Personal Shopper

I saw this movie a few days ago and have been haunted by it ever since. I am writing this review more to clarify my own thoughts and feelings rather than to try and influence anyone to see (or not see) it. I have always believed the sexiest/most compelling thing about a woman is her confidence, and, for me, Personal Shopper is the cinematic equivalent of that belief. I cannot remember ever seeing a movie so supremely confident in itself, which kept my eyes glued to the screen wanting to know more. Director Olivier Assayas managed to create a film that is so sure of itself it defies all genres, conventions, and expectations. He found a perfect balance between not caring what the audience thinks about his movie without alienating or insulting his audience with how much he doesn't care. No emotional manipulation or trying to cater to/please the widest possible audience here, which is so very refreshing. This is what he has to say. Take it or leave it. Love it or hate it. So, while it is not the best movie I have ever seen and has it's flaws, I am still giving it a very high rating for daring to be different. On a side note, taste in movies is extremely subjective, so I can understand and respect the reasons why other reviewers gave this movie such low ratings. However, I do not agree with the common practice of putting down other reviewers/calling them idiots for having different opinions. In a perfect world, I wish we could all just agree to disagree without being hateful/hurtful. Peace.

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source: Personal Shopper

I don't know much about ghost stories, but I have been gravitating to them of late. This one is the most realistic one I have run into so far. A woman's twin-brother has passed away and she is preoccupied with an oath they had made, whoever dies first will try to pierce the divide and leave a sign for the other. There is a rather sadistic soundtrack consisting of a free-floating sonar-like program but instead of underwater, we get a generalized array of ambient tracks from whatever locale our POV character happens to be at the time and at an extremely high decibel level. If the idea is to keep the viewer a little on edge, it succeeds. There is an extraordinarily realistic visitation scene which frightens. There is a sequence where an unknown texter is harassing the survivor, which under the circumstances, is more than a little eerie. The denouement is predictably unclear except perhaps for especially perceptive viewers of which I do not belong. But an explanation is there that seems quite convincing (I had to read it from a review) which I give the movie credit for. It's not just a scary story that leads nowhere.

PERSONAL SHOPPER is a would-be French horror flick that plays out as more of an arthouse drama for the most part. It's the LOST IN TRANSLATION of horror films, as the camera follows the generally uninteresting Kristen Stewart (complete with gratuitous * shots) as she grieves for the loss of a sibling, helps a medium with her work, and becomes convinced that she herself is being haunted. It's slow and boring throughout, with a trite script and dullish characters that'll have you reaching for the off switch. I previously enjoyed the director's miniseries CARLOS THE JACKAL, but this is a big step down from that.

I don't think there is much good to say about Personal Shopper. Well at least I can't, how much I try, there is absolutely nothing positive that comes into my mind about this movie. The story is very slow and overly boring. You have to be a huge fan of Kristen Stewart to appreciate this movie. I wasn't before and I'm certainly not now. She looks depressed all the time, for no good reason at all. Her facial expressions are just not what you expect from a good actress. In these modern ages all you see now are people texting or doing something with their stupid phones. Everybody becomes very boring because of their phones. So if I already have to watch those boring people in real life I certainly don't want to do that when I watch a movie to relax. And that's what you get for a long time in Personal Shopper, Kristen Stewart texting like she's still a teenager. And that goes on and on. I have to admit I fought against sleep and at one point I lost. When I woke up I didn't feel the urge of rewinding to the point where I closed my eyes. Because I couldn't care less anymore about Kristen Stewart texting.

I had to look up online different Websites to see what people thought about the ending of this movie. I'm unconvinced. There are a lot of theories. I don't like movies that finish and you just don't know what happened. I didn't enjoy this one bit. It's dark and not meaningful. I would say: watch something else instead.

