The Past

By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.9
Director: Asghar Farhadi
Starring: Ali Mosaffa | Bérénice Bejo | Elyes Aguis | Jeanne Jestin | Pauline Burlet | Sabrina Ouazani | Tahar Rahim

Original language title: Le Passé

Country: france, italy

Year: 2013

Running time: 130

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2404461/reference

Michael says: “It may be a little too early to start saying that Iranian director Asghar Farhadi is one of my favorite filmmakers, but he’s batting two for two with A SEPARATION and now the emotionally wrenching THE PAST, actually Farhadi’s fifth and sixth films respectively.  As THE PAST starts, we are dropped in on a family in the middle of its story.  The plot is incredibly convoluted, and stunning revelations come rapid fire… but it’s all irrelevant in a way. The actually circumstances of the story dont’ matter, it’s how they affect the principal cast.  The reason is that the events that are governing our characters’ behavior took place in the past, and center around a woman now in a coma, so the actual facts will never ben known for certain.  Unlike A SEPARATION, where my experience was one of low-grade tension throughout the entire film, THE PAST delivers some surprising moments of wrenching emotion.  The cast is uniformly strong, especially the children, and Farhadi as both writer and
director just crafts a most exquisite film, from the opening scenes of a reunited couple communicating soundlessly through glass walls, to the stunningly powerful final scene that is filled with so much meaning that it could be the beginning of an entirely new film.  5 cats”

Jason says:  “There are a couple of moments, toward the end of THE PAST,  when it feels like writer/director Asghar Farhadi has drifted too far from where he started.  This is not necessarily a huge problem, because what he’s doing is still excellent; it’s just natural to expect to finish where one begins.  The feeling passes, though, as there’s certainly satisfaction to be found in a more complex story that isn’t necessarily obvious from that first piece.

“Said piece is Ahmad (Ali Mosaffa), who has just arrived in France from Tehran to finalize his divorce from Marie (Bérénice Bejo), whom he left four years ago.  They are apparently still on friendly terms; Marie even wants him to talk to her older daughter Lucie (Pauline Burlet), who is being difficult even by the standards of 16-year-old girls.  When he arrives, he finds Marie’s younger daughter Léa (Jeanne Jestin) playing with Fouad (Elyes Aguis), the son of Marie’s new fiancé Samir (Tahar Rahim), and that’s a
bit more than he expected to have to deal with.

“It’s a crowded house, and one of the most wonderfully real things about the movie is that Farhadi takes that quite literally:  With
three bedrooms to be shared among six people, the adults spend some time rearranging things so that everybody fits to the kids’ great frustration, a scenario that many whose families have gone through divorce and remarriage will find familiar.  There are multiple repair projects going on throughout the house, and a shed out back storing the characters’ actual baggage.  It appears to have sometimes been hard to film in this place, but the way Marie’s house reflects her life is a huge part of why the film is able to strike a chord.

“The way Farhadi handles the kids is refreshingly genuine, too. Elyes Aguis is invisibly perfect as Fouad; the initial shyness around a new person, the way he frequently seems deeply hurt by something he doesn’t begin to understand, and a fierce tantrum may just seem like a kid being a kid on the one hand, but on the other it’s exactly right in a way that seems rare on film.  Jeanne Jestin’s Léa (like Fouad, about six) doesn’t have the weighty material that the other kids do, but the young actress plays off every co-star perfectly.  Most of all, Pauline Burlet is nothing short of fantastic as Lucie; from her first scene, it’s clear that she’s turbulent even as she’s making sure she looks together for her little sister, and the way she breaks down in the set of scenes that starts to reveal what’s really going on is perfect.

“As good as the children are, the adults are just as impressive. Ali Mosaffa makes Ahmad a genial way for the audience to enter the story; he gives the character the sort of charm and easygoing manner that sells him as likely having been a pretty great stepdad, although he also does a fine job of bringing out the tensions and insecurities that suggest why his marriage(s) just did not work, even as little contrasting notes in scenes where things are going well. Tahar Rahim’s Samir initially comes off as a somewhat bland younger copy of Ahmad, but Rahim proves quite capable of carrying more of the film as it becomes necessary.  And Bérénice Bejo does some very impressive work as Marie; she’s given the most obviously imperfect human being to portray, but manages to keep Marie someone that the audience can empathize with even when it’s easy to disapprove of her actions at that moment.  Bejo’s scenes with Mosaffa, especially, are excellent; there’s the remains of chemistry there, but enough of the original form to supersede the constantly lurking tension.

