Clouds of Sils Maria

In her youth, Maria Enders (Binoche) made her name in Maloja Snake, a play in which a young woman seduces her boss – an older woman – and drives her to suicide. Now, years later and in a new production, she’s recast as the older woman opposite a rehab-regular tabloid starlet (Moretz). Enders retreats to the Alpine town of Sils Maria with her assistant (Stewart) to prepare for the role and reflect on the concept of power.

Twilight star Stewart recently told The Hollywood Reporter that a film like this “would never be greenlit” in the States: “It’s two women sitting in a room basically talking about being women and movies and their lives and their perspectives,” she said, “and it never really cuts away from that.”

She’s absolutely right. Oliver Assayas’s film is about women, which should be no great cause for celebration as it’s also exciting and unashamedly intellectual, but when many films still can’t even pass the Bechdel test, Clouds of Sils Maria feels like a revelation.