Tropic Sprockets / Passages

Tropic Sprockets / Passages

By Ian Brockway

From the always honest filmmaker Ira Sachs, “Passages” is yet another engrossing, compelling andunsettling film to add to his repertoire. Spare and unsparing, this is unvarnished and authentic craftsmanship with not a shot out of place. [Check Tropiccinema.com for showtimes and trailer.]

Tomas (Franz Rogowski) is a perfectionist director who is content and married to Martin (Ben Wishaw) a British printer.

During a party, Tomas and Martin have a slight disagreement causing Tomas to dance by himself. An effervescent woman Agathe (Adele Exarchopoulos) dances with him. As if hypnotized and controlled by pheromones, Thomas falls under the spell of Agathe, and they quickly engage in deep kissing. Tomas spends the night with her. The next day Tomas feels guilt and resolves to tell Martin. Martin is horrified and puts up a barrier.

Tomas continues the relationship with increasing intensity, telling Agathe that he is falling in love. Agathe is greatly buoyed by the news.

Martin is not.

Tomas moves in with Agathe yet takes great pains to tell Martin not to sell their apartment. Days pass. Tomas tells Martin that Agathe is pregnant, but at the same time Tomas emphasizes that he is in love with Martin.

It becomes clear that Tomas is obsessed with being in control and having everyone like him.

Martin wants none of it and tells Tomas to stay away in no uncertain terms. Tomas, his face stricken and pale, is someone in the throes of addiction.

This is a punchy and raw film that clearly shows love and lust as a potent drug. The distinction between the two emotional states quickly blurs.

Alfred Hitchcock once said that he views lovemaking as a murder scene and this film exemplifies that concept.

All actors are terrific, yet it is Franz Rogowski alone who possesses an eerie otherworldly quality. He is both menacing and vulnerable, sensitive to the point of real pain and the actor does not disappoint.

This is a film that doesn’t shy away from the push and pulls of attraction and its supernatural magnetism.

The last scene alone showing Tomas recklessly race through the busy Paris streets paying no heed to the oncoming traffic will fill you with a kind of hectic dread.

Write Ian at [email protected]

[livemarket market_name="KONK Life LiveMarket" limit=3 category=“” show_signup=0 show_more=0]