diana-y-paul THE PAST (LE PASSÉ) was nominated for the 2013 Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or award, the Iranian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award , and a Golden Globe. Directed and written by Asghar Farhadi of "A Separation" fame (winner of the 2011 Academy Award for Best Foreign Film). "The Past" is a a web of intrigue of Rashomon proportions. Everyone tells their version of the truth, but they do not explain everything, and the viewer is puzzled by intentions, motives, and history. As "The Past" unfolds, each character is imprisoned by his or her own version of the past. Opportunities to move forward are constantly threatened by each character's backstory. The past seems to dominate and destabilize, reminding us of our own mistakes and unintended consequences.Read my complete review at www.unhealedwound.com

L R This was quite boring.And Slow.And depressing.And "real". Real bad. Why do we look at European movies such as this and esteem them so highly? I did not like this movie. Broken families, gloomy, sad, depressing faces, slow pace, boredom, feel-bad, arguing, tears, no redeeming value to offer, just a show, a ride to the end which ends the same way it begins. No hope. No great change, no happy promises, no, those good things - that's just for the "superficial and naive Americans". OK, some good scenes, good acting, but a terrible ride.We escape our lives, to go watch a movie and all we escape to is even worse. It's the most sad , angry, depressing stories..Seriously, this movie is not good. Mediocre at best.

l_rawjalaurence The plot of THE PAST (LE PASSÉ) is relatively straightforward: Ahmad (Ali Mosaffa) returns from Tehran to Paris to prepare for his divorce from Marie Brisson (Bérénice Bejo), but finds himself gradually drawn into familial troubles with Marie's boyfriend Samir (Tahar Rahim) and Marie's sixteen-year-old daughter Lucie (Pauline Burlet).The film can be treated as an incredibly sophisticated whodunit, as Ahmad tries to discover why Lucie hates her mother, and becomes involved in a web of intrigue that focuses on why Samir's wife Céline (Aleksandra Klebanska) ended up in a coma. Everyone tells their version of the truth, but they do not explain everything. The action offers a series of revelations that not only tell us what happened, but why it happened: everyone, it seems, was jealous of everyone else in a love-quarter involving Marie Brisson, Céline, Lucie, and Samir, as well as illegal worker Naima (Sabrina Ouazani), who becomes unwittingly drawn into the action.Yet director Farhadi is much more interested in his characters' state of mind. As in his earlier work such as A SEPARATION and ABOUT ELLY, he makes considerable use of interior shots of the characters driving their cars; this not only suggests a kind of insulation (both mental as well as physical) from the outside world, but also a continual restlessness, an unwillingness (or is it inability) to face up to themselves. This is especially true in LE PASSÉ, where Marie Brisson and Samir plan to get married, with little concern for the effect that it might have on their children.As the action unfolds, so it becomes clear that every single character is imprisoned by their respective pasts. However much they might try to escape - by marriage, or moving to another country, or simply running away (like Lucie) - they will always have to face the day of reckoning. Whether they are able to negotiate this process is another story. They would rather pursue lives of continual action: work, household chores, eating out. But Farhadi will not let his characters off the hook so easily; his camera focuses on their expressions in almost forensic detail - making us understand the mental and physical strain they experience. LE PASSÉ is an incredibly intense experience to watch; there is no music to alleviate the tension, and the camera refuses to give us any relaxation - through panning shots, or lengthy tracking shots. Instead Farhadi makes continual use of the close-up and two-shot, forcing us to consider the characters' behavior and relate it to our own lives. What would we do if we were faced with Ahmad's or Lucie's dilemmas?The film comes to some kind of resolution in the end, but still no real questions concerning the protagonists' lives have been answered. Many of them are doomed to lives of perpetual loneliness through their inability to communicate either emotionally or literally.LE PASSÉ is quite simply a modern classic - a brilliant piece of film-making by a master director.

braddugg A complex story of separation in a family. A fine film that adds intrigue to the complications.A wife and a husband are going through a tough phase and invariably, children are affected. The child is determined not to let go and seek reasons for their considered break up. It triggers a kind of family drama which might happen in any home. Sanity is a state of mind and insanity is a mere perception.Asghar Farhadi has made a film called "A Separation" on similar lines and it was powerful. Though, "The Past" is not as good as his previous venture, it still strikes the right chords. In terms of story, emotions of characters, the lines and the ending. It all goes well and the good part is it does not conclude. It ends as if it was meant to ask questions. As if it was made for us to introspect how we interpret emotions.With the heart in the right place, this film knows how to melt hearts too. With brilliant performances by all, especially Paulene Burlet as Lucie, the film depicts the true emotions of characters which are true. The emotions can be run within a family that is running through the tough phase. Also, this film shows on a realistic plane how a separation might affect the kids in a family. It's sad but true that it is the kids who go through a lot of pain.Technically, few frames in this film are composed poetically and I appreciate the cinematographer Mahmoud Kalari for that. At 2 hours and 10 minutes, this film goes through an intrigue right from the word go, and the flow is good too. Yet, I have only one crib in writing, that is how come a human take extreme step, without understanding or seeking clarification from anyone she loves. Barring that, this film is good.A 3/5 for a good film and it falls a bit short from expectations from a director who gave a greater film on similar lines.