trailer, plot and cast of the film by Ira Sachs

From August 17 in theaters with MUBI and Lucky Red, a new film by Ira Sachs, Passages, which had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival and presented at the Berlin Film Festival. The events of the film “Passages”, which takes place in modern Paris, depict the ongoing struggle of desires between three people, where happiness is simply unattainable. With beautiful cinematography and honest, subtle acting, Sachs has created an intimate drama that explores the complexities, contradictions, and cruelty of love and desire.

Passages – Plot and cast

Official plot: After completing his latest project, director Thomas (Franz Rogowski) impulsively strikes up a tense relationship with a young teacher, Agatha (Adele Exarchopoulos). For Thomas, the novelty of being with a woman is an exciting experience that he longs to immerse himself in despite his marriage to Martin (Ben Whishaw). When Martin also begins an extramarital affair, a sullen Thomas turns his attention back to her husband.

Along with Ben Whishaw (Skyfall, Paddington, Women Talking), Franz Rogowski (The Great Liberty, The Writer’s Woman, Victoria) and Cannes Palme d’Or winner Adele Exarchopoulos (The Life of Adele ”, “Five Devils”) cast, which also includes Erwan Kepoa Fale, Arkadi Radeff, Lea Boublil, Theo Sholbi, William Nadilam, Tony Dowd, Sarah Lisbonis, Anton Salachas and Thibaut Cartero.

Walkways – Trailers and Videos

Official Italian trailer released on August 3, 2023

Clips and commercials in official Italian published on August 10, 2023

New official TV spot in Italian released on August 14, 2023

A little about the film

• Directed by Ira Sachs (Frankie, Tones of Love – Love is Strange, Keep the Lights On) written by Ira Sachs and Mauricio Zacharias (Frankie, Tones of Love – Love is Strange, Keep the Lights On) ) with additional dialogue by Arlette Langmann (“Wild Innocence”, “Jealousy”, “Salt of Tears”).
• Passages is produced by Said Ben Said (Elle, Bacurau) and Michel Merkt (Meet Toni Erdmann).
• In the film, you can hear the song “Won’t You Buy My Sweet Blooming Lavender” by Janet Penfold and performed by actor Franz Rogowski.

Ira Sachs – Biographical Notes

Ira Sachs was born in 1965 in Memphis, Tennessee. His filmography includes Frankie, little men (Grand Prize, Deauville American Film Festival 2016) Tones of love – Love is strange, Keep the lights on (Teddy Award, Berlinale 2012), forty shades of blue

(Grand Jury Drama Prize, Sundance, 2005) and his first feature film Delta. A 2013 Guggenheim Fellow, Sacks is also the founding director of Queer|Art, an organization that supports LGBTQ+ artists in film, live performance, literature, and the visual arts. Today Sax lives in Quito, Ecuador with her artist husband Boris Torres, their two children, Viva and Felix, and their children’s mothers, Tabitha Jackson and Kirsten Johnson.

Interview with director

After Frankie and before Brooklyn Village, Love is Strange and Keep the Lights On, you find your screenwriter Mauricio Zaharias for your fifth collaboration: can you tell us about it in Passages and the film’s origins?

Passages was born after a period of thinking about what the future of cinema would look like and realizing that I wanted to make a film that would return to what I loved most passionately and deeply about cinema. And so I made this film for myself and for an audience that shares this interest in intimacy with me, and these films that show what life is like for people at any given moment. So this is first and foremost a film about the present. And this is a film about transition. I tried to make a film where in every scene you never know what will happen next, where everything is possible. There is a level of uncertainty that reflects my life experience at the time. Also, I was also coming out of a period of American history where I felt dominated by a powerful politician, and this film was, in a way, a reaction to that sense of loss of power, a film in which I tried to reflect on what it was. means to have power, that even people with power have vulnerabilities and weaknesses. And finally, Mauricio and I wanted to tell a love story, something we haven’t done in a long time, something important for us. And we wanted to make a film with these three actors. This film is a fiction about real people played by real people.

We find in Passages some of your favorite themes, such as intimacy, space, the cost of things, in this case during separation. But we also get the impression that this time around you are going back to your first films like Delta or 40 Shades of Blue with this love triangle, this balance between cinema of observation and feeling and something more narrative.

I actually went back to how I made films in my early years, hoping that the narrative would emerge from observation. As I said, every scene is an action, an event. I tried to create a kind of cinema of the moment. I liked this strategy, and at the same time, the way I do my art, I think, has become sharper than it was thirty years ago, and therefore I felt free: I knew what I was doing. And I think it comes with age and experience.

How did you choose Franz Rogowski and how did you work with him on the character of Thomas?

I thought of James Cagney as an actor in his presence, someone who wasn’t afraid to be bad, to misbehave, and we talked a lot about that with Franz. It’s also interesting to watch an anti-hero. Cagney was my kind of guarantee to Franz that he didn’t have to worry about how to behave, that I would make sure the result was pleasant. Franz, I saw it in Michael Haneke’s “Happy End” and especially in the karaoke scene. It’s a scene full of life, danger, beauty, very physical. Franz is an animal. And act like an animal. He is a purely physical actor, interested in choreography. In that sense, he is a purely cinematic being.

The character, played by Adele Exarchopoulos, is in danger of disappearing inside the triangle, which has already happened between screen and off-screen in Low Cost Generation. She is both absent and very present in the film, a vector of intimacy, like when she sings Le Temps des Cerises, the iconic one. Can you tell us about her?

I liked the Low Cost generation! I discovered Adele in The Sibyl Labyrinths of Women and her presence immediately made me feel connected to her. She is an amazing talent and actress. She never feels bad, because she always remains herself. She reminds me of Jeanne Moreau no less than Bardot, who is not just a body on the screen, she has a depth, a presence in the story. And I think Adele has that presence too, she brings conflict to the screen.

And Ben Whishaw?

Well, for me it’s here first and foremost thanks to Todd Haynes “I’m Not Here”. After fifteen minutes of everyone playing Dylan, I thought to myself, I want a whole movie with each of them. Ben has a mystery, a complexity that shows up during filming in unexpected ways. He is not one of those who are looking for an understanding of character in words, everything is inside. Without being academic, his craftsmanship is top notch.

Will you return to the US after Passages to shoot your next film? What do you think of the production conditions there at the moment compared to your experience here?

During the pandemic, I thought it was over. There were so many deaths in our heads and in our lives that I thought the cinema I loved was dead. Now I think about it less, there is a revival, spring, more opportunities. But right now and at this level, I personally am extremely grateful to Said Ben Said for giving me a new chance and remaking the film with me, for his continued passion for cinema, which we all love and want to keep watching. For an American director who wants to go on an adventure with you and take financial risks, this is something else. I am currently working on a film about the final months of the musician Arthur Russell, set in New York, at the same time as a short film about photographer Peter Hujar, also set in New York. After that, whether I shoot them in New York or not is another matter…

Passages – Photos and Posters