X
- 2013
- PG-13
- Sony Pictures Classics
- 2 h 10 m
- 2013
- PG-13
- Sony Pictures Classics
- 2 h 10 m
Summary Following a four year separation, Ahmad (Ali Mosaffa) returns to Paris from Tehran, when his estranged French wife, Marie (Bérénice Bejo), asks him to finalize their divorce procedure so she can marry her new boyfriend Samir (Tahar Rahim). During his tense brief stay, Ahmad discovers the conflicting nature of Marie's relationship with he...
Directed By: Asghar Farhadi
Written By: Asghar Farhadi
- 2013
- PG-13
- Sony Pictures Classics
- 2 h 10 m
- 2013
- PG-13
- Sony Pictures Classics
- 2 h 10 m
The Past
8.2
Where to Watch
Summary Following a four year separation, Ahmad (Ali Mosaffa) returns to Paris from Tehran, when his estranged French wife, Marie (Bérénice Bejo), asks him to finalize their divorce procedure so she can marry her new boyfriend Samir (Tahar Rahim). During his tense brief stay, Ahmad discovers the conflicting nature of Marie's relationship with he...
Directed By: Asghar Farhadi
Written By: Asghar Farhadi
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 41 Critic Reviews
85
93% Positive
38 Reviews
38 Reviews
7% Mixed
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 41 Critic Reviews
85
93% Positive
38 Reviews
38 Reviews
7% Mixed
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
With The Past, Farhadi again displays a gift for poking into corners of nondescript lives and discovering unique drama.
Bolstered by performances that convey profound grief and remorse without look-at-me histrionics, The Past is steeped in the believable micro details of its scenario while also expanding to universals.
User Score
Universal Acclaim
Based on 126 User Ratings
8.2
85% Positive
107 Ratings
107 Ratings
13% Mixed
16 Ratings
16 Ratings
2% Negative
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
User Score
Universal Acclaim
Based on 126 User Ratings
8.2
85% Positive
107 Ratings
107 Ratings
13% Mixed
16 Ratings
16 Ratings
2% Negative
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
Sheer magnificence in every way. The characters have all the complexity of people you know well. The revelations of the story are compelling but completely believable. The acting is faultless. And the film is more visually compelling than the director's last masterpiece, A Separation. This Iranian director has emerged as an absolute master of the film medium.
Report
Farhadi again burrows deep into his characters to tell an achingly intimate story, spinning grand tragedies out of minor lives in which the past lingers in the air, a perfume that haunts long after its wearer has left the room.
If The Past doesn’t equal the masterpiece that preceded it, it’s still an exceptional film from a man who is clearly one of the best working directors.
[Farhadi's] gift for pulling us deep into the story, and for conveying the major burdens of these supposedly minor lives, is unimpaired.
For about two-thirds of the film, The Past’s release of information and emotion is almost perfect. Then, in the last third, it begins to feel contrived, as if Farhadi is trying to show a long chain of guilt, and to see how far it will unspool. The drawn-out revelations feel like overkill, though not enough to spoil what’s very good here.
It’s intricate and often mature as drama, but it’s also meandering and at times heavy-handed, even melodramatic, and the tight control of time, place and action which made ‘A Separation’ so gripping is just not there.
Caught "The past" Asghar Farhadi's latest work last night in Isfahan" Farhadi's hometown" I gave ten star to the past like A separation but i confess that i like A separation more than this movie. The film was a masterpiece of Asghar Farhadi just like other film from this director. I hadn't been swept off my feet for a while, and The final sequence of the film had me amazing where name of Bérénice Bejo And Ali Mosaffa was appear in Céline and Samir hands masterfully. I will be shocked if this movie doesn't win an academy award and I hope heard the name Of Iran and Asghar Farhadi when the pocket will be open in this ceremony. This film start little late but when Ahmad and Lucie meet together for second time Farhadi enters first shock to the viewer. From this moments we can see specific signature of Farhadi's drama in this movie. Farhadi never talk about his movies explicitly but I guess purpose of The Past sending an alarm to the selfish man who's always run from his past or in other words its past decisions. This past decisions is impact in our life and the others that we like them to much and Farhadi says "Be careful of Bad effect" maybe for this Marie never let to Ahmad to explain the reason for departure because She believe That decisions is the starting point for adventures that occurred four years later.Similarly, we can determine to the relationship between Marie and Samir or decision of Lucie or Naïma's decision and Or even the Céline's decision.
