Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

French director Olivier Assayas(“Carlos”/”Noise”) is writer-director of this enticing intellectual sexual psychodrama about an actress playing an actress. It’s as if Ingmar Bergman were directing All About Eve. International movie star Maria Enders (Juliette Binoche) is in Zurich when asked by the arty young European director, Klaus Diesterweg (Lars Eidinger), to perform in a revival of a play she got her start in when 18, some 20 years ago. At the time she played the part of the zesty young lady named Sigrid who gets under hos boss Helena’s skin and drives her to suicide. This time she’s asked to play the older Helena. After accepting but with some trepidation, she travels with her outspoken perceptive young American assistant Val (Kristen Stewart) to rehearse in the isolated Swiss Alp region in Sils Maria. Her old part is given to a scandal-ridden, self-destructive, but talented American actress, Jo-Ann Ellis (Chloë Grace Moretz). Jo-Anne rebels against the emptiness of Hollywood after appearing in a vapid sci-fi film and is looking forward to this serious work. The story turns on the assured new actress being a disturbing reflection on the vulnerable Maria, who is mindful in the play Sigrid’s erotic advances drove Helena crazy. It’s sophisticated, acerbic and witty. The sparkling performances by Moretz, Binoche and Stewart give us an insightful insider’s look at the theater, the art of acting and on smoldering relationships.