Film review: Passages takes a compelling look at an uncomfortable triangle of modern pansexual Parisians
Strong performances as Ira Sachs explores the turmoil that follows an impulsive hook-up
Picturesque Parisien lives get complicated in Passages.
Passages opens at VIFF Centre on August 11
IN THE NEW FILM from writer-director Ira Sachs (Frankie, Love Is Strange), a loose fuck throws three picturesque Parisian lives into turmoil.
Tomas is a filmmaker with a Cluster B personality and an C-minus wardrobe who celebrates the end of his latest shoot with an impulsive hook-up at the wrap party. This doesn’t go over well with husband Martin, or with the newly dumped boyfriend of Agathe, the woman in question, or even with Tomas and Agathe themselves, eventually. But it does make for spirited middlebrow fare from a reliably fringey filmmaker, collaborating again with screenwriter Mauricio Zacharias.
And of course everyone involved is delicious, Tomas in particular. He’s a despicable creature but the endlessly charismatic Franz Rogowski (Transit) makes him attractive, like he would, even in those flowery cut-off shirts, and Adèle Exarchopoulos (Blue Is the Warmest Colour) does very subtle wonders with the emotionally reticent Agathe, particularly once the relationship develops into a very uncomfortable triangle with a twist that perhaps reflects darkly on the director’s own real-life situation. Sachs shares custody of his children with their two mothers and his husband, and Passages imagines a similar, much less happy situation thrown into chaos by a narcissist.
In any case, when things get so serious that Agathe is introducing Tomas to her skeptical parents, who also happen to be a bit unpleasant, in keeping with the film’s general vibe, Passages finally extends a little compassion and shading toward the poor woman. Martin, meanwhile, has begun his own affair with the writer Amad (Erwan Kepoa Falé), who might be even more beautiful than the now furiously jealous Tomas.
Both Rogowski and Exarchopoulos have won deserved acclaim for their performances, although it’s Ben Wishaw’s film as the hurt but patient graphic designer Martin. In a climactic scene with Agathe, where he reckons with a final bombshell, he steals Passages as quietly as he enters. The talented Brit, who might be familiar as the voice actor behind a much-loved animated bear with a fondness for marmalade, also partakes in a graphic sex scene that Paddington must never see under any circumstances, and which won the film a dreaded NC-17 rating in the U.S.—much to Sachs’s loud condemnation, although one wonders if it even matters anymore.
It’s a sensitive and honest adult movie about the morality of fiercely modern pansexual euro-hotties in Paris, which looks amazing thanks to Quebecois cinematographer Josée Deshaies, released at a time when eyes are focused on the queer community and everyone is talking about fluidity (and personality disorders). Sachs’s timing is impeccable, c’mon!
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