Out in limited theaters today is writer/director Olivier Assayas’ atmospheric supernatural thriller, Personal Shopper, which stars Kristen Stewart and celebrated its premiere last year during the 2016 Cannes Film Festival. The film follows Stewart’s character, Maureen, as she navigates her way through the demands of her high-pressure profession—assistant to a well-known actress—all while coping with the lingering grief over the recent death of her twin brother.
Daily Dead recently had the opportunity to speak with Assayas, who discussed his unconventional approach to the story of Personal Shopper, how much he enjoys collaborating with Stewart (they also worked together on the 2014 drama Clouds of Sils Maria), and why he wanted to explore the idea of the afterlife in his latest project. Look for Personal Shopper in select theaters, courtesy of IFC Films.
Congratulations on the film. I've been a big fan of Kristen's for quite a while, and I loved your previous work with her, so I was very excited going into this and it did not disappoint. It defies a lot of conventions.
Olivier Assayas: To me, this is not a typical genre movie, so I'm not sure exactly what kind of conventions I should be adapting to. Ultimately, the way I tell stories is more about how there is this dreamlike logic to things, and the way I write is more like a character portrait at a very important defining moment in Kristen’s character’s life. I've been using a lot of different elements like a painter doing a collage to somehow have the audience share emotions or anxieties or fears.
I would say even that with this film, and Clouds of Sils Maria, they're both about finding identity in a way, too. And I thought that was very interesting because they could work as bookend pieces in a way—very different bookends, of course.
Olivier Assayas: Yes, in a sense that one is lighter and the other one is a bit darker, but I think it's really something I am able to do in those two films, and that’s thanks to Kristen, in a way. It's things you can only do if you have absolutely the right actress for that part. I'm not sure what Clouds of Sils Maria would have looked like if Kristen had not been in the film, and if I had made a movie like Personal Shopper with any other actress, it would have been a completely different film. To achieve that, you have to have this bond with your actress, and also, it involves a lot of trust both ways—otherwise you can't get there. It's impossible.
You mentioned working with Kristen, and I think both roles that she's done for you are two of my favorite things I've seen from her in in the last few years. Can you talk about developing that relationship over the last few years with her?
Olivier Assayas: Absolutely. I've been really lucky to make movies with great actresses. I've worked with Juliette Binoche twice, Maggie Cheung, Asia Argento, and so on and so forth, but Kristen is different from any actress, and our relationship is different from any other one I have ever had. Kristen is an extremely complex individual who has this incredible empathy with her characters, and who expresses such complex emotions with such authenticity. It's very fascinating when you're a writer and a director that you have someone who has such a range, and the reason why I want to work with Kristen again, and hopefully soon, is because I'm still exploring her range. I don't know what her limits are.
In Personal Shopper, there is a very deliberate sense of pacing, where you really allow the character moments to breathe and take their time. I’d love to hear more about your approach on it.
Olivier Assayas: The best thing I could ever give Kristen in both films that we've done together is time. It's space. It's breathing space, which is something that you don't get—actually, it's not that way in the Hollywood movies because they have a different pace. They have a different way of functioning.
Kristen is someone who really needs that time and that space to blossom and fully express herself. I think that's what she really enjoyed in my way of working, is the fact that I gave her space that she never really had. In a movie like Personal Shopper that has that really long shot early on, where it’s just her walking in this house, is extremely important because it establishes the base of the film. It tells you bits and pieces about her character.
I enjoy this idea where, as the viewer, you stay for a really long time with someone who acts as a cipher. You don't know who she is, you don't know what she's doing there, and you kind of identify with her, but only in terms of someone who's trying to figure out what is going on. You're not exactly sure what her journey is going to be, but you are with her all the way. And I like the idea of instantly establishing that this movie is about being with Maureen.
In regards to the supernatural elements of the film—because I have some of my own theories as to why people are so fascinated and interested in ghosts and the afterlife—I was wondering if there were certain aspects of those themes that intrigued you going into the project, that you wanted to explore with the material?
Olivier Assayas: I think it's our way of dealing with what happens in our afterlife, and also, what happens during life. For what happens in the afterlife, that is something I'm not so familiar with. I don't have the keys to that, but I think that the world we live in, in terms of our everyday life, is much more complex than we think, in the sense that we have a very complex inner life full of love.
It's really essential to be in touch with what is going on inside of us. Also, in terms of being aware that the material world we live in is not the whole of the human experience, too. I think there are certain invisible dimensions, mysterious dimensions, that are important, so that was something I wanted to explore.
We call them ghosts. We call them spirits. We call them apparitions. We call them whatever we want, but ultimately it's something that has always been there in terms of human history. You had people who heard voices. People who had visions. People whose faith has carried them into abstract parallel worlds. I think it's something everyone has inside of him or her, and modern societies, very materialistic modern societies, don't acknowledge it, and somehow don't give answer for it. So we kind of laugh. We're kind of on our own with those essential questions, and that's more or less what I wanted to show through the character of Maureen.
Heather A. Wixson was born and raised in the Chicago suburbs, until she followed her dreams and moved to Los Angeles in 2009. A 14-year veteran in the world of horror entertainment journalism, Wixson fell in love with genre films at a very early age, and has spent more than a decade as a writer and supporter of preserving the history of horror and science fiction cinema. Throughout her career, Wixson has contributed to several notable websites, including Fangoria, Dread Central, Terror Tube, and FEARnet, and she currently serves as the Managing Editor for Daily Dead, which has been her home since 2013. She's also written for both Fangoria Magazine & ReMind Magazine, and her latest book project, Monsters, Makeup & Effects: Volume One will be released on October 20, 2021.
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