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Saturday, April 29, 2017

Olivier Assayas talks 'Personal Shopper' and Kristen with The Nation News (Thailand)



In a country where films like “Fast & Furious 8” and “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2” tend to dominate the big screen, it came as a welcome surprise to see that the film which won last year’s Best Director prize at the Cannes Film Festival, had finally come to Bangkok.

Making the arrival of “Personal Shopper” even more special was the fact that its director, renowned French filmmaker Olivier Assayas, had come to Bangkok for a special screening at Alliance Francaise the day before the film opened at Thailand’s cinemas.

Assayas, who appeared pleased to be back in Bangkok, had just been told that that the film he scripted for Roman Polanski, “Based on a True Story”, starring Polanski’s wife, Emmanuelle Seignier, has been added to Cannes’ official selection.

“Personal Shopper” is the second Assayas film to get a theatrical release in Thailand and marks the second time the director Assayas has come to the Kingdom to present a film. The last time was in 2005 when “Clean”, starring his exwife Maggie Cheung, was shown at the Bangkok International Film Festival.

“Personal Shopper” is his latest English speaking film and marks another big step forward in actress Kristen Stewart’s post “Twilight” career.

“I made this film in English because I wanted to work with Kristen and she speaks no French,” says Assayas. “I also liked the idea of making a movie in Paris in a kind of specific space, which is the fashion industry. Paris is the world’s capital of fashion, so it is a city that sees a lot of people coming to work and shop. It has a very globalised industry, and the language of that globalised industry is English, so it is realistic that someone who is an English speaker could be part of that ambience.”

The director’s earlier films like “Irma Vep”, “Clean” and “Demonlover”, all have dialogue in both French and English, but “Personal Shopper” and his 2014 drama “Clouds of Sils Maria” are totally in English, which has posed problems in getting financing at home.

“Shooting films in English is a burden as it prevents me from getting access to subsidies in France. They will support only French speaking films, so making ‘Personal Shopper’ was a challenge. At the same time, though, it gave me the freedom of working with different actors. I was able to work with Lars Eidinger, who was in ‘Clouds of Sils Maria’ and is one of the greatest European actors today, and Nora von Waldstatten who was in ‘Carlos’,” says Assayas.

“Personal Shopper” marks the second time Assayas has worked with Stewart, whom he also cast in “Clouds of Sils Maria” as a young American girl serving as the assistant to international film star (Juliette Binoche).

In “Personal Shopper”, Stewart plays Maureen, a personal shopper for rich clients who lives in Paris and has a strange experience when she comes into contact with ghosts.

“When I was writing it, I was not completely sure this film was for Kristen, but ultimately it was. I think it has to do with how we met and how we functioned together. When we worked together in ‘Clouds of Sils Maria’, I didn’t really know her. I wrote the part of a young American girl and could have picked another actress. But I’ve always like Kristen, but when we started shooting, I realised that there is much more to her than I had imagined. She is much more complex. I discovered her in the process of working on ‘Clouds’. She has a supporting role and it’s dependent on the weird dynamic between her and Juliette. Working with her made me want to try doing something more complex, a film where she would have more space to invent or create a character.”

Assayas adds that the idea of a personal shopper for celebrities didn’t cross his mind while he was writing the script. “To me it was about a young woman, a foreigner in Paris doing a job that didn’t give her satisfaction. She finds some sort of salvation in her own spiritual life. The story grew from that and at first I was not sure what job she could have. Initially I thought she might be a stylist, but a foreigner who can’t speak French can’t be in that field of work. It needs specific skills. So I think it was more believable for her to be a personal shopper, which is a job you can do when stuck in a foreign city and need to pay the rent.”

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Friday, April 28, 2017

Chvrches' "Down Side of Me" music video directed by Kristen for Planned Parenthood + BTS photos


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Director: Kristen Stewart
DP: Sean Steigmeirer 
Editor: Melanie Shaw
Colorist: Natasha Leonnet
Photograph: Lindsey Byrnes

The boxset compilation is now available for preorder.  
For more details on how to order go to 7-Inches For Planned Parenthood.

