I saw a great film recently called “The Clouds of Sils Maria” that features a superb female cast. (Warning: Spoilers Ahead!) The film is rich and complicated, and features multiple parallels between the relationships of the characters, both real and fictional. One theme that really stood out to me was the film’s treatment of older working women in society. Juliette Binoche plays Maria Enders, a world-famous actor at the pinnacle of her career. That career was launched twenty years prior by her performance in the film “Maloja Snake” as Sigrid, the cruel personal assistant who romantically entices and manipulates a forty-year-old business executive, Helena, eventually driving Helena to suicide. Now, Maria is asked to reprise her performance on the stage, this time as older Helena. Throughout the film, Maria struggles first with whether to accept the part, and later, how to interpret the role. At the same time, Maria is forced to reflect on her own understanding of herself as an older woman who is still competing in the field of acting.  She sees herself as the youthful, free Sigrid, and can’t come to terms with a self-conception as the aging, downtrodden Helena.  As Binoche’s character explains, “Time goes by […]

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