Clouds of Sils Maria | DVD review - At their peak amid the Alps: Juliette Binoche, Kristen Stewart & Chloë Grace Moretz | Movie Talk | What's on TV

A bittersweet meditation on acting and ageing, beguiling art-house drama Clouds of Sils Maria finds three contrasting performers each at the top of their game. Juliette Binoche, Kristen Stewart and Chloë Grace Moretz play, respectively, a celebrated movie star, her savvy personal assistant, and a young Hollywood hotshot with a scandalous private life. Surprisingly, it’s the effortlessly naturalistic Stewart who proves the most compelling screen presence, becoming the first American actress to win a César (for best supporting actress) at this year’s awards. With much of the action revolving around the staging of a play, Olivier Assayas's film is talky and slow moving, yet the interplay of its leading women is as mesmerising as the strange weather phenomenon – a cloud bank pouring through a mountain pass in the Swiss Alps – that gives the film its title.

Certificate 15. Runtime 122 mins. Director Olivier Assayas.

Clouds of Sils Maria is available on DVD & Blu-ray from Artificial Eye. http://youtube.com/v/Zup27u6tMzY

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A film critic for over 25 years, Jason admits the job can occasionally be glamorous – sitting on a film festival jury in Portugal; hanging out with Baz Luhrmann at the Chateau Marmont; chatting with Sigourney Weaver about The Archers – but he mostly spends his time in darkened rooms watching films. He’s also written theatre and opera reviews, two guide books on Rome, and competed in a race for Yachting World, whose great wheeze it was to send a seasick film critic to write about his time on the ocean waves. But Jason is happiest on dry land with a classic screwball comedy or Hitchcock thriller.