The teaser trailer with more BTS images can be watched here at our previous post.

Source 1 2

Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Kristen will co-chair the Brady Center Bear Awards Gala in Los Angeles on 7 June



Co-Chairs Dede Gardner, Adam McKay, and Kristen Stewart invite you to
the Los Angeles Brady Center Bear Awards Gala.

Wednesday, June 7, 2017

Cocktails, Dinner & Auction
6:30 pm (PT).

NeueHouse Hollywood
6121 Sunset Boulevard
Los Angeles

The Bear Awards are given in memory of Jim "Bear" Brady to honor those who carry on his legacy in the fight for a safer America.

10.30pm ET/ Thurs 3.30am UK/ Thurs 4.30am CET/ Thurs 12.30pm AEST.

If you're in LA, you can get tickets to the gala. For more details on the event, please check their site.

Tuesday, April 25, 2017

"Come Swim" will screen at the Sundance Film Festival in London on 2 June



"Come Swim" will screen at the Sundance Film Festival in London on 2 June at 7pm (UK).

The 2017 Sundance Film Festival Short Film Tour is a 95-minute theatrical program of seven short films selected from this year’s Festival, which over the course of its more than 30-year history has been widely considered the premier showcase for short films and the launch pad for many now-prominent independent filmmakers. Including fiction, documentary and animation from around the world, the 2017 program gives a taste to what the Festival offers. From laugh-out-loud fun to contemplative thoughts about the world we live in, audiences will encounter a variety of emotions and exciting filmmaking.

Come Swim (Director/Screenwriter: Kristen Stewart) – This is a diptych of one man's day, half impressionist and half realist portraits.

For tickets and more information check out the festival's site.

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Friday, April 21, 2017

'Lizzie' co-star, Chloe Sevigny, mentions Kristen with Net-a-Porter



She’ll also star in psychological thriller Lizzie, alongside Kristen Stewart, based on the true story of Lizzie Borden who was accused of killing her father and stepmother. Sevigny plays the title role and describes Stewart, who plays maid Bridget Sullivan, as someone “who loves her craft. At that age, I didn’t have the confidence to fight for my ideas like she does. I learned a lot from her – and she’s 27 years old,” she says incredulously.

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Thursday, April 20, 2017

Kate Flynn, from the band The Winter Passing, mentions Kristen



Pick the director and lead actor(s) for a biopic about your life. 

Director - M. Night Shyamalan, because for so many reasons my life is a contemporary supernatural plot line. Actor - Kristen Stewart, because Kristen Stewart.

Source

Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Hairstylist Bridget Brager talks about Kristen's buzz cut with Fashion Week Daily



Kristen’s buzz cut was a huge moment, and more women have buzzed their hair since, like Katy Perry. What was that conversation like?

Kristen had wanted to shave her head for the longest time. She’s never been able to do it because of work. There was an opportunity with her newest movie to decide who her character was. We were working together one morning and she mentioned that she wanted to shave her head, and I said, OK, we can totally do it. She flipped. She was like, We can do this today? I got in contact with Chanel, and we got the OK. We had an hour and a half before the premiere of her film, Personal Shopper. We dyed her hair platinum blonde and shaved her head. It was pretty intense. I was so nervous because they decide very last minute to do these kinds of things and you never know what kind of ride it’s going to be.

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Teaser video for Chvrches' "Down Side Of Me" music video directed by Kristen for Planned Parenthood



The full music video for "Down Side of Me" by Chvrches, directed by Kristen, will be released on 28 April for the 7-Inches For Planned Parenthood compilation to benefit Planned Parenthood.

Source

Monday, April 17, 2017

Kristen's interview with SBS Movies for 'Personal Shopper'



With Personal Shopper you give us an insight into that rarefied world of high fashion, and how it works.

