Directed by Ira Sachs — Screenplay by Mauricio Zacharias, Ira Sachs, and Arlette Langmann.
Ira Sachs’ Passages follows Tomas (played by Franz Rogowski), a German filmmaker who lives in Paris, at the end of the production of his latest film. At the subsequent wrap party, Tomas’ partner Martin (played by Ben Whishaw), an English printer, refuses to go out on the dance floor with him, but Agathe (played by Adèle Exarchopoulos), a young primary school teacher, would very much like to dance with Tomas. In the heat of the moment, Tomas and Agathe lock eyes, share a connection and go to Agathe’s home where they have sex. The next morning Tomas arrives back at his and Martin’s apartment, and, though his instinct is to initially be deceitful about what had happened, Tomas fairly quickly decides to come clean (and quite directly) to Martin about what had happened and how he feels about it. An inwardly upset Martin kisses Tomas, and they continue their relationship, which only seems more doomed when Tomas carries on with his dalliance with Agathe. As Tomas’ relationship with Agathe intensifies, whereas his relationship with Martin deteriorates, Tomas tries to control his love life in a way that doesn’t take the emotional well-being of others into account.
A mature, at times infuriating, but always stylishly designed international film, Passages is a fascinating and cinematic ménage à trois occupied by three well-cast European actors in Franz Rogowski, Ben Whishaw, and Adèle Exarchopoulos, all three of whom are terrific. Often dressed in a crop top that speaks volumes about his state of mind from scene to scene, Rogowski is equal parts magnetic and vexing as the supposedly talented micro-managing director who behaves like a narcissist and an agent of chaos in this film. This is the type of person who wants to be allowed to be free, while at the same time dictating and controlling others. Ben Whishaw’s performance is quieter and decidedly more inward. Whishaw and Rogowski brilliantly capture the feeling that this is a couple that has known each other for years beforehand, and the actors show this aspect of their characters’ relationship both in their physical and deeply intimate entanglements but also in their quiet understanding. You get the sense that Whishaw’s character is someone who has previously had to make quiet, unprotested compromises even when severely hurt. Finally, the always enchanting Adèle Exarchopoulos does commendable work as a mature young woman who is simultaneously taken by this new relationship and clear-sighted enough to recognize the lapses in realism that the growing relationship is built on through lines that indicate how her character, in moments, sees right through Tomas.
“You say it, when it works for you,”
Agathe to Tomas when he says that he loves her.
Early on in the film, there is a scene where Tomas is very strict about one of his actors’ mentality and performance in a scene. While you would perhaps expect that kind of artistic focus, control, and sense of knowing exactly what you want from a filmmaker, the problem here — Whishaw’s character indicates it isn’t the first time it has happened — is that once Tomas is removed from the headspace of artistic control, he starts bringing it home. I find it fascinating how Sachs’ film is interested in how Tomas’ work behavior seeps into his relationship. Tomas craves the same kind of control that he has on the film set and in the editing booth when he returns home after filming.
There is flippancy, curiosity, and confusion in his approach to the impromptu love triangle, within which he tests boundaries and manipulates. His sudden interest in Agathe could be love, it could be a response to wanting artistic freedom in his daily life, an attempt to exercise further control over his love life or a new understanding of his sexual fluidity, but it could also be a direct response to how his work will be received. Perhaps that is why he confesses to Martin so early on. Perhaps this is the love-life manifestation of his nerves about the future audience reception to his latest artistic exploits. In any case, the film makes it quite clear that there is some connection between his work and his sexual identity with how Tomas, at one point, lies and says he’s going to the editing room when he is really leaving Martin to go have sex with Agathe. Regardless of his character’s reasoning, Rogowski note-perfectly plays his Tomas with a vulnerability and a self-important arrogance and toxicity that keeps you hooked, even when you’re infuriated by him.
Because of how fast-moving and lean the picture is with a runtime of 90-ish minutes, the film never overstays its welcome. Still, while it is a well-composed, designed, and acted adult drama fascinated by intimacy, it is also a little bit too lean to fully envelop its viewers in the character complexities of the narrative. I found myself wanting Exarchoppoulos and Whishaw’s characters to be more fleshed out, even though they are performed quite well. In spite of my lesser issues with it, Passages remains an emotionally involving, stylish, deliberately messy, and supremely well-acted adult drama about emotional manipulation, intense intimacy, sexual fluidity, and how artistic freedom and directorial control cannot easily exist in a relationship.
8 out of 10
– Review Written by Jeffrey Rex Bertelsen.
I'm Jeffrey Rex 