7.5 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Coming back to accomplish the divorce procedure, Ahmad an Iranian man, arrives in Paris after four years to meet his ex-wife and her daughters from her previous marriage. He notices his ex is in a relationship with an Arab named Samir who also has a son and a wife in a coma. The relationship of the older daughter and her mother is in deterioration because the daughter thinks her mother is the cause of Samir's wife comatose state. The affairs get more complicated when the older daughter discloses something heinous she has done.
Starring: Bérénice Bejo, Tahar Rahim, Ali Mosaffa, Pauline Burlet, Elyes AguisForeign | 100% |
Drama | 81% |
Mystery | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
French: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English, English SDH
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
DVD copy
Region A (locked)
Movie | 5.0 | |
Video | 5.0 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Rarely -- or, at least, rarely in cinema -- is divorce a clean break with no major ill effects on the parties involved or their loved ones now forced into a broken home shaped not by love but rather court documents, visiting rights, custody arguments, and both open vitriol and deep-seeded anger, hate, and resentment. Director Asghar Farhadi's (A Separation) The Past follows the story of one woman's pending divorce, the awkwardness the finalization brings, and the revelations that come to light as the mix-and-match family struggles to find meaning and purpose in one of the most convoluted tales of love won and lost and familial dysfunction as a result of divorce that cinema has ever seen. To be blunt, it's a flat-out depressing film, difficult to watch for its dark and complex emotional themes and story details but at the same time a hugely rewarding experience in the prism of film as art. The Past perfectly combines dramatic hardship and cinematic beauty with a faultless vision and presentation. It's the craft at its pinnacle and one of the most enthralling yet challenging depictions of life's complexities ever committed to film.
That awkward moment when...
The Past's 1080p transfer is just as precise and mesmerizing as the movie. Sony's high definition presentation is a marvelous example of the format's visual capabilities, producing a clean, precisely defined, amazingly detailed, and meticulously colored masterpiece of high definition home video. Viewers will be frequently astonished at the realistic definition on display and the ease with which the transfer replicates real life with a cinema flavor. Clothing textures are nothing short of immaculate. Skin details are intimately precise, and accenting details -- wet pavement, worn and chipped paint, brick façades, and vegetation around the backyard -- all enjoy clarity, pinpoint sharpness, and an attention to detail that rises above even the best Blu-ray transfers. Colors are equally satisfying, displaying a striking blend of vibrancy and naturalism in every scene, no matter how bright or dark, interior or exterior, under any condition. Black levels are faultless, skin tones are even, and the image suffers from not a hint of noise, banding, blocking, or any other unsightly negative. This is unquestionably Blu-ray at its best.
The Past features a terrific native French language DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack (English and English SDH subtitles are included) that's every bit as aurally satisfying as the video is visually robust. The film opens with a naturally immersive airport din. Public address announcements, footfalls, chatty visitors, and rolling carts create a symphony of real-life accuracy that dazzles the aural senses immediately and fully. The track's ability to command the listener's attention with precision attention to background and supportive sound effect details does not stop there. Driving rain effortlessly saturates the stage, whether heard in the open or muffled inside a car. Background city ambience is expertly presented as well, placing the listener in the middle of a number of locations throughout the film. There are only a few heavier sound effects that are themselves more supportive, mood-shaping elements than they are fully pronounced and hard-hitting elements. Nevertheless, they play marvelously, including young Fouad's pounding on a closed wooden door in one relatively early scene. Dialogue plays smoothly and evenly from the center. Musical delivery is precise and smooth. This is a rich, fully satisfying, and wholly natural soundtrack from Sony.
The Past contains a quality allotment of extra content. A DVD copy is included in the case.
The Past is a challenging, draining film but also a hugely rewarding watch. Few, if any, pictures have ever tackled so much emotional darkness yet so fully captivated as this. It's a brilliantly assembled and precisely acted tour de force of dramatic cinema, a veritable demonstration of the medium's full capacity as a vehicle for motion art. Viewers will be hard-pressed to find a more intoxicatingly dark and well constructed film. Sony's Blu-ray release of The Past features perfect video and audio. Supplements are rather few in number but very high in quality. The Past earns my highest recommendation.
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