I’ve been to that carousel in Brooklyn: walked around the riverfront and had my photo taken in front of the Manhattan backdrop by the person I love. But PAST LIVES felt like a memory long before that scene. It’s so deeply and delicately enmeshed in a sense of time(s) and place(s) that it feels specific, it feels real, it feels like a memory in a way that tears a feeling open inside you. Despite the script’s jabs at the voyeuristic nature of cinema and Arthur’s (John Magaro) self-reflexive monologue about the clichéd story structure, PAST LIVES feels wholly original, wholly new, and wholly real.
Full review available on Cinetopia podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/cinetopia/episodes/September-2023-on-EHFM-reviews-of-FREMONT--PAST-LIVES--EL-CONDE--and-BROTHER-plus-an-interview-with-SMOKE-SAUNA-SITERHOOD-director-Anna-Hints-e29gfma