Clouds of Sils Maria (2014)
Directed by Olivier Assayas

Film Synopsis

Maria Enders is an internationally renowned actress of stage and screen who feels she owes everything to the Swiss playwright Wilhelm Melchior.  It was in one of the latter's plays twenty years previously that Maria first found fame, and she repays the debt she owes Melchior by travelling to Zurich to collect an award on his behalf.  Maria is shocked by the news that the elderly writer has died suddenly, apparently having committed suicide after suffering from an incurable illness.  Theatre director Klaus Diesterweg offers Maria the part of the older woman in the play by Melchior that made her name.  The part that she herself played two decades previously is to go to Jo-Ann Ellis, a sensation-causing celebrity actress who is keen to tackle more serious work.  After some thought, Maria accepts Diesterweg's offer and takes up residence in Melchiors' house in Sils Maria, an unspoiled region of the Swiss Alps, for a few days to straighten things out in her head.  In the company of her faithful assistant Valentine, she spends her days getting to know the character she is to play whilst soaking in the natural beauty around her...