Emilia Pérez (Jacques Audiard, 2024)

[RPG]

...because if you just work hard, you can achieve anything?

I would say that's the opposite of the point Audiard was trying to make, but also he didn't appear to try too hard because the idea of racial inequality was abruptly dropped after the prologue.

[The Curious Sofa]

It's one throwaway line in a musical number, it doesn't have to become a film about race only because racial inequality is briefly acknowledged (while not confirmed by any action). If you want to talk about race, why is the black actress in the lead role getting sidelined in terms of awards recognition and publicity in favor of a white trans-actress who has the secondary role?

[therewillbeblus]

Probably because the title is her name

[The Curious Sofa]

Probably because the title is her name

That's it though, a title character is not the same as the lead character. Hitchcock's Rebecca is ever-present in the film, but doesn't ever appear in it. Emilia Perez is absent for stretches of the film, while it is entirely told from the POV of Rita who is pretty much in every scene.

[therewillbeblus]

Oh I agree, I just actually think that's a reason, stupid as it is. The other is that the narrative is all in service of the title character - with other characters engaging and reacting to activity where she's at the center. Also not a great reason.

[reaky]

Tickled to learn that Mexico has now volleyed back the lob of Emilia Perez with Johanne Sacrebleu. Apparently it’s “a film about France made in Mexico, and only starring Mexican performers. It tells the story of a trans woman who is an heiress to the biggest baguette producer in France and who falls in love with Agtugo Ratatouille, the trans heir to the biggest croissant company in France.”https://www.thepinknews.com/2025/01/27/ ... lia-perez/

[RPG]

It's one throwaway line in a musical number, it doesn't have to become a film about race only because racial inequality is briefly acknowledged (while not confirmed by any action). If you want to talk about race, why is the black actress in the lead role getting sidelined in terms of awards recognition and publicity in favor of a white trans-actress who has the secondary role?

It's not a throwaway line. (There are two, BTW. The big ass line is another.) That entire song is about how she's going to take a chance on this mystery opportunity because she'll never get one in the corporate world due to the fact that she's a black woman. We see this even at the beginning, before the song, in which she's clearly the brains behind the team but is stuck writing the arguments, the ideas of which are against her better judgment, and the white male lawyer fumbles his way through it but is still the one who gets the credit. It's not just racial inequality, it's a combination of racial and gender inequality, and it's the primary purpose of the prologue.

The black actress in the lead role is being campaigned in the Best Supporting Actress category because they want her to win (as she did at the Golden Globes), and she'd be a big underdog against Mikey Madison and Demi Moore. It's a disingenuous campaign because you're right, she is the lead in this film.

[The Curious Sofa]

Audiard has already made a whole film about this, which I recommended earlier in this thread. Read My Lips is about a disabled woman who can't get ahead in a male-dominated corporate environment and like Saldana's Rita, teams up with a criminal.

Given that this is not Emilia Pérez's main theme and has been covered in so many films and TV shows, I don't think it needs to be dwelt on.

[The Curious Sofa]

I like Marina Hyde's take on the backlash:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... rogressive

I've been struck by how publicly her director and co-star have thrown Gascón under the bus in order to save their bacon. It's ironic that this is a film about a cartel leader, presumably responsible for the murder and torture of others, who finds redemption after her transition, meaning she has to never face justice. But Karla Sofía Gascón is now in cancel-jail for committing the cardinal sin of saying the wrong thing on the internet some time ago when she herself was at least in the middle of her transition.

[tenia]

I may be wrong, but I think this may have to do with how numerous the tweets were, how long a period they're covering (some were from 2016, some from 2023), how many different populations they aimed at, and how extremely straightforward they were.
There definitely are cases where it's a matter of "let's talk about this" and then, there are dozens of explicitly xenophobic posts published over several years up to very recently that makes it seem like we're way past a discussion.

[The Narrator Returns]

Also that is in no way how hormones work, unless I got the kind that makes me more in touch with my emotions and she got the kind that makes you tweet a racist essay a day for seven years.

[Matt]

Kind of like the Roseanne Barr Ambien excuse for her racist tweets. I've never posted racist tweets on Ambien, I just buy shit on Amazon that I forget about.

[spectre]

I know this is a very quaint opinion in this day and age, and that the Oscars have probably never actually worked like this, but imagine if these awards were judged on the actual strength of the performance rather than the character of the individual, or people's perceptions thereof.

[therewillbeblus]

Kind of like the Roseanne Barr Ambien excuse for her racist tweets. I've never posted racist tweets on Ambien, I just buy shit on Amazon that I forget about.

I never liked the Trevor Noah Daily Show, but this is great

[The Curious Sofa]

I know this is a very quaint opinion in this day and age, and that the Oscars have probably never actually worked like this, but imagine if these awards were judged on the actual strength of the performance rather than the character of the individual, or people's perceptions thereof.

Indeed, and I also think that should be the real reason why Gascón shouldn't win Best Actress, rather than for her politics. It's merely a decent performance by an actress who isn't even the lead in the film, while the actual lead actress gave a better performance.

If the Academy ever wants to award an actress who is trans on merit alone, I'm pinning my hopes on Hunter Schafer, who seems to be on her way to becoming a star with the talent to back it up.

