The Past (Le passé, French; 2013)
Director and Story: Asghar Farhadi
Life in the modern world is complicated. And this film aptly illustrates the matter to the fact. Probably that is why our forefathers cast in stone some of the dos and don'ts in life. It may not solve all the problems but it may help it to make it less complicated, perhaps at the expense of personal gratification. More people, however, would be happier.
Unfortunately, modern life is not such. The intricacies of individualism and unabated self expression have turned our already complicated life into a difficult Rubik cube puzzle. It is not that the individual is innately evil or vindictive, situations happen.
Asghar Farhadi is a famous Iranian filmmaker with a string of hits behind his name. This offering is quite an intense one set in Paris with a melting pot of cultures. In this movie, you have a Persian, an Arab and Caucasians who are quite comfortable with the French culture. The superior nature of this film is the surreal storytelling and true to life characters that each of us have seen or correlate to in our lives. They are complex characters without overtly appearing good or bad. Actions and inaction appear different to different people.
It starts with Ahmed returning from Persia to Paris after 4 years of leaving his wife, Marie-Ann, to sign the divorce papers. Ahmed thinks that his return is just for the solemnization of the divorce. He later comes to know that Marie is planning to remarry. This is going to be Marie's third marriage.
Her first marriage resulted in a divorce. She was caring for the 2 girls of that marriage. Her ex-husband is now residing in Brussels. Ahmed was the second husband with no offspring from that union. As the story progresses we realise that Ahmed was hit with a bout of depression previously which made him forsake the marriage and return to Persia.
Marie's third marriage is going to be with Samir who has a son and a comatose wife in hospital after an apparent attempt at suicide. Marie's elder daughter, Lucie, a teenager, is quite fed up with her mother's repeated failed marriages and is hostile to her marriage. Ahmad is supposed to knock some sense to her as the two are close.
Ahmed soon discovers that there is more than meets the eye. His job is not just over after signing at the dotted lines. He is entangled in the messy web of family melodrama. Samir also has issues with his wife in the hospital almost brain dead and on top of that Marie is 3 months pregnant.
An intense presentation with each body language giving added meaning. The unfinished sentences can actually say so much. No character has just no role to play. Even the 2 young children play important roles in the status quo.
Overall rating 5/5.
Director and Story: Asghar FarhadiLife in the modern world is complicated. And this film aptly illustrates the matter to the fact. Probably that is why our forefathers cast in stone some of the dos and don'ts in life. It may not solve all the problems but it may help it to make it less complicated, perhaps at the expense of personal gratification. More people, however, would be happier.
Unfortunately, modern life is not such. The intricacies of individualism and unabated self expression have turned our already complicated life into a difficult Rubik cube puzzle. It is not that the individual is innately evil or vindictive, situations happen.
Asghar Farhadi is a famous Iranian filmmaker with a string of hits behind his name. This offering is quite an intense one set in Paris with a melting pot of cultures. In this movie, you have a Persian, an Arab and Caucasians who are quite comfortable with the French culture. The superior nature of this film is the surreal storytelling and true to life characters that each of us have seen or correlate to in our lives. They are complex characters without overtly appearing good or bad. Actions and inaction appear different to different people.
It starts with Ahmed returning from Persia to Paris after 4 years of leaving his wife, Marie-Ann, to sign the divorce papers. Ahmed thinks that his return is just for the solemnization of the divorce. He later comes to know that Marie is planning to remarry. This is going to be Marie's third marriage.
Her first marriage resulted in a divorce. She was caring for the 2 girls of that marriage. Her ex-husband is now residing in Brussels. Ahmed was the second husband with no offspring from that union. As the story progresses we realise that Ahmed was hit with a bout of depression previously which made him forsake the marriage and return to Persia.
Marie's third marriage is going to be with Samir who has a son and a comatose wife in hospital after an apparent attempt at suicide. Marie's elder daughter, Lucie, a teenager, is quite fed up with her mother's repeated failed marriages and is hostile to her marriage. Ahmad is supposed to knock some sense to her as the two are close.
Ahmed soon discovers that there is more than meets the eye. His job is not just over after signing at the dotted lines. He is entangled in the messy web of family melodrama. Samir also has issues with his wife in the hospital almost brain dead and on top of that Marie is 3 months pregnant.
An intense presentation with each body language giving added meaning. The unfinished sentences can actually say so much. No character has just no role to play. Even the 2 young children play important roles in the status quo.
Overall rating 5/5.
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