{"id":95592,"date":"2017-03-15T11:00:57","date_gmt":"2017-03-15T11:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/?p=95592"},"modified":"2017-03-15T11:00:57","modified_gmt":"2017-03-15T11:00:57","slug":"personal-shopper-director-olivier-assayas-on-the-afterlife","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/interviews\/personal-shopper-director-olivier-assayas-on-the-afterlife\/","title":{"rendered":"Personal Shopper director Olivier Assayas on the afterlife"},"content":{"rendered":"

The supernatural meets intense human drama in Olivier Assayas\u2019 film Personal Shopper<\/strong> <\/em>(finally in UK cinemas from 17 March), which divided audiences at Cannes last summer and sees a personal shopper communicating with the dead.<\/p>\n

Assayas revealed\u00a0he finds the paranormal intriguing because it\u2019s a part of our imagination. “The paranormal is our thought process,” he\u00a0said. “We are aware that there is more to the world than the material world that our imagination, our feelings, constantly give us a sense that there are dark areas, or certainly areas that we\u2019re not completely aware of or that we can\u2019t exactly define.”<\/p>\n

He\u2019s also a believer when it comes to ghosts, and said\u00a0that we\u2019re constantly having conversations with them: “Ghost is a codeword for the presence of the departed and anyone that has had the experience of grief, of mourning.<\/p>\n

“The conversations we have with the departed never really stop. I think what we call ghosts is a way of externalising something that\u2019s very much part of our inner conversation.”<\/p>\n

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Kristen Stewart stars in the film as said personal shopper Maureen, who lives in Paris, hates her job, and also happens to be a medium. Stewart was very familiar with Assayas\u2019 working style having previously starred in his 2014 film Clouds Of Sils Maria<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

“For some reason I was a bit superstitious and I didn\u2019t admit, even to myself, that I was actually writing for Kristen,” Assayas told us.<\/p>\n

“It was only when I gave her the screenplay, when she read it, loved it and related to it that I realised how much she had been instrumental in creating the film\u2026 If it had been another actress it would have been a completely different film. The thing that I needed was someone as grounded as Kristen, so connected to everyday material life. She\u2019s like us in that sense.”<\/p>\n

Personal Shopper<\/em> is in cinemas from 17 March. Get all the latest horror news with every issue of SciFiNow.<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n