Past Lives

They say that the best kisses, the best loves, the best love stories are those that never happened, those that are idealized and remain in fantasy. Past Lives is that.

It is a beautiful film, very well directed, very mature. The dialogues are fantastic, the resolution, as it should be. The theme is the path, perhaps the theme of the time jumps and the fact that so much happens between one and the other will take you a little off. Beyond that, it is impressive that it is Celine Song's first work. As for the performances, I am far in favor of the character of the husband, very mature and deconstructed, with perhaps the best dialogues and development of the film. The last two scenes, both in the restaurant and the farewell, are by far a delight. Highly recommended.

And first-time director Celine Song has created one of these. It's a masterpiece of deeply genuine human emotion. And that masterpiece is Past Lives.

Song's dialogue is understated to the point of risking not creating a connection with the characters. It would not have worked with sub-par actors. But the risk payed off big time-all of these actors are wonderful, allowing their body language and line delivery fill in the gaps with their characters' true psychology.

A simple plot becomes a richly complex story of lost love, sought closure, and found purpose; and it's all due to Celine Song having the proper understanding of when to allow silence to speak.

Yet despite the frequent bouts of silence, not a moment feels wasted. Every shot and sentence is meticulously edited to give us exactly what we need to feel each moment with its full emotional power.

This very well may be the best film of 2023. It's the work of a master storyteller, and it's only her first film.

I really enjoyed this film. What I love about Oscar season is that I'm encouraged to watch films I normally wouldn't go to (yes I know, I'm one of those people). I think the thing I most enjoyed about this film was the purely naturalistic feel to it. Some may call this mundane but life isn't always like a romance novel. Who can really say they didn't have a connection with someone from their past that they wished they had the option to explore. Things happen in our lives and the natural reaction to that is to wonder what could have been and I love how this film shows these characters exploring that and wanting to hold on to something in their past but also acknowledging that life goes on and you can't always live that fairy tale! How it was shot was also beautiful and I really like what the cinematography team did. This is very much a worthy best film nominee!

Difficult to write too much about this film who offers a nice , large fist of emotions. The story itself is simple and offers minimum surprises. The 1940 decade romance air is honest, clear and, sure, in special sense, comfortable.

It is the story of two friends, from childhood, their lives across decades, their encounter and their choices. Nothing new, at first sight, but the acting is one of precious virtues in this case, like the admirable construction of story , reminding a honey drop.

In short, I have this certitude, it is one of films for who you are grateful to director and chance to see it. And this is the mattering thing, in fact.

Here is a film that looks nothing, offers a beautiful evening, full of sincerity and missed opportunity. Very well played and an irreproachable aesthetic, hard not to be touched by this feeling, that we all knew one day.

The staging fits with the passing of time, we navigate in space as we navigate in our lives, our choices, our hopes and our regrets. There is something very poetic and somewhat tragic in all this and it was difficult for me not to be touched by its final which is as simple as successful.

A film that is as touching as it is just, offering a point of view on expatriation and the roots of feelings, while offering a nice surprise on the veracity of feelings through a life and the choices that result.

Like the characters, I didn't see the time pass...