There are a very, very small group of people who actually go and shop at Chanel showrooms and those people are the real “other worldly” wealthy people. It’s couture, it’s delicate, handcrafted, really precious one of a kind works of art so you are investing in an artform when you go and buy their stuff.

Chanel does stand separately from most of the others - they are an independently owned company, still, which is the last of the luxury brands. And you feel that. There is a genuine, very compulsive faithfulness to aesthetic and care for that aesthetic. They really do stand apart from the people who do it for farcical reasons. A lot of people want to look like they appreciate an aesthetic and beauty but… Some people look at a sunset and it brings them to tears. Some people don’t look twice. It’s a really human spiritual thing to be moved by an image. So within fashion, those people really stick out because those who don’t have it are there because they want to be popular, they want attention. They want to be looked at in a certain way and it validates them in some way to be looked at. That’s actually very empty. It’s just really easy to tell the difference between the two.

You’re back working with Olivier again. How was it different this time? How did you build on what you’d learned about each other from Sils Maria?

The roles are very different, for one thing. Olivier and I have a great relationship because we really ‘see’ each other. I feel like he really understands me and I don’t really have to explain myself to him. We usually agree. There’s a great, real friendship and a closeness that provides a trust that, like, just puts you in the perfect position to explore a difficult subject and always feel like you’re going to be caught by this safety net if you ever really, truly, fall too hard. And that only got deeper on the second go around.

Also just by nature of the movie, it’s so much more sad and you know, Sils Maria was bittersweet and a little bit tumultuous between those two characters, and there was pain in that, but it wasn’t as deep and as fundamental as the pain in this movie. It didn’t bring into question things that don’t have answers and that’s what this movie is about. It’s really about finding peace in not knowing where we’re going to end up and who are are and whether or not our reality is just our perception or whether it’s something that we share. We’re never going to know that. But it’s worth asking the question. It’s worth being aware of it. For both of us, we found that you need to be so raw in order to address those things. We’re just so close now. We’ve been through so much together now that we have those footholds to base a relationship off of, and we’ll only go deeper.

What was it like to have an iPhone as your co-star in so many scenes? How did you approach that and try to make those scenes interesting?

Oh God, what you can project onto an iPhone and into messages from somebody can sometimes be so one-sided! I was basically playing with my own version of myself. Also I felt like anytime there was going to be a close-up or an insert of the messages, it should feel like a close-up of me. You should feel the tension in my hands. You should feel every typo. Every choice in punctuation should speak volumes, because it is a new language that we’ve all sort of written ourselves. You have a different text voice, whether you capitalise something. Or put a period on it, or put a lot of spaces in between something, it says a lot! This is this sort of new language that’s interesting. That... [motions texting, with intensity]... I mean… [laughs]

Are you a big texter? Ever feel like you need a digital detox?

I’m not constantly reaching for my phone. I have a personal Instagram that allows me to stay connected to people that I don’t see on a regular basis, but I don’t have social media, I don’t have this heavy phone addiction. So I’ve never had to detox from it. There are times I find myself reaching for my phone for no reason and I just literally, go, ‘What are you looking for? Nothing!’. When i notice myself doing that, I realise that i’m actually just bored and that I should occupy my time with something else.

What did you think about the ghost story aspect of the film?

When I read the script, I kind of missed the fact that it was a ghost story, because my character, the way she was written, wasn’t that afraid. There was such fervent curiosity that drove her towards the ghosts that I didn’t find them scary in the script. I thought that there was just like a need for questions to be answered, and that need overpowered any fear-based impulse. Then when we got to make the movie... the unknown is terrifying and I don’t care who you are. That was much more theoretical, that idea of not being afraid. It was something that i could implicate conceptually, but literally, on the day, nobody could face those things and not be literally, physically, shaken by it because it’s like, I mean it is scary! It’s really scary. It’s just that while I was reading it, I didn’t realise that it was such a - quote-unquote - horror movie.

