[updates below]
This is Asghar Farhadi’s new smash hit film (English title: ‘The Past’), which premiered at Cannes last Friday and opened in France the same day. French reviews have been dithyrambic, as has the buzz. A long line at my neighborhood theater last Sunday afternoon. All to be expected in view of Farhadi’s chef d’œuvre, ‘A Separation‘, of two years ago—not to mention his earlier films: ‘About Elly’ (2009), ‘Fireworks Wednesday’ (2006), and ‘Beautiful City’ (2004), all excellent. This one is set in Paris and environs—in the 19th arr. and Sevran (where tourists do not venture)—and is entirely in French—a language Farhadi does not speak, as it happens—, except for a smattering of Persian here and there. Like ‘A Separation’ it’s a complex psychological (melo)drama involving two families. As for what happens in the film, see the reviews (stellar) in the Hollywood press here, here, here, and here; trailer w/English subtitles is here. I was thoroughly engrossed in the film and from the opening scene. The dialogue is intense and extremely well written, with great attention to little details and gestures. And the acting is amazing and from the entire cast, particularly the sublime Bérénice Bejo, and down to the children (as for the beautiful 16 year-old Lucie, played by Pauline Burlet, a star is born…). All this said, I rated the film a notch below ‘A Separation’ on leaving the theater, as I was just a little unsatisfied with the ending, a sentiment that was shared by the others with whom I saw it. But a sharp, cinephile colleague later gave me a convincing interpretation of the end that caused me to revise my view of it and upward. So is the film a chef d’œuvre? Maybe. I’ll have to think about it, maybe see it again. But whether it is or not, it will most certainly make my Top 10 list of best movies of the year.
UPDATE: The December 16th WSJ has “a cultural conversation with Asghar Farhadi” on the eve of the US release of the film.
2nd UPDATE: Christopher de Bellaigue has an essay on the film on the NYR Blog. (February 27, 2014)
Hi, I’d be interested in knowing more about your colleague’s theory regarding the ending. I found it unsatisfying as well, but then I read several comments on IMDb about how perfect and powerful it was.
Arun, you and I both loved Farhadi’s “A Separation,” but we differ on “The Past.” Watching it, i kept having the sensation of watching a soap opera. Which made me ask, What qualities in a drama make it a soap opera? I came up with this: a good drama finely balances character development and plot development. In a soap opera, plot twists and revelations keep yanking you this way and that, to the point where the situational overshadows the psychological. Or as my sister put it, it was “almost like you were pieces on a game board and every three squares you get to pick a mystery card. There was nothing compelling the story forward except for these revelations. Unlike a game board, no one was trying to arrive anywhere in particular.” That said, it I found it to be soap opera of the highest order, a well-acted, well-filmed exploration of a middle-class milieu on the edge of Paris that cinema rarely treats. To quote my sister again, “I’ll see anything [Farhadi] does.”
Ricky: One of these days we should see the same movie at the same time, as I often forget details of films not long after seeing them. Le Passé I saw last May and a lot of it – including what happened at the end – now escapes me (which is why I couldn’t respond to Amelie’s comment above). Perhaps I’ll see it again. I agree with your next to last sentence plus your sister’s quote (and à propos, there was a Farhadi retrospective in Paris last year – following the success of A Separation – so I caught all of his films that I hadn’t seen).