603 - Personal Shopper, France, 2016. Dir. Olivier Assayas.

Wednesday, February 13, 2019

603 - Personal Shopper, France, 2016.  Dir. Olivier Assayas.

Unknown:  I know You

Maureen is alone.  She works as a personal shopper for a fashion model named Kyra.  But she rarely sees her, and they rarely talk.  They text.  And Kyra leaves Maureen notes for when she drops off her clothes.

Maureen is good at what she does.  She knows Kyra's tastes.  She buys her dresses, pants, accessories, jewelry, and shoes.  She knows what Kyra will like.  She knows what Kyra will love.  She knows what Kyra will despise.  And she makes quick decisions that prove to be right.

But Maureen is also alone in that she has lost her twin brother Lewis to death by congenital heart disease, a disease which Maureen shares.  She and Lewis promised each other that whoever died first would return to leave the other one some sign of the afterlife.

Lewis considered himself a medium.  He was sensitive to spiritual forces.  So Maureen followed him and claims now to be a medium herself.  Though she is less confident.  The couple who wants to buy the house in which Mauren and Lewis grew up has hired her to test the large, empty, dark place for the presence of spirits.  They do not wish to purchase a haunted home.

So Maureen goes and spends time there alone.  Searching for Lewis.  She senses something.  She hears strange noises.  Creaks and moans.  And water faucets seem to turn themselves on.  Yet when she does finally see the spirit in the house, it is not Lewis.  It is a woman.  Who emits ectoplasm.  Who is angry.  Who seems lost.

Whose presence scares Maureen.  Induces fear in her.  Causes her finally to flee.  Leaving her lost in Paris, not going to Oman to visit her boyfriend Gary, holding on to her "stupid job" so that she can stay and wait.  Hoping to find her brother.  To seek and sense the sign he might leave for her.

Until she finally finds a companion.

Sort of.

In the person named "Unknown."

Who begins texting her.

You know Unknown.  He is kin to Anonymous.  You yourself have received his texts and calls.

It is just that this Unknown knows her.  Knows her whereabouts.  Knows her actions.  From Paris to London.  Aboard the train.  Around town.  And back from London to Paris.

Giving Kristen Stewart the opportunity to showcase some of her finest acting.  With her cell phone.

She lays bare her soul.  Delves the deeps.  Exposes her vulnerabilities.  Invites the audience to love her as she embodies the unguardedly human.

As The Devil Wears Prada suddenly morphs into The Talented Mr. Ripley.  Before it turns into The Shining.

As this motorscooter-driving, leather-jacket-wearing, deadpan-talking, cynically-minded pokerfaced smoker faces her deepest fear.

A fear far greater than spending the night alone in a large, dark empty house with an angry spirit.

The fear of facing herself.

And finding herself.

And trying to decide if she likes herself.

By crossing the threshold into doing the forbidden.

As her Unknown companion encourages her.

Practically pushes her into it.

Maureen wants to be someone else.  Wants to be feminine.  Wants to be pretty.  Wants to be elegant.  Wants to be attractive.  Wants to be desirable.  Wants to be loved.

She indulges her desires.

We are not necessarily saying that Maureen does to Kyra what Tom Ripley did to Dickie Greenleaf.  Nor that Ingo functions as her own Freddie Miles.

After all, Ingo himself may be . . . well . . . we will let you see it and decide.

Though we might throw in for good measure that there may be a bit of Swimming Pool in here as well.  Or that Maureen might have a beautiful mind.

If only she could hear from Lewis.

He has the answers she is looking for.

Of who she is.

And what there is to come.

Unless . . .

Unless.


*                              *                              *                              *

It's extremely difficult to find a portal into the spirit world.  That's just the way it is.

Her works were made before the creation of abstract art.  But Hilma af Klint kept her art secret.

In her will she decided that the earliest they would be viewed would be 20 years after her death.  So 100 years ago, Hilma af Klint painted for the future, and that future is now.

The idea that there is a world beyond our world.

You already have a stupid job.  It wouldn't change a thing, but the pay is better.

Love?  It never crossed my mind, no.  It's just physical.

I'm a medium.  He was a medium.  I'll just know it.

Lewis thought they were spirits.  I'm less sure.  But yes, somewhat.  I mean, there are invisible presences around us always, and whether or not they're the souls of the dead, I don't know.  And when you are a medium you're just attuned to a vibe.  It's an intuition thing.  It's a feeling.  You see this door, slightly ajar.

I have to give his spirit, or whatever you want to call it, a chance to prove him right.
That's why I'm still waiting.  Then I guess I'll live my life and let it go.

I need more from you.  I'm gonna need more from you.

You're not my brother.  You're not my brother.