Dear Shaded Viewers
¿ De que hablamos hoy y ahora ?
(What are we going to talk here and now?)
This is the first line of the first song of Emilia Perez. The latest movie of French Director Jacques Audiard : A drama about a Mexican drug kingpin who wants to become the woman she always wanted to be. There’s also a twist : it’s a musical. A lot has been said since his the numerous standing ovations since last May in Cannes. The movies has been seen by Diane and ASVOF Friend Fabrizio from Mexico, last summer, with an exclusive Q&A with Audiard, Camille and Clement Ducol. We are satisfied but we are going to tell you how film is innovative in several aspects.
First, it’s how the main subject us treated : Transidentity. You will not see a movie where Transidentity is felt like a drama nor one where trans woman is a fetishized. The point of the movie is that if you allow LGBT to align the inside with the outside… they bloom ! Audiard flesh out a chapter of Boris Razon’s novel Ecoute. Where the repented cartel drug dealer is a secondary character. However Jacques Audiard wanted it to be a tragical love story like West Side Story. But two issues emerged, he did not find the scenario fluid with two characters in their mid 20s. Also he struggled to cast a transgender actress to play Emilia. Some women were struggling in their daily life. Others were concerned about their apparences because they were in the process.
Then, one day a radiant woman passes the door : Karla Sofia Gascon. Emilia Perez is her first role after her transition. She had an established career before, but now she will have a career after. She understood Audiard’s acting direction by letting her vulnerability be on screen. Gascón managed to add small clumsiness in her screen presence. That makes us realise that a trans woman is a normal woman. The scene where she tries to find the pitch of her voice is a touching moment. Moreover she brings the fluidity of her authentic life experience. She played also Emilia before transition : Drug dealer Manitas, that is in fact a broken man. Also, she is very spontaneous in the second part of the movie, when Emilia Perez will try to reunit her family. Just like in her real life, because Gascon still lives with her spouse and teenage daughter.
Then, the montage of the movie is also breaking clichés. As we mentioned earlier, Emilia Perez is a musical. “I made one because I don’t like them” says Audiard. No one is better than a French to do so because french loathes musicals (except Jacques Demy’s and Starmania). At the end his audacity paid ! Songs and dance enhance dramaturgy. When Rita, the lawyer helping Emilia (Zoé Saldana) persuades Dr Wasserman (Mark Ivanir) to operate her, they start singing a capella in the middle of the conversation. They sing with their real voices the song Lady which finished on bright violin notes. In less than 3 minutes everybody would be defintely conviced to use the right prounouns towards trans woman.
This approach was made possible with a couple : Camille and Clément Ducol. They’re adapted themselves to the script. They even composed song on the set, when they didnt expect at first. The result is outstanding. Their tunes are also with multiple genres They handle clapping Hands so well that it makes the viewer gasp. When Manitas (Karla Sofia Gascón) does it before revealing his secret to Rita . Pop, Rock, Symphonic to conclude on a massive adaptation of Les Passantes sung by the dignified singer and actress Adriana Paz . The original song is from Georges Brassens, besides it’s a full circle moment because he wrote that song on a tune heard during a trip in 1962 in Cuba.
Another creator gives a psychological depth to the movie : Damien Jalet. After his two cinematic collaboration (Guadargino’s Suspiria in 2018, Anderson’s Anima in 2019) he outpass himself making 7 danses scenes. He makes you see, raw, instinctive beastly mouvements with his signature panting. The Bienvenida scene is unexpected. However the climatic moment is the gala scene. Rita performs the song El Mal twirling furiously around polticians, revealing their secrets. Jalet reveals the diversity of his style by giving Saldana minutious indications rapidly executed, in order to call out the corrupted guests. Special mention to him having choreographied 150 extras who reacts to Rita in an half day shooting section. Even if he gives them precise and photogenic body language, Jalet’s choreographies are a storm shaking every part of the character. Their struggles becomes completely understandable, even when they have unexpected dark humor.
What is also exceptional in that complete work of art, is that an another man shaped strongly the identity of the movie. Anthony Vaccarello for Saint Laurent. His costumes are the best of the latest years. You can globally see dark colors, discreet motives and fluid suits. That approach puts out the stereotypes of genders. With those costumes, the women become determined heroes to fight for their rights, even with their flaunts.
The cast were acclamated at the last NYFF edition. They’ve also been ordered Knights of Arts and Letters by french ambassador Mohamed Bouabdallah. The path to the Oscars seems clear. Let’s hope that Macron will give a mexican parade on the Champs Elysees if they earn it.
Later,
Mael Heinz
