NEW YORK (AP) ā Ira Sachs never set out to make an NC-17-rated film.
The New York-based, 57-year-old filmmaker of sharply observed independent films ( āLittle Menā ) was compelled to create, as he says, āa film of intimacy.ā āP²¹²õ²õ²¹²µ±š²õ,ā Sachs' ninth feature, would be his first film coming out of the pandemic and he craved a closeness and tenderness that had been missing from both life and American movies.
āI really wanted to make a horny film,ā Sachs said in a recent interview from Spain, where he was receiving an award. āLike, a film that gave pleasure and was about pleasure. And part of that pleasure is about sex but also the pleasure of cinema. Color and light and texture and skin and bodies. Theyāre all these things that cinema can activate different than any other art form.ā
which opens in New York and Los Angeles theaters Friday and expands afterward, stars the heralded young German actor Franz Rogowski as Tomas, a Paris-based filmmaker who recklessly embarks on a romance with a French schoolteacher Agatha (AdĆØle Exarchapoulos), wrecking his relationship with his husband, Martin (Ben Whishaw).
āI had sex with a woman,ā Tomas tells Martin the morning after meeting Agatha in a nightclub. āCan I tell you about it please?"
Tomasā instinctual but reckless actions cause havoc with the hearts of all three. The triangle evolves in fleshy and emotional detail, tracking their evolutions of attraction, love, sex, dependence and exasperation. Desire and passion plays a central role ā most would say a highly realistic one ā in the characters' lives and in the fabric of Sachs' sexy, messy and brutally honest drama.
Though nothing graphic is ever shown, the lingering lovemaking scenes ā particularly one between Tomas and Martin ā led the Motion Picture Association to slap āPassagesā with its highest rating. An NC-17 rating precludes anyone under 17 from being admitted, with or without a parent of guardian. Sachs is highly critical of the decision, calling it homophobic, outdated and disconnected from the essence of his film.
āWhat concerns me is the warning shot a rating like that gives to other filmmaker about what images will be allowed without punishment,ā Sachs says.
āThe censorship of queer images exists from top to bottom,ā he adds. āItās not just the MPA. Itās also what films are financed, what films are supported by festivals, what films get bought, what films get shown. So I think the system is one of limits. And I feel grateful that I was able to make a film outside of those limits.ā
The arthouse distributor , which acquired āPassagesā after its acclaimed premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, rejected the NC-17 label and is instead releasing āPassagesā as āunrated.ā
The MPA says its Classification and Rating Administration simply rates movies based on āwhat happens on screen and how it is depicted."
āThe sexual orientation of a character or characters is not considered as part of the rating process,ā an MPA spokesperson said in a statement.
NC-17 ratings are rarely applied. Last yearās Marilyn Monroe biopic āBlonde,ā on Netflix, for earning such a rating. Some films elect to keep it while others are instead distributed without a rating. Ratings battles can help gin up publicity, but an unrated or NC-17 film is also closed off of screening or advertising in numerous places.
For Sachs, āPassagesā harkens back to an older, mostly European approach to filmmaking. Sachs, son of was born in Memphis, Tennessee but considers French films āmy cousins and my aunts and my uncles.ā While writing āPassagesā he watched Chantel Akermanās āJe Tue Il Elle" (1974), Luchino Viscontiās āThe Innocentā (1976) and Frank Ripplohās āTaxi zum Klo" (1981).
āYou have to go back in time to remember what you have permission to shoot,ā says Sachs.
"We live in a repressed culture,ā the director adds. āYou canāt be fully outside of that culture, but you can remind yourself that there are there are doorways that you can walk through that take you somewhere else.ā
A portal to āPassagesā was Rogowski, the soulful, beguiling screen presence of Christian Petzoldās āTransitā (2018) and Terrence Malickās āA Hidden Life" (2019). After Sachs saw him in Michael Hanekeās āHappy End" (2017), he says, āI was turned on." Sachs wrote āPassagesā with Rogowski in mind.
Sachs, whose 2014 film āLove Is Strangeā starred John Lithgow and Alfred Molina as a longtime couple who decide to wed, often makes films crammed with autobiography. Tomas, he grants, has many similarities with himself. (The film Tomas is shooting is titled āPassages.ā) The overarching theme of Sachs' work, he says, is an attempt to ātake a look at myself and the role I play in life and try to understand the ways in which I can be dangerous to others."
āTomas has a hard time being his own friend and that often makes him not see his partnerās needs or other peopleās boundaries,ā Rogowski says. āOnce I understood that, it was a lot of fun to create all this chaos and inflict so much fictional pain on fictional characters.ā
A key aspect to āP²¹²õ²õ²¹²µ±š²õ,ā Rogowski notes, is its humor. In one memorable sequence ā an all-time meet-the-parents scene ā Tomas returns straight from a night with Martin to Agatha's apartment. He's still wearing a sheer black mesh top when he belatedly sits down to meet Agathaās father and mother.
āItās not just a narcissist causing trouble,ā says Rogowski. āItās also a very funny costume party.ā
Rogowski likewise finds the NC-17 rating absurd. Anyone over the age of 12, he says, knows about sex. āJust have fun on Google for five minutes and you know how it works," he jokes.
āItās weird that you can see brains exploding in action movies but you cannot see two men having sex. Itās absurd to me and also a little bit sad,ā Rogowski adds. āThese ratings to me donāt feel like theyāre protecting younger audiences. To me, they feel like theyāre protecting the values of very old people.ā
Nevertheless, āPassages" is now branded as something illicit and daring despite being, as Sachs says, āa film about real people doing real things.ā But that may be enough to make it exceptional.
āItās a provocation in a certain way,ā says Sachs. "But less because I think Iām doing anything at all radical."
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Jake Coyle, The Associated Press
