Movie No. 181 (2013): LE PASSE (a.k.a. The Past)
The Past (a.k.a. Le Passe)
Director: Asghar Farhadi
Cast: Berenice Bejo, Tahar Rahim, Ali Mosaffa
In French and Farsi, with English subtitles
The situation and characters in this film are so interesting they can keep you glued to every scene. A mother of two, her estranged Iranian husband, the man she will marry, a rebellious teenage daughter, a wife in coma, a stubborn 8-year-old son, an illegal worker, a broken suitcase, the stain in the laundry, and email messages are the characters and "planted" things that populate the intelligently-written screenplay of this film. It's very clever to use these things effectively to bring about the personalities of every character in this movie. In some scenes some of these inanimate things are used as metaphor to the inner demons of some characters.
Director: Asghar Farhadi
Cast: Berenice Bejo, Tahar Rahim, Ali Mosaffa
In French and Farsi, with English subtitles
The situation and characters in this film are so interesting they can keep you glued to every scene. A mother of two, her estranged Iranian husband, the man she will marry, a rebellious teenage daughter, a wife in coma, a stubborn 8-year-old son, an illegal worker, a broken suitcase, the stain in the laundry, and email messages are the characters and "planted" things that populate the intelligently-written screenplay of this film. It's very clever to use these things effectively to bring about the personalities of every character in this movie. In some scenes some of these inanimate things are used as metaphor to the inner demons of some characters.
The basic plot of this movie is very simple, but the buildup of tension is so unexpected it sustains the suspense. Like the director's other movie, A Separation, which won Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards two years ago, The Past is also tinged with some Hitchcockian flavor. In the movie, a mother of two is reunited with her estranged husband who has just flown all the way from Iran to France to finalize their divorce application. But, she is already living with the man she will marry once. Her estranged husband will stay in their house while attending to the divorce proceedings. How is that as contributory to the tension buildup in the already strained relationship? But everything appears to be smooth-sailing until her rebellious teenage daughter reveals something from the past out of torment. It's after this that the succeeding scenes become "explosive" until the final scene.
This is so far the best film of the 2013 batch that I've seen so far. Maybe, one of the best of the films of the last two or three years. It's as good as A Separation. I will not be surprised if this films gives the director his second Oscar.
Rating: 4.0(+)/4.0
Date seen: October 20, 2013
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