Report
This is one one the best movies I've ever seen. Farhadi brilliantly takes us on a roller coaster ride through the relationships among the characters. We start with the relationship between a woman and her husband who returns to sign final divorce papers. He arrives at the airport and goes to baggage claim, but his suitcase has been lost. She sees him and tries to get his attention but can't. He finally sees her but there is a glass wall between them. One expects that this relationship will be examined more in depth. Instead, we careen to the mother-daughter relationship. The mother hopes the husband can help with the daughter's worsening behaviors. We then bounce to the mother-boyfriend relationship. The mother and husband are going through the final divorce procedure and the boyfriend is calling. He wants to know if he should accept the husband's damaged baggage which has been delivered to the house. A critic described the plot as meandering. I found it fascinating to go down the rabbit hole - but instead of straight down, we are redirected to tunnel after tunnel. We end in a place impossible to predict.
In addition to the roller coaster ride through these relationships, we and the characters gradually learn their secrets and motives as both known and unknown to themselves. We think we learn the truth, then it is violently ripped away. We are largely left adrift and with ambiguity, yet the story is still satisfying because it feels real. Being in the field of psychology, I was struck by the authenticity of the emotions, the misperceptions and the misplaced assumptions. I believe this movie captures the complexity of relationships, motives and human truth better than any I've seen in recent memory.
Report
Asghar Farhadi's earlier film 'A Separation' was taut and dazzling with an exceptionally intricate and mesmerising screenplay. It actually played more like a thriller than a small drama. The Past seems to be trying to replicate the formula, but for the most part it fails. In actuality it is a well acted but fairly ordinary film which only really comes alive in the last section when the true catalogue of events is finally revealed. Here the movie adopts 'A Separation's' bravura style and becomes more interesting. The shame is that by only half heartedly emulating the earlier film this one, by comparison, ends up being bland. Whereas 'A Separation' soared from beginning to end, The Past only flutters AT the end. Of the afore mentioned performances Tahar Rahim is the best as Berenice Bejo's boyfriend.
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I don't get the acclaim for this film. To my mind it is incredibly slow, predictable and takes itself almost laughably seriously. At half the length it might have had some dramatic tension, but only some. Constant small plot complications seem to be piled on top of one another to keep us going. Almost none of the chatacters are likable or even interesting. The exception is Ahmed, who has come back - almost inexplicably - to get his divorce. Apparently he was a bad boy 4 years ago, but now he's an angel. If he and Marie actually got it together again there might have been some point to the film. Without that particular plot complication, I'm left wondering 'Why?'
Report
It takes Iranian director and writer of the screenplay, 2 hours and 10 minutes to get to the end of this slow moving film and really doesn't have an ending. What happens to the characters in the film is left up to you to decide but you really don't care and by the time you leave the auditorium you have forgotten the film. The film is set in a suburb of Paris but you would never know as it doesn't feature anything in France except most of the language is in French.
The film is about relationships and there are many in this film starting with Ahmad (Ali Mosaffa) arriving from Iran, his homeland, where he had returned 4 years before not returning, leaving his wife Marie (Berenice Bejo) who has asked him to come back to sign the divorce papers. She has a new lover, Samir (Tahar Rahim) whom she is pregnant by and who has a wife in a coma in the hospital after attempting suicide. Marie has two children Lucie (Pauline Burlet) and Lea (Jeanne Jestin) from her first husband who now lives in Brussels with his wife while Samir has a son Fouad (Elyes Aguis) who has found a friend in Lucie. The two girls have come to see Ahmand as a father figure and it is Lucie, the ever sullen teenager, who points out to him and says, “Isn’t it obvious? The reason she is with Samir is because he looks like you!”
Why does Marie insist that Ahmand stay with her and doesn’t book the hotel room he wanted? Why did Samir’s wife attempt suicide and will she come out of her coma? Samir owns a cleaners and has an illegal female worker Niama (Sabrina Ouazani) who was involved in a fight between his wife and a customer and the wife attempted the suicide in front of the worker. Marie has a sprained wrist which she blames the painting and refurbishing of her home and has nothing to do with the movie.
The cast, in spite of being hindered by the director/writer, is more than adequate with Elyes Aguis as the young boy outstanding. Berenice Bejo who starred in “The Artist” makes up for not talking in that film and is far from the happy dancing she played in that film. The men, Rahim and Mosaffa, are interesting to watch but, like all the characters in the film, neither their guilt, their relationships or why they do/did certain things are explained.
“The Past” is too long by at least 20 minutes and though a movie doesn’t have to provide answers it asks too many unanswerable, unnecessary questions.
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Production Company
Memento Films Production,
France 3 Cinéma,
BIM Distribuzione,
Canal+,
Ciné+,
France Télévisions,
Eurimages,
La Région Île-de-France,
Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée (CNC),
MEDIA Programme of the European Union,
Memento Films,
Cofinova 9,
Indéfilms,
Cinémage 7,
Palatine Étoile 10,
Alvy Distribution,
CN3 Productions
Release Date Dec 20, 2013
Duration 2 h 10 m
Rating PG-13
Awards
Golden Globes, USA
• 1 Nomination
César Awards, France
• 5 Nominations
Chlotrudis Awards
• 3 Wins & 4 Nominations
