Room with a View: Wasikowska Joins Binoche in Assayas’ Sils Maria

Olivier Assayas will take to the hills of Germany and Switzerland this summer with Mia Wasikowska packing her suitcases to play alongside Juliette Binoche in Sils Maria, an English-language film that will be supported by Arte France Cinema. Binoche is set to play a famous actress named Maria Enders (Binoche has three decades worth of experiences to pull from here) while Wasikowska plays an assistant.

Gist: Sils Maria is a hill and flower-friendly portion of the Engadin region of Switzerland where 19th & 20th century intellectuals, artists and philosophers stayed — most notably Friedrich Nietzsche. According to what I could gather from ARTE France Cinéma’s Olivier Père’s description, the physical space of one room acts a lieu for this middle-aged actresses’ own reflection on ageism, insecurities and doubts brought about by a successful, yet controversial role she played two decades prior. I’m calling this one: method acting taken to the extreme.

Worth Noting: As Père points out, this is officially Assayas’ third collaboration with Binoche – the most recent being the exquisite Summer Hours and he co-wrote Rendez-vous (with and for director André Téchiné).

Do We Care?: Having landed two solid leads with Binoche topping what could be a meta-role, Sils Maria appears to be a distinctly female-driven look at ageism and careerism with the potential to be rather dark material. This will be easily consider as one the most anticipated titles for 2014 edition of Cannes Film Fest.