He really goes for some effective scares

I know, right?! But to be honest, I still find the scarier parts of that movie are when you can see someone suddenly aware of the fact that we’ll never know where we are or who we are necessarily. Those moments where Maureen starts reeling, and things become incredibly uncertain? Those are debilitating, anxiety-inducing, physically stifling thoughts. I know that feeling. I was like, ‘God, I’m so happy I’m not in one of those places, I’m so happy that I’m not um, in that right now’. Because I’ve had moments like that where I’ve been racked with absolute physical manifestations of anxiety, and it was just like, the only way to get out of that is to go for a run or to physically get yourself moving and really exert your physicality and get yourself out of your brain. Because you’re never going to find the answer. Again, it’s finding peace in the not knowing and finding an appreciation for whatever it is that connects us, and i know it is something invisible, it’s worthwhile because it makes you feel less alone. And that’s really what we’re all hoping to do anyway.

On the subject of physicality, I notice you’ve made Maureen intensely tactile. She’s always gripping at belts, and scrunching up these beautiful pieces of jewellery as she inspects them. How did you work that in as a Maureen mannerism? Why does she do that?

I think Maureen’s attracted to things that she’s ashamed to be attracted to. So she’s aggressive with them. These really delicate necklaces, she’s so taken by them but she’s feeling guilty about it, so she almost wants to harm them. Do you know what i mean?

Not personally, but sure.

Because she’s not the most self-assured person and she has so many aspects of herself that don’t typically go together, finding a balance in that is kind of the struggle of the movie. There’s one side of her that’s purely animalistic and very feminine and really just embodies... She’s like a tigress. She’s like a really sensual, immediate, impulsive animal, but there are also other times where she’s so moored by thought and those defences go up immediately. And those defences are very hard and very masculine and androgynous because she misses her brother. She’s half a person and she’s trying to emulate him. It’s like there was a strength that he had that she doesn’t have without him, and she’s trying to do an impression of him in order to feel strong and it’s just not her. It’s sad to watch that kind of thing, it’s clearly just somebody that’s trying to hide.

You’ve played a lot of celebrity assistant roles lately, with this, Sils Maria, and also recently, in the Woody Allen film. Are you referencing relationships that you have with people who work with you?

Yeah, it’s funny role reversal. I know that job inside out. But I don’t have a personal shopper. That’s not a very common job. [Grabs at blazer] These clothes that we wear to press conferences and red carpets and stuff, they’re all lent to us. I don’t have people going out and buying opulent elaborate pieces for me for my own collection, it’s an interaction with that artform which is temporary and within the context of promoting a movie.

Some celebrities seem to use fashion as an escape, or a bit of armour, for want of a better word. You seem really connected to the clothes you wear, though.

Absolutely, I think when clothes really can do their job, they’re the opposite of armour, they can make you feel like you don’t want to hide, and you’re the true version of yourself in the right outfit.

Some people don’t have much interest in it, and some people don’t have very defied taste. A lot of actors really just don’t care, so they hire people that do, to help them. But me? I really like it. The reason I’m not ashamed of that is because it’s coming from a really true place. I don’t find it to be superficial at all. I think that when I put on the right garment I feel like a truer version of myself. I feel there are stories to tell with clothes, and when you find people that feel the same way, it’s really fun to work with them.

I think it’s pretty obvious when there’s the opposite of that - it’s obvious when people are drawn to that world because they want attention. I don’t want to look good because I want everyone to stare at me; I want to look good because I want to feel like myself. It’s about feeling like you, and clothes can help you achieve that.

