Hey friends, happy Tuesday! Hope you’re getting along alright.
Some good corporate or office-minded reads today that I found invigorating or interesting:
Roxane Gay’s “A Year Without Our Work Friends”
“Four reasons you’re tired of Zoom calls — and what to do about it” in The Washington Post
“Late-Stage Pandemic Is Messing With Your Brain” in The Atlantic
Finally, for a laugh, take a cathartic minute to roast that person on the Zoom who still hasn’t figured out the platform:
Now, what you came for…
DAY 362: The Past (available on Amazon Prime)
Many centuries from now, most of the movies we love will be just a blip on the radar of history (if they even survive at all). Even the most delightful art is often deemed disposable by later generations. But if I had to take a bet on someone who will remain a towering figure in the medium for eons to come, it might be Iranian writer-director Asghar Farhadi. I’d argue he’s the most consistently precise working filmmaker who can deliver devastating work in both image and text.
You might recognize Farhadi’s name in conjunction with his international breakout hit A Separation, which won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film back in 2011. But — and this is what passes for a hot take in global cinema circles — I actually think his 2013 follow-up film The Past is a more impressive work. Sure, it doesn’t necessarily allow you to feel like you’ve “understood” some kind of grand statement about another country or culture. Farhadi does something better, though, as he gets to the meat of what makes us human.
In The Past, Farhadi demonstrates his incredible command and understanding of behavior, crafting characters with complex emotional needs and intricate smoke screens to conceal them. I can’t think of anyone since playwright Tennessee Williams who possesses such a strong command for people’s capacity for deception and self-delusion. Nothing is as it initially seems because everyone in the film acts on multiple levels of motivation, and a delicate tapestry untruth begins to unravel with just the smallest tug.
That first pull comes courtesy of Ali Mosaffa’s Ahmad, an Iranian man who flies to Paris so he can finally settle the divorce with his wife Marie (Bérénice Bejo) after many years separated. He thinks his visit will be a brief stop to resolve a simple legal matter. But the slight disturbance caused by his presence sets in motion a number of personal reckonings, too. Guilt, resentment, jealousy, rage and more all bubble to the surface — not only between Ahmad and Marie but with her new partner Samir (Tahar Rahim) and teen daughter from a previous relationship, Lucie (Pauline Burlet).
Without ever feeling like a series of plot contrivances, Farhadi winds us throw a twisting journey of competing desires and concealed motivations. The Past can be a bruising watch, though Farhadi more than earns the right for the gloves to come off between his characters. But underneath that pain and weightiness is something enlightening and fulfilling. This is a film that takes the time and effort to understand just how complex and confusing people are. We do not always make sense even to ourselves because of the way we buy into the lies we must tell ourselves to get through any given day. How wonderful it is to have a work that dares to feature us in all our contradictory glory.
Be good to yourselves and to each other,
Marshall