Did an affair between Marie-Anne (Berenice Bejo) and the married Samir (Tahar Rahim) compel Samir’s depressive wife to try to commit suicide? This is the central question in The Past (2014), a film by Iranian director-writer Ashar Farhadi (A Separation) and one set in contemporary France.
The grip of the past is the most important theme here, but there are others: the complications produced by what could be called the lust for love, even marital love; when divorce, however inevitable, fails to bring finality; the innocence of children over against the culpability of adults. Though morose, it is a brilliant and probing film by a gifted man. And his cast doesn’t let him down. Bejo never sounds a false note at somberness or emotional outburst.
(In French with English subtitles)
Français : Berenice Bejo au festival de Cannes (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
