Breathe
By Susana Moscatel
Film and television awards season officially begins with this year, and with it a series of discussions that sometimes have to do with our appreciation for the art, sometimes with what some automatically call "the agenda woke," and sometimes simply with the joy of seeing wonderfully talented women celebrating what some would call "a comeback," but what I prefer to call "splendor!
Let's start with that, shall we? Because Demi Moore's triumph and speech at her well-deserved success in The Substance literally demonstrate that our greatest achievements and joys don't come with the arbitrary timings imposed by the outside world. That's precisely what the film is about: how we fall into those traps. And seeing Demi looking more fantastic than ever, grateful for the first acting award of her career, gives a new act to the whole story of French Coralie Fargeat, which ends on a beautifully optimistic and inspirational note.
The same goes for the hit TV sitcom Hacks (Max), where Jean Smart, one of the funniest and most versatile women in television history, plays Deborah Vance, someone whom the industry and life had all but written off because of her age. If you haven't seen her, run out and do so from her first season. You'll thank me. And while Pamela Anderson didn't win, the fact that she was nominated for The Last Showgirl (Gia Coppola) proves that it's never too late to step outside the box in which the world, the public and society have dictated we can exist.
With that said, a few things to comment on the Emilia Perez controversies. I asked the women in this collective of editorialists who had already seen the film and what was their opinion. Few of us Mexicans have been able to see it because it simply hasn't been released here, unlike much of the world that already has it on Netflix. So the controversies, for the most part, have had to do with basic nonsense, such as Eugenio Derbez vs. Selena Gomez (never Eugenio's intention, although I agree with the criticism he made in a podcast about it).
I will say this to get it out of the discourse: if someone judges or criticizes Emilia Pérez because of the identity of its protagonist, actress or character, then there is nothing to discuss here. We have to overcome the instinct to attack or disqualify something because it does not coincide with the way one knows oneself to be. On the other hand, neither can we accept that criticism of the film is automatically reduced to transphobia. The strong, real and interesting criticisms -and hopefully conversations- that we could have about this film have more to do with the implausibility of a director who does not speak Spanish (and it shows), who did not hire Mexican women for the roles, with the variety of accents that immediately take away from the narrative, and with the possibility of redemption that is offered, or not, to the figure of the drug dealer who decides to change his life by disappearing, becoming a woman and returning to do the opposite of what he had done before.
It is difficult to explain why so many of us who have seen the film and live in Mexico don't like it at all, without giving too many spoilers. Many are offended because it doesn't represent Jacques Audiard's vision at all. I am not offended by that. It doesn't represent me, that's all. I'm offended, to begin with, that they consider it a musical with those songs that say truisms without tone, sound or rhyme. But that offends me as a lover of musicals, not as a Mexican. So I took a leap and looked for other opinions so as not to remain in my perspective, which, as it usually is with most people, is also informed by our own philias and phobias.
I love the reviews of colleagues like Yuriria Sierra (Excélsior), who speaks of a mirror of our reality that would hurt us too much to be able to approach it in this way. Or the text by Ana María Olabuenaga (Milenio), who sees hope in the character's journey in the face of the most tragic realities of our country. I would like to share that vision and maybe someday I will get there, if I can shake off the inconsistencies in the narrative that don't let me connect with what the director is trying to say. Or what I talked with Areli Paz, who finds value in the discomfort that the film provokes because it forces us to face horror head on, something we avoid every day in order to survive.
I am part of the system that judges and votes for these films. I have been working in film, television and theater for almost thirty years, and I have tried to distinguish between honest works and those that respond to a political agenda. I don't know what the director's intention was in making this film, not even noticing that his film is a Tower of Babel of outrageously absurd accents and dialogue. But I struggle to find honesty in his narrative. When I read Greta Padilla say that the whole film sounds as if everything had gone through Google Translate, I understood that it wasn't just me who felt an absolute disdain for respecting the reality that is approached with so little care. And yes, it also offended me as a translator.
I don't mind extreme interpretations of delicate subjects. Perfect case: The Substance. I love that film, even though I had to cover my eyes in many scenes to finish it. And it was worth it. As for Emilia Perez, it matters to me that the discomfort she provokes has nothing to do with whether I like her or not, but with the disregard for reality she uses to fulfill the requirements of the ideological warfare that quietly dominates award ceremonies today.
Art should be free, and if this film provokes so many emotions, we must accept that at least it achieved that. But when it is said with honesty: "I didn't like this because it was dissonant, because it takes me out of the story or because it uses the tragedy of so many to show off with it", it would be desirable that the response of the creators and its protagonist were not absolute disqualifications based on extraneous and delicate issues. I insist: transphobic criticism should be pointed out and rejected. But when the problem is another, do not divert attention to that mill that only makes us understand each other less.
Many people have liked Emilia Perez, and I'm glad it's finally being released in Mexico so that everyone can decide for themselves. Meanwhile, all this has ended up in the political pendulum debate, like so many other things: if you criticize something, something that has already won four Golden Globes, it must be because you are a being full of hate. And if you liked it, it is because you are prey to woke ideology. No. Emilia Perez should be sung like the rarity she is. And if the story works for them, I envy them, because I haven't made it.
The opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors and are absolutely independent of the position and editorial line of the company. Opinion 51.
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