Source

Sunday, April 16, 2017

Video + Photos: Kristen at Coachella 2017


15 April 2017



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16 April 2017

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Kristen's interview for 'Personal Shopper' with Whimn (Australia)



“With Olivier I learnt things about being female that were new to me, these ideas that can keep you up at night,” Stewart admits. “I’m less moored by anxiety than I was when I was 17 when I had my first debilitating existential thoughts. Sometimes you feel like there is no way out of it, but there is.”

Speaking at her usual rapid-fire pace and in her stream-of-consciousness manner, Stewart admits she’s changed. She’s less restrained and cares less about what people think of her.

“I have an awareness that lack of control leads people to a truer perception of you. I think I’ve really wished for that and found more of it in doing so. I’m not afraid. If I don't know the answer to something I just say, ‘I don't know’ instead of feeling obliged to give an answer. I’ve figured out how to communicate better. That obviously comes from just getting older.”

Does she meditate, given she’s been through so much?

“A lot of people have suggested meditation to me. I really have trouble sleeping and apparently it can be really helpful. But I’m not good at self-manipulation. I like feeling scattered, I really like feeling overwhelmed. Feeling relaxed all the time isn’t necessarily the way to feel creative. The only reason I have the ability to cope is because I’m quite f..king grounded.”

On screen she’s particularly courageous and nude scenes are not a problem. “There’s a strength in feeling stripped down in every sense,” she says. “I know as an actor I want to feel seen, I want to feel accepted and understood. The scene in Personal Shopper was exhilarating; it was not difficult to be naked. I'm not the most modest person, I'm not that precious and I don’t have the shame the character has.”

Stewart has learnt to deal with criticism too. “Not everyone’s going to like you. I prefer to feel love and hate rather than indifference. So I’m fine with it.”

Not everybody has loved Personal Shopper. Yet Stewart adores it. She loves working in Europe and she loves being away from the Hollywood controls. Still it was difficult.

“Olivier wanted to accelerate making the movie so I filmed it before Café Society. I was doing 16 hour days 7-day weeks and was working for Chanel at the same time, doing a photoshoot or flying to Rome for a show on Sundays. Oh man, I’ve never felt so good feeling so bad!”

She likewise put herself through the mill when filming her ambitious directing debut, the 17-minute short Come Swim that debuted in Sundance. “I’m a bit of a masochist. I don’t make things easy for myself.”

She is close to her dad and to her heavily tattooed mum who often dyes her hair jet black as Kristen had done earlier this year.

“My mum definitely carves her own way. The Aussies are very gregarious. I tend to be, I can be, but it’s more difficult for me to pull it out [of me]. I’m getting better at it.”

She reportedly lives between her house in the very cool Los Angeles suburb of Los Feliz and a Malibu beach pad she bought with her mum. She’s not publicising the locations.

“There are people who have driven up to my house and ogled. It’s f..king scary actually.”

"Everybody has an idea of who I am because of the reality show that all of us celebrities are by default involved with."

Social media is as much a hindrance as a help, though she loves to text. “I’m obsessed with formatting my messages and punctuating them perfectly and conveying something specifically. I have a private Instagram. Personally I have social media but I don't have a public anything.”

Of course it’s probably more difficult to be famous than it ever has been.

“Celebrities are so perforated, the holes are gaping. I think it’s really obvious that we’re breakable.”

Is that a good thing?

“Yeah actually I think it is-when it’s truthful and not just the whole tabloid thing. You have to focus on what really matters to you, as there’s a lot of bullshit in that world. You just have to look away.”

Source

Friday, April 14, 2017

Fan photo of Kristen - 14 April 2017


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It appears that Kristen will be at Coachella this year.

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Thursday, April 13, 2017

"Come Swim" will screen at the Cannes Film Festival as part of the 70th Anniversary Events on 20 May 2017



Cannes Poster

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Source: 'Come Swim' on the Cannes Film Festival site.



From the press kit:

From the screening guide:


'Come Swim' will screen on Saturday 20 May at 6.45pm CET.

