heart problem. They were both interested in spiritualism and believed they had connections to the spirit world.

Maureen stays overnight at her late brother's home, hoping for a sign from him from the other side and has a brief encounter with a spiritual presence. His girlfriend Lara (Sigrid Bouaziz) wants to sell the mansion, and the buyers want Maureen to find out if the mansion is free from evil spirits. During her discussion with the potential buyers, Maureen discovers the artist Hilma af Klint, whose paintings were inspired by messages from the spirit world. Maureen video chats with her boyfriend Gary (Ty Olwin), who is on a contract job in Oman.

At Kyra's apartment, Maureen meets and talks with Kyra's lover Ingo (Lars Eidinger), who tells her Kyra is planning to break up with him because she is afraid her husband will discover their relationship. Maureen spends another night at Lewis's home and has another encounter with the spiritual presence, which turns on house faucets. She asks Lewis to talk with her, and discovers that her artwork has been scratched out. A specter of a woman appears and flies through the house before vomiting ectoplasm and disappearing. Maureen flees from the house.

On her way to London to pick up clothing for Kyra, Maureen receives a series of text messages from an unknown number, which she suspects is her late brother Lewis. The sender toys with Maureen, and encourages her to try on Kyra's clothes, which she has been forbidden to do. The sender also leaves her a room key for a hotel. When she visits the room, no one is there, but when she checks at the front desk, she discovers the room is booked in her name and has been pre-paid in cash.

After picking up jewelry for Kyra, Maureen returns to Kyra's apartment, where she discovers Kyra has been murdered. She is questioned by the police, who ask about the location of the jewelry. Later, Maureen discovers the jewelry is in her apartment. The unknown texter demands she return to the hotel room, which she does, with the jewelry.

After a while, the hotel elevator on the floor where Maureen visited opens up and closes, but nobody is in it. The elevator goes downstairs, and also opens and closes, but again, no one is seen exiting the elevator. The camera follows to the hotel lobby, where sliding glass doors open and close, as if someone is exiting the hotel, but no one is seen. Ingo later leaves the hotel room, and is confronted by police. He shoots one officer and attempts to escape. However, he is arrested and confesses to murdering Kyra.

Maureen meets Lara's new boyfriend Erwin, who was friends with Lewis before his death. They discuss Lewis, and they speak about the possibility that Lewis's soul is still present. As Maureen sits in the garden, a wind stirs, and Lewis's ghost appears behind her in the kitchen, with a glass. The glass falls to the floor. Maureen cleans it up and explains to Lara that perhaps Erwin left a glass on the edge of the counter.

Maureen travels to Oman to visit Gary, who has gone into the mountains. Shortly after her arrival at the house in the mountains, she hears a noise in an adjoining room; she opens the door and finds a glass floating in the air; it falls to the table and shatters in the same manner as the glass at Lara's house. She asks the presence a series of questions, accepting single disembodied thumps as affirmative responses. She receives silence in response to her twice-repeated question, "Lewis, is it you?" After that pause, Maureen asks, "Or is it just me?" She is answered by a single, disembodied thump, and the screen fades to white.

Cast

• Kristen Stewart as Maureen Cartwright
• Lars Eidinger as Ingo
• Nora Waldstätten as Kyra
• Anders Danielsen Lie as Erwin
• Sigrid Bouaziz as Lara
• Ty Olwin as Gary
• Audrey Bonnet as Cassandre
• Pascal Rambert as Jerome
• Hammou Graia as Police Officer
• Benjamin Biolay as Victor Hugo

Production

In May 2015, it was announced that Olivier Assayas would be directing the film, from a screenplay he wrote, with Kristen Stewart starring. He wrote it for Stewart as the star, as he had worked with her in Clouds of Sils Maria. Charles Gillibert produced the film under his CG Cinema banner.^[7] In October 2015, Sigrid Bouaziz, Lars Eidinger, Anders Danielsen Lie, and Nora von Waldstätten also had been cast in the film.^[8] In November 2015, Ty Olwin joined the cast, taking the role of Gary, Maureen's boyfriend.^[9]

Principal photography began on 27 October 2015 in Paris, France for two weeks and then moved to Prague, London, and Oman.^[8]

Release

The film had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on 17 May 2016, where it competed for the Palme d'Or.^[4][5] The film was distributed by Les Films du Losange in France, and IFC Films in North America.^[10] Universal Pictures distributed the film internationally.^[11] The film was screened at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival^[12] and the New York Film Festival.^[13]

It was released in France on 14 December 2016.^[14] The film was released in the United States on 10 March 2017.^[15]

In the United States, the movie grossed $79,175 on 4 theaters for an average of $19,794, the highest of the weekend, after adding 31 theaters the next weekend it say a 92.6% increase to gross $152,478. The movie final domestic total is $1,305,195 and a worldwide gross of $2.2 million against a $1 million budget, it was a box office hit.

Critical reception

Personal Shopper received generally positive reviews from film critics. The Guardian awarded the film five stars, calling it "uncategorisable yet undeniably terrifying".^[16] Stephanie Zacharek of Time gave a positive review, writing that "Personal Shopper is a strange and beautifully made film, and both star and director are clearly energized by their dual mission." She also listed it as one of Time's top ten films of 2017.^[17] A. O. Scott of The New York Times wrote the film is "sleek and spooky, seductive and suspenseful. It flirts with silliness, as ghost stories do. And also with heartbreak."^[3]

Rotten Tomatoes reports a "Certified Fresh" score of 80% based on 231 reviews with an average rating of 7.1 out of 10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Personal Shopper attempts a tricky series of potentially jarring tonal shifts with varying results, bolstered by a performance from Kristen Stewart that's impossible to ignore."^[18] On Metacritic, the film holds a rating of 78 out of 100, based on 28 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".^[19] The film was booed at its initial screening at the Cannes Film Festival, about which director Assayas said, "It happens every once and a while [sic] where people just don't get the ending."^[20][21] At its official premiere at Cannes, the film received a 4 1/2-minute standing ovation.^[22][23]

Accolades

References

External links

• Personal Shopper on IMDb
• Personal Shopper at Rotten Tomatoes
• Personal Shopper at Metacritic