The Iranian director Asghar Farhadi exploded onto the international film scene with the release of his 2011 film A Separation, the film received endless critical praise, topping countless critics list for the best of the year, and A Separation became the first Iranian film to ever win the Academy Award for best foreign language film, and was even nominated for best original screen play. So naturally there was a lot of hype for Farhadi's next film. People were dying to know what his next film was going to be, and if he could top A Separation. The answer to the first of these two questions is The Past, and the answer to the second is no, Farhadi was not able to top A Separation. At least not yet.
The Past begins with Ahmad (played by Ali Mosaffa) returning to Paris to finalize the divorce with his wife Marie. (played by Berenice Bejo) Because Marie would like to move on and marry the owner of laundromat, Samir. (played by Tahar Rahim) Whose former wife tried to kill herself, but now lies in a comma at a hospital. Samir and his young son, Fouad (played by Elyes Aguis) have already moved in with Marie and her two children from a previous marriage, the elder of the two being Lucie (played by Pauline Burlet) a teenager who doesn't get along with her mother or Samir, and instead prefers her step father Ahmad. The film follows all these characters as they try to work out all of there differences and resolve all of the things they did to each other in the past. And as the film goes on we discover that all of the characters have more than a few skeletons in their closets.
Asghar Farhadi has a very distinct and unique style, he has a strong focus on realism and showing things as they are. He stripes the film down to their basics, removing any fancy/stylized cinematography, like A Separation The Past does not have a score or soundtrack. His style is very similar to that of The Dardenne brothers or Abbas Kiarostami. But Farhadi instead has much more of a focus on the complexities of the human emotions that well can all feel and relate to. There are no heroes or villains in his films, instead there are just people trying to do their best. Farhadi relies a lot on his actors, they have to have dramatic range and be able to show several different emotions at once in order for the point of his film to come across. And while every single actor in A Separation was spot on, there are some weaker performances in The Past.
But the acting is really only a tiny issue most of the actors are great there are just a few wishy-washy ones. The biggest problem I have with The Past is that the plot is so complex and confusing that it does gets hard to tell who's mad at who, and why they're mad. Which is something that we need to know if the film is going to have an impact on the audience. If you pay close attention you will easily be able to track with the plot just fine, but there are so many different characters and they all have intricate relationships with each other, that it becomes difficult to get emotionally invested when you are still trying to figure who did what to who and why. I want to be clear The Past isn't a bad film because it has a confusing plot, it's just a weaker film because it relies on you getting emotionally involved in the film, and it's confusing plot makes it difficult to get involved. Several great films have much more confusing plots, but those films don't put a lot of emphasis on emotional connection, at least not in the same simple way in which Farhadi does.
In the end I would say that the Past is not as good of a film as A Separation. It's not as emotional or as groundbreaking as that film, and a lot of The Past ends up feeling like A Separation, which obviously means that it's going to be good, but just not as good as A Separation. But it is still worth seeing especially if you liked A Separation, there good performances and several different scenes that have the simple beauty of A Separation.
6.8/10
The Past begins with Ahmad (played by Ali Mosaffa) returning to Paris to finalize the divorce with his wife Marie. (played by Berenice Bejo) Because Marie would like to move on and marry the owner of laundromat, Samir. (played by Tahar Rahim) Whose former wife tried to kill herself, but now lies in a comma at a hospital. Samir and his young son, Fouad (played by Elyes Aguis) have already moved in with Marie and her two children from a previous marriage, the elder of the two being Lucie (played by Pauline Burlet) a teenager who doesn't get along with her mother or Samir, and instead prefers her step father Ahmad. The film follows all these characters as they try to work out all of there differences and resolve all of the things they did to each other in the past. And as the film goes on we discover that all of the characters have more than a few skeletons in their closets.
Asghar Farhadi has a very distinct and unique style, he has a strong focus on realism and showing things as they are. He stripes the film down to their basics, removing any fancy/stylized cinematography, like A Separation The Past does not have a score or soundtrack. His style is very similar to that of The Dardenne brothers or Abbas Kiarostami. But Farhadi instead has much more of a focus on the complexities of the human emotions that well can all feel and relate to. There are no heroes or villains in his films, instead there are just people trying to do their best. Farhadi relies a lot on his actors, they have to have dramatic range and be able to show several different emotions at once in order for the point of his film to come across. And while every single actor in A Separation was spot on, there are some weaker performances in The Past.
But the acting is really only a tiny issue most of the actors are great there are just a few wishy-washy ones. The biggest problem I have with The Past is that the plot is so complex and confusing that it does gets hard to tell who's mad at who, and why they're mad. Which is something that we need to know if the film is going to have an impact on the audience. If you pay close attention you will easily be able to track with the plot just fine, but there are so many different characters and they all have intricate relationships with each other, that it becomes difficult to get emotionally invested when you are still trying to figure who did what to who and why. I want to be clear The Past isn't a bad film because it has a confusing plot, it's just a weaker film because it relies on you getting emotionally involved in the film, and it's confusing plot makes it difficult to get involved. Several great films have much more confusing plots, but those films don't put a lot of emphasis on emotional connection, at least not in the same simple way in which Farhadi does.
In the end I would say that the Past is not as good of a film as A Separation. It's not as emotional or as groundbreaking as that film, and a lot of The Past ends up feeling like A Separation, which obviously means that it's going to be good, but just not as good as A Separation. But it is still worth seeing especially if you liked A Separation, there good performances and several different scenes that have the simple beauty of A Separation.
6.8/10