Passages *** (2003, Franz Rogowski, Ben Whishaw, Adèle Exarchopoulos) – Classic Movie Review 12,665

Ira Sachs’s 2023 French romantic drama film Passages is a smart but spectacularly chilly film without a sympathetic character in sight, particularly its incredibly selfish, nasty film-director ‘hero’ (Franz Rogowski).

Director Ira Sachs’s 2023 French romantic drama film Passages is a smart but unpleasant, spectacularly chilly film without a single sympathetic character in sight, particularly its incredibly selfish, self-occupied and just plain nasty film-director ‘hero’.

If you want a manual on how not to behave, both professionally and personally, this is it. The question is why are we supposed to be interested in him or his dilemmas and fate. And why are the other characters interested in him?  The film is good enough to just about suggest why, and likewise with Franz Rogowski’s performance as Tomas, a German film-maker based in Paris.

Franz Rogowski and Ben Whishaw star as a gay couple, whose fairly rocky marriage is thrown into crisis when the film-director impulsively begins a passionate affair with a young woman teacher, Agathe, but then wants to have his cake and eat it. The Whishaw character, Martin, an English printer, finds someone else to rather half-heartedly dally with, Ahmad, a writer and novelist.

You can hardly call this a romantic drama, but dramatic it certainly is. You can watch it eagerly till the bitter end but still desperately be wanting to turn away from it at any time. Though clever and compelling it’s quite repellent. Ben Whishaw is good as the dithering husband, but the unsympathetic supporting part seems beneath him. Adèle Exarchopoulos is good too as the sincere teacher, but the part seems unrewarding.

And, yes, it is quite talky and really runs like a stage play, but that is offset by lots of very French-style shots of cycling through the streets of Paris.

Its eager if rather tepid sex scenes led to a censorship row when the film received an NC-17 rating from the Motion Picture Association. Distributors Mubi called the decision unexpected and deeply disappointing and decided to release the film in the US without a rating. Director Ira Sachs called the rating ‘a form of cultural censorship that is quite dangerous, particularly in a culture which is already battling, in such extreme ways, the possibility of LGBT imagery to exist’.

Filming began on 15 November 2021 in Paris. It had its world premiere at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival on 23 January 2023 and was released on 28 June 2023 in France.

The cast are Franz Rogowski as Tomas, Ben Whishaw as Martin, Adèle Exarchopoulos as Agathe, Erwan Kepoa Falé as Ahmad, Olivier Rabourdin, Radostina Rogliano, and Caroline Chaniolleau.

Passages is written by Mauricio Zacharias and Ira Sachs.

The costume designer is Khadija Zeggaï.

Duration: 92 minutes.

Country: Germany, France.

Production: SBS Productions.

© Derek Winnert 2023 – Classic Movie Review 12,665

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