“Watching them play off each other makes for an engrossing couple of hours, even though Farhadi spends a lot of time letting the audience just watch people circle each other warily.  The thing set up as giving the movie structure actually happens with very little fuss early on, and while Farhadi will occasionally half-acknowledge that he has a set-up rather than a story, the natural way he sets up the way everyone interacts and doesn’t over- or under-sell the consequences makes it work.  The way he alludes to details beyond the scope of the story, such as the girls’ father, without dragging them in helps. In fact, the drift toward the end that feels like it may drag THE PAST down to ‘just’ being Very Good feels like the result of deciding there needs to be a plot and then trying to discretely fit a whole mystery story in the last half-hour; at one point I was certain they were going to forensically investigate the stain on a dress.

“Fortunately, Farhadi rights the ship well before it gets to that, concluding at a place that is realistically ambiguous but still fairly
final.  On the way, he’s touched on subjects from depression to divorce with knowledge and sympathy, in a way that’s serious but not overbearing.  It’s perhaps just a single leg of the characters’ voyage, but an incredibly satisfying one to take with them.  4.75 cats

“Seen 12 January 2014 in Landmark Kendall Square 34 (first-run, DCP)”

Chris says:  “On the eve of signing divorce papers, Ahmad (Ali Mosaffa) returns from Iran to the home in France he left four years before. His soon-to-be-ex-wife Marie (Berenice Bejo) still lives there with her two daughters from a previous marriage, plus the young son of Samir (Tahar Rahim), a man she wishes to marry. Despite having literally moved on, the kind, pragmatic Ahmad effortlessly steps back into the father figure role he once played for Marie’s daughters. Although bound and committed to a future with Samir, Marie at times seems a little too comfortable allowing Ahmad back into her life, if only temporarily (it doesn’t help that Samir resembles a younger version of Ahmad, either). Meanwhile, Samir’s wife Celine lies in a coma induced by a suicide
attempt eight months ago.

“Ahmad, Marie and Samir all express a desire to move forward, yet their actions repeatedly betray this notion, showing the difficulty and near-impossibility of leaving one’s past behind; that the film is never heavy-handed or obvious in conveying this is a credit to writer/director Asghar Fahardi. This is every bit as accomplished and well-constructed as his previous film, A SEPARATION—although it runs for a little over two hours, nothing seems extraneous and the pacing is such that when you’re hit with a narrative twist (and there are a few), you’re nearly blindsided by it (but still fully believe it). Mosaffa and Bejo both excel at playing characters with wildly contrasting temperaments, while Rahim delivers a performance that grows in subtlety
and power throughout the film’s second half, reaching its fullest expression in a final scene as mysteriously elegant as anything in an Atom Egoyan film. THE PAST cements Fahardi as a master of domestic drama and I can’t think of a better contemporary filmmaker in this regard. 5 cats”

Julie says:  “This movie was 5 cats for me as well and I too would have voted for this in best ensemble if we could have gotten our hands on it earlier- So far I would rank THE PAST as my top film. But I have not seen PARADISE: FAITH or THE HUNT
yet.

“I too would have nominated Bérénice Bejo for best actress (who was the female lead in THE ARTIST which I did not notice while watching the film). Note the first scene in THE PAST through glass where  words are spoken but cannot  be heard could be part nod to THE ARTIST as well as indicative of the relationship seen in front of us.

“The little boy Fouad (son of Marie’s new partner) played  by Elyes Aguis was the most memorable of the three children to me. He was deserving of being considered for best supporting actor but the competition was stiff there. Almost seems there needs to be another category for small roles like this (possibly limited to children) that have a lot of impact.

“The signature of this film was clearly that of it’s director (and writer) Asghar Farhadi (who also wrote and directed A SEPARATION) but it also somewhat reminded me of the film CACHE by Michale Haneke with all the slow subtle peeling back of layers.  It is a must see.”