[tehthomas]

Controversy aside, I thought Emilia Perez sorta worked. The story is absolutely preposterous, but I have never watched a movie like this... for better or worse. I liked some of the songs. It didn't feel in-authentically Mexican to me... whatever that means.

[beamish14]

Controversy aside, I thought Emilia Perez sorta worked. The story is absolutely preposterous, but I have never watched a movie like this... for better or worse. I liked some of the songs. It didn't feel in-authentically Mexican to me... whatever that means.

“El Mal” is an incredible song, and easily the highlight of the film

[jbeall]

Controversy aside, I thought Emilia Perez sorta worked. The story is absolutely preposterous, but I have never watched a movie like this... for better or worse. I liked some of the songs. It didn't feel in-authentically Mexican to me... whatever that means.

Same. Musicals are generally a priori preposterous, and I guess that's why I don't share some of the more heated objections to the film, even as I (think I) understand where they're coming from. I haven't watched every musical ever, but I cannot recall a musical that felt "authentically" anything other than perhaps fun.

This is not to say that I dislike musicals—far from it!—but authenticity was never the point.

To put it another way: most musicals IMO operate in either a sentimental and/or melodramatic mode, rather than the mode I typically associate with authenticity, i.e. realism. Certainly, I'm open to criticisms of realism as an inherently more "authentic" mode of representation, but that's beside the point: I'm skeptical of the claim that Emilia Perez is even attempting to be authentic, rather than yet another Audiard-ian exercise in genre-blending.

(I hope this makes sense. I've been trying to type this for 45 minutes, but an unruly foster puppy refuses to let me concentrate.)

[erok910]

I don't want to fall in line with previous posters as it may seem out of randomness, but I really agree with a certain sentiment concerning musicals in relation to this film. Musicals, nor the movie, are really my thing. But I heard a James Grey quote today from an interview with Elvis Mitchell on 'The Immigrant' that made me think about some of this; he said something to the effect that opera is not cynical and post-modernism doesn't fit with it- whichever way you prefer in viewpoint of the world.

This made me think about the last few posts on Emilia Perez, I just don't understand the vitriol. It's not specifically cynical, and it kinda fits with Jacques Audiards films. He's a weird guy, I don't expect what he would do because I wouldn't know or understand much anyway. I'm not trying to reduce criticism of the work, I understand- as I said, it's not really my cup of tea. But it feels like there's an outrage concerning authenticity that reminds me of Andrew Dominik having to explain to an interviewer (on Blonde press tour) that movies are not real, they're always fiction, documentary or not, etc.. Meh, I understand the vitriol if you start taking the thing too seriously, but I guess I don't see enough of the 'point' people think it is making to provoke a colorful response. Perez is pretty damn consistent with what it is from beginning to end in any case, IMO obviously. (And I don't think marketing or anything like that got in the way.)

But hey, I guess people hate it online and dig it in critics circles? I just don't understand the hype on this kind of stuff sometimes. Having said that I never really talked about the movie- I dug the stylistic flourishes and I dug that it stuck to the story it started with. It was weird and interesting, acting was alright. I liked how the ending and the movie became explosive, actual no pun intended. I preferred his last (Sisters Brothers) but I also much prefer A Prophet and Rust & Bone. Apologies on English.

[knives]

Grey, as usual, is wrong as evidenced by the many cynical, ironic, and even post modern operas, operettas, and other musicals.

[The Curious Sofa]

Blanket claims that musicals can't be post-modern, cynical or anything other than "fun" are bound to fail if you dig a little deeper. Stephen Sondheim's work has often been considered post-modern, Bob Fosse's autobiographical All That Jazz, a musical about a heart attack, is quite cynical (and one of the most authentic films about show business), and even in the 50s there were musicals about dysfunctional and abusive relationships, like Cukor's A Star is Born or Vidor's Love Me or Leave Me, that weren't just fun.

That said, I don't think Emilia Pérez was ever intended to be a film to be taken too seriously, and the choice of making it a musical speaks to that.

[erok910]

I understand, apologies if sounded certain way. I definitely didn't mean to make any blanket statement. I thought Greys was a statement in the way of music being used unironically and where it works. But his was definitely about opera and not musicals, dont want to conflate those here in any case.

[reaky]

Grey, as usual, is wrong as evidenced by the many cynical, ironic, and even post modern operas, operettas, and other musicals.

Not to mention the work of Dennis Potter

[erok910]

Really not comfortable with this without providing the quote, horrible or no! "When you see opera, part of the thing that strikes me that is so beautiful is there's a total sincerity to good opera. There's no pretense about reality.. there's no cynicism at all, no ironic distance it's almost like the postmodern movement has left opera behind completely. Or opera has left post modernism behind.." Its not in the same context, but now- i admit the context is losing me. He also went on to distinguish good from bad opera, whatever that works to in opinion.

I thought Emilia Perez tried to be its own thing, which is cool. But I don't expect musicals to operate the way I wish them to, similarly I wouldn't wish any movie to particularly operate the way I wish them to. Weird movie, weird guy, cool stuff, confused by outrage. If we get into politics of it I might get more confused- seems like the guy was going for a more fantasy myth of sorts.

[Mr Sausage]

Is he talking about operas actually from the post-modern period, or is he just talking about classical operas? If it’s the latter, his point is daft.