Oliver Assayas‘ (THE CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA) PERSONAL SHOPPER is a pret­ty bizar­re mix bet­ween a ghost sto­ry and an iro­nic com­men­ta­ry on cele­bri­ty cul­tu­re and hyper con­su­me­rism. Maureen (Kristen Stewart) is a young woman with a glamo­rous job. She shops for Lara, a star, or at least a star­let, who needs to have the newest hau­te cou­ture. Maureen is also pri­va­te­ly grie­ving for her brot­her who just died of a heart dise­a­se, a dise­a­se Maureen has as well. Her brot­her belie­ved he was a medi­um, just like Maureen, and they both pro­mi­sed each other to send a mes­sa­ge from the after­li­fe when one of them died. Maureen inspects the old house whe­re her brot­her lived and tri­es to con­ju­re up his ghost. When Maureen starts get­ting mes­sa­ges on her smart­phone from an unknown sen­der who seems to know ever­y­thing about her she belie­ves that she is final­ly com­mu­ni­ca­ting with her brot­her. PERSONAL SHOPPER is a ner­vous film whe­re not­hing is neat­ly resol­ved which is in com­ple­te ali­gnment with the heroine’s psy­che. Maureen tee­ters bet­ween being on the side­lines of the world of glitz and glam and her some­what mis­gui­ded year­ning for emo­tio­nal “depth.” Those who expect a Lynchian link bet­ween gothic ghost sto­ry and gla­mour world ali­en­ati­on will sure­ly be dis­ap­poin­ted. PERSONAL SHOPPER is a very fun­ny ghost far­ce and an accu­ra­te dia­gno­sis of a gene­ra­ti­on caught bet­ween mate­ria­lism and tran­s­cen­den­tal aspirations.

Tom Dorow

Translation: Elinor Lewy