Review of 2024 Oscar Nominated Past Lives: 'Love Destiny' and the Art of Existence

In a final crossroads of fate, at the end of La La Land, Mia and her husband experience a traffic jam in Los Angeles and decide to take a detour to change their plans. The rhythm of the song attracts her partner, who invites her to continue. It's Club Ciba, the name she suggested to her ex-boyfriend for her jazz venue. She already knows where she's going, and now, five years later, married with a daughter, she sits listening to Sebastian play, while imagining the perfect life she dreamed of for both of them if she hadn't pursued her own accomplishments as an actress. Celine Song's small but wonderful semi-autobiographical work, her first film Past Lives, brings to mind that beautiful epilogue by Damien Chazelle.

But it's also a film with a keen interpretation of Nietzsche's philosophy of meditating on the idea of ​​accepting and embracing everything that happens to us in life, everything that fate has in store for us, including the more difficult aspects, as expression. Power and the affirmation of existence, which philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche explored in his book This Is Man: How One Becomes What One Is, in which fate was not thought of as something imposed by external forces, but rather we were called upon to actively make those choices in our lives. Spirits.

Past Lives is told over the course of more than 24 years starting in Seoul, where the protagonist (Na Young) is a 12-year-old teenager who has a strong love and friendship with Hae-sung, of course, motivated by her parents. But soon the little girl leaves South Korea and immigrates to Canada. This childhood relationship was cut short for 12 years, during which time Song made attempts to find her. Meanwhile, he finished his military service and Nora Moon, as she was now called, moved to New York. One day she discovers on Facebook that Song has been looking for her and they reconnect via video calls while he moves to China to learn Mandarin and she travels to Long Island for a writers' meeting. Fate separates them again for another 12 years, during which Nora marries a writer like herself, Arthur. After all this time, with a career, the time comes for a physical encounter. For the playwright, the story of this film began with the real picture of that meeting (she, her husband, and her first love), the three of them sitting at the bar of a bar.

This film, with many layers, is three films in one, because throughout these years, this character, with a beautiful structure, has been recognized as unique, but different at every stage, a being defined by the multiplicity of cultures, and the environments that surrounded her. And her love and memories that she also recognizes in the other. Nora appreciates and appreciates each and every one of them. On a very simple level, Song says, his film is “about what it means to exist as a person” and how something of yourself is left behind in the places or people you encounter along the way.

The fact that Song is a playwright and that this is a very personal story gives these characters a great level of truth, and also strips them of any drama or judgement; Moreover, this story does not start from the separation of good and evil, nor does it aim to cast a transcendent view. Nora is a representation of Nietzsche's concept of Fate, that idea of ​​accepting, embracing and loving fate as it comes and as part of affirming the will to be able to manage our own existence.

The look that Song weaves on Nora is warm and compassionate, it is the look of someone who has accepted that by choosing one path, you lose another and has learned to live with the decisions made. This is a character so honest and real that, however, he is not exempt from poignant nostalgia and tears, because he is also able to acknowledge and regret (with his controlled lineage) the existence of only one life. Nora, after all, is one of the most beloved characters cinema has produced so far this decade. The same goes for Arthur and Song, as the men will thank this director very much for the way she portrayed them. Celine Song opens a book to look back at the past, dusting off, unlike many films, memories that, although bittersweet, are still enjoyable.

“Past Lives” is far from being a rudimentary film. It is almost perfect (if it is not in fact so) in its narrative and aesthetics, which are not lacking and very little of which remains. It is a film of characters, poetic, philosophical, unforgettable and transcendent, filling the Glances and silences can convey more than a thousand words. The performances of Greta Lee, Teo Yue and John Magaro are exceptional, as is Keith Fraas's editing of To the Wonder (2012) and Knight of Cups (2015).

Note: Another thing about this movie that many things can be said about. The meeting of the three characters and the narrative silence was another real source of inspiration for the artist Marina Abramović with her retrospective performance “The Artist is Present” and a viral moment in which she opens her eyes and discovers that the person sitting in front of her is her ex-husband – the husband of fellow artist Ulay, whom he has not seen for decades. In this visual encounter, silent and unexpected, her eyes fill with tears and everything seems to have been said. Go see it!

data sheet

Director: Celine Song

Screenplay: Celine Song

Duration: 106 minutes

Genre: Drama

Produced by: David Hinojosa, Christine Vachon, Pamela Coover

Starring: Greta Lee, Teo Yu, John Magaro

Music: Christopher Bear, Daniel Rossen

Cinematography: Shabir Kirshner

Editing: Keith Fraas

Country: United States of America

Year: 2023