Personal Shopper

very few times in my life have i felt so strongly that a movie felt like it was made for me. obviously an objectively incorrect and selfish statement but it’s true and i think everyone who’s really into movies feels the same way. feeling touched in a deeply spiritual and artistic way by another artist. a work that embodies themes and symbols that reoccur in your daily life. a story that maybe you couldn’t have made, but one you feel you have the capacity and interest to do something similar. Personal Shopper touches on so many concepts i just cannot get enough of. spiritualism. grief. memory. technology. singularity. anonymity. voyeurism. perversity. shame. haunted mansions, moving objects. what is communication with the afterlife supposed to look like? tense train scenes, a stressful text message. your face glued to your phone in public, a text that makes you cry like the words were spoken aloud. doing something you’re not supposed to. taking pleasure in seeing yourself in the mirror instead of shame. but why? why does the person i see in the mirror only feel right when they aren’t me? when it’s someone i can’t be? Olivier Assayas’s films are able to get emotions out of me that i cannot describe in any way but spiritual. his mundane conversations and situations, his texture and his loose camera gives such an immersive experience. i can feel the emotions of the characters in the film very tangibly. especially in Personal Shopper. it speaks in a quiet, emotional language that i felt i was able to understand. like a communication. a seance. the movie asks, and i respond.