Personal Shopper is both a ghost story with bits of horror, and a mystery movie in the world of high fashion. From the same director who directed Clouds of Sils Maria, which won Kristen Stewart her coveted César award (the French equivalent of an Oscar) for best supporting actress, comes a movie about Kristen Stewart, a medium who lives in France as a personal shopper for a famous model. She is living in Paris because her brother recently died there and she is trying to communicate with him. Both supernatural and psychological, this movie, surprisingly, had me at the edge of my seat. Kristin Stewart was a standout in this film. As much as I don't like her, she is continuing to grow on me every time I see her in something that isn't Twilight. Most of the movie is of her just alone and that is the sense that is given to you. She is alone in Paris trying to deal with the grief and loss of her brother all the while working for a woman she does not like at all. The script is perfect for Kristen and some of her strange acting like being jittery or aloof is perfect for this role as a skeptical medium. There was not a lot of sound used in the film when it comes to a score but when the music plays it really enhances the film. There are also a lot of fade out scenes that is not something you often see but enhanced the mystery of the movie as it seemed like a lot of questions were going unanswered. There is also a lot of texting in the movie between Kristen and an unknown person who at the end of the film will have you wondering who exactly it was. This was brilliant in many regards to show how alone she was and also how much of communication is done over text these days. What I really enjoyed about this movie is while it was very artsy, it was not afraid to get spooky. There are some scenes with ghosts that are very horrifying but are played for the sake of the story and not at all for sight scares. There are only a few ghost scenes as well and by the end of the movie I was clamoring for more but happy that they didn't over stay their welcome. This was a great movie and I would recommend to anyone who is a fan of Kristen Stewart or of mystery movies. It's also a good flick for supernatural fans or fans of mediums, art, and Paris.

I've never seen a movie which treats the viewer with as much respect as this one. There is no exposition, no hints to make sure you can keep track of what's going on. Every conversation is written for the characters, not for the viewer. And the scenes of nudity - they are neither drawn out or overplayed, nor is the movie coy about them. Everything just is. It's truly extraordinary. Furthermore, the main character is extremely likeable. She's smart, direct, honest, open, and well-acted. With this directing style and that kind of protagonist, I would probably give it a positive score even if the story was completely boring. Which is not the case at all - the story, just like the rest of the movie, is unconcerned with tropes. Highly unpredictable, highly authentic. As you can tell, I appreciate this style of directing a lot. More movies should be like this. It might even be a 9 - I've given it an 8 because the watching experience wasn't mind blowing, but it feels like the kind of thing that I will probably appreciate more over time. The plot is definitely worth thinking about. Edit: I am changing it to a 9/10, and I think I figured out what the plot is about. At first glance, it is merely a mystery. At second glance, you might guess that Maureen died at the scene in the hotel. Ingo, who was probably also the one who texted her, has killed both her and Kyra. In the scenes where doors are opening and closing by themselves, it is really her ghost walking out. But this is a bad theory. Why is it bad? Because a theory should explain the strange things that happen, and this theory explains almost nothing. Yes, it fits the doors opening and closing. But that is the only thing it explains. It doesn't explain who texted her (they knew things about her that Ingo wouldn't know). It doesn't tie into the specter she encounters in her brother's house. And it doesn't explain the ending at all. Worse still, the one data point which fits well is contradicted in the next scene. She is clearly visible to other people. Yes, perhaps her soul is still here for a while. But then, why would she be invisible in the first place? No matter how you look at it, it doesn't explain the movie well. If this theory was correct, then the plot would be poorly constructed. Here is what I think really happened. Maureen is distraught about her brother's loss. A part of her can't let go. Because she is a medium, that part has taken on a form of its own. The specter is her. The person messaging her, it's her. The doors opening and closing - it is her, but it is the separate part of her that has been separate all along. Maureen didn't die. She's still alive at the end of the movie. The ghost she encounters then; it's her again. This theory explains almost everything. It explains why the messenger knew her as well as they did. It explains why it started right after the specter appeared. It explains why it wanted her to do forbidden things. It explains the doors opening and closing on their own, despite Maureen being visible in the next scene. And it explains the ending. Also, notice that the hotel room was booked under her own name. With this theory, this is literally accurate. It's not obvious what happened with Ingo. Maybe she made him kill her. But more likely he acted by himself, and then the specter decided to steal the jewelry. But despite this one loose end, it is the far better explanation. Most of what happens fits into it, the key moments of the movie obtain meaning, and the beginning and ending ties it all together. Her brother's spirit is still there; we see him at some point. He has emotional importance for her. But the one whom she encounters at the beginning, at the second scene in the house, during the text messages, in the hotel, and at the end - it is all the specter, who is a part of herself.