9.45am PT/ 12.45pm ET/ 5.45pm UK/ Sunday 2.45am AEDT

The first red carpet on Saturday 20 May at the Grand Palais starts at 5.50pm CET.

There will be a second screening of  'Come Swim' on Sunday 21 May at 5.45pm CET. (via Gossipgyal)

Live streams:

1. Cannes Film Festival YouTube channel will be live streaming red carpets, photocalls and press conferences during the festival.

2. Canal Plus will live stream red carpets and other events.

3. French TV channels covering the film festival include TMC TV and France 2 TV.

If you live outside France (and potentially Europe) please remember you may need to change your PC clock to CET to watch any live stream from option 2 and/or 3.

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Download the press kit here and the screening pdf here.

The Cannes Film Festival runs from 17 May - 28 May. 

For more details on the festival, please visit their site.

Project: Details about Kristen's directed music video for Chvrches in support of Planned Parenthood



Pitchfork

A massive new 7" singles series has been announced in support of Planned Parenthood, featuring a wide range of musicians, visual artists, comedians, authors. “7-inches for Planned Parenthood” features previously reported contributions from St. Vincent, Chvrches (with an accompanying film clip directed by Kristen Stewart), John Legend, and Zach Galifianakis, plus work by Björk, Bon Iver, Sleater-Kinney, Foo Fighters, The Handmaid's Tale author Margaret Atwood, Mary J. Blige, the National’s Matt Berninger and Bryce Dessner, Elliott Smith, Common, Feist, Jenny Slate, Janeane Garofalo, Laurie Anderson, Jon Brion, Mitski, Nico Muhly, Margaret Cho, Pete Holmes, Sharon Van Etten, Tig Notaro, Shepard Fairey, and many more. Find the full list of contributors here.

“7-inches for Planned Parenthood” will be released “in batches” digitally in the forthcoming weeks, as well as in a vinyl box set, according to a press release.

LA Times

Perhaps we’re on the verge of a politically unbridled new phase for Stewart, who stays current on Trump’s America via CNN alerts on her phone, and at Sundance joined the Women’s March protesting in solidarity down Main Street. She’s already directed her next project, a musically oriented piece with the band Chvrches for Planned Parenthood.

“I had been asking them to let me do something for them for a while,” she says excitedly of the Scottish synth pop trio. “They’re so good. I ended up with a pretty simple but definitive narrative arc that highlights the cause in a sweet but quiet and confronting way.”

The Guardian

Stewart reckons that, if anything, the election was a wake-up call. It has forced her to choose her projects more carefully, to weigh up their social value. She mentions that she recently pitched in on a benefit album for Planned Parenthood. “And obviously that’s all because of the person who I’m not even going to name. Because the truth is, he’s terrifying. He’s not funny at all.”

Find out more about the cause and 7inches for Planned Parenthood at their site.

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

Anne Hathaway mentions Kristen with the Refinery29



AH: “I think so. I read something that Kristen Stewart said the other day and it just knocked my socks off [about] this notion that celebrities or actresses — this idea of the mythic female, the untouchability. We finally punctured it, and shit’s getting real, and that’s so much more fun. And first of all, everything about her, I’m just like, hallelujah hands all the time with her, she’s so cool. But that’s the way I feel. And the more free we get, the better our characters get, and the better the representations we see of ourselves are.”

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Monday, April 3, 2017

Video: Kristen's short film for Chanel's Gabrielle handbag campaign + BTS video




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Directed by: Daniel Askill.

V Magazine “What we landed on was ultimately the search for Gabrielle's spirit, and the sort of fight that you can have with the idea of someone disappearing,” says Stewart when explaining the making of the film. 

“There's something eerie about the film, but it's ultimately exuberant. It leads me to her name, Gabrielle, scrawled on the window, it's like affirmation, I've been validated. It almost represents the first glimpse Gabrielle allows me to have of her, and I get happy.”

For the teaser and photos from the campaign click here and here for our previous posts.

Source: Chanel