Ghost story Personal Shopper, starring Kristen Stewart, gets boos and cheers

Last Updated on July 31, 2021

PERSONAL SHOPPER, a Paris-set psychological thriller/ghost story we first heard about last May, has made its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, where it received an interesting mix of reactions. The movie was first screened for the press on Monday night, and as the end credits began to roll a portion of the audience let their negative feelings be known, filling the theatre with a chorus of boos.

The boos were addressed at a press conference the following day, with writer/director Olivier Assayas theorizing that they were from people who "didn't get" the ambiguous ending. Star Kristen Stewart made sure to clarify, "Everyone did not boo."

Then Tuesday night brought the film's gala premiere, which also received an audible reaction from the audience, but this time they weren't booing. They were applauding. The standing ovation lasted four and a half minutes.

Described as a "trippy", "spinge-tingling" horror story, PERSONAL SHOPPER centers on 

a young American in Paris who half-believes she’s in contact with her late twin brother.

Stewart seemed to downplay the horror element a bit at the press conference, saying "It's a ghost story, sure, but the supernatural aspects of it just lead you to very basic questions."

Although IFC Films holds the distribution rights and intends to get the film out to a wider audience later this year, there is no release information available for PERSONAL SHOPPER at this time, so it remains to be seen just how long we'll have to wait to find out if it deserves boos, cheers, or a reaction somewhere in between.

Stewart in Cannes