This week we continue with our look at the 10 films nominated for Oscar in the Best Picture Category. On the menu, this week is a pair of films I called “Alien Relationships”. Okay… That is clickbait. They are not about little green men. We have a pair of foreign language films which technically makes them alien to us in the US.

Hi, this is Chris Young, and welcome to episode 55 of Contemplating Life– Oscar Edition

This week we continue with our look at the 10 films nominated for Oscar in the Best Picture Category. On the menu, this week is a pair of films I called “Alien Relationships”. Okay… That is clickbait. They are not about little green men. We have a pair of foreign language films which technically makes them alien to us in the US.

One of these films I greatly enjoyed. The other one wasn’t bad but I’m not excited about it.

Let’s start with the so-so film and then finish strong.

“Past Lives” is a Korean film about a girl named Na Young and her childhood friend Hae Sung. The story begins in South Korea when the pair are about 11 or 12 years old. Their friendship is about to grow into a budding romance when Na Young’s family decides to immigrate to Canada. Na Young takes the English name Nora. Hae Sung is deeply disappointed to lose his friend. We see brief scenes of Nora arriving in Canada and struggling to fit in at school in this strange new country.

We then fast forward 12 years Nora is now in New York City studying to be a playwright. She comes from a creative family. Her father was a filmmaker and her mother an artist. One day, she decides to start looking up old friends from Korea as she is reminiscing with her mother. She asks, “What was the name of that boy I had a crush on? We went on one date.” Her mother reminds her it was Hae Sung. A quick search reveals that the boy had posted a message on a Facebook page about her father’s films saying that he was looking for the filmmaker’s daughter Na Young.

Hae Sung is now serving in the South Korean army because they have mandatory military service for young men. Nora decides to contact him and they begin a long-distance online relationship which grows rapidly into something quite significant.

Nora is tied up in rehearsals for her play. When Hae Sung completes his military service he enters college to study engineering. Given the time difference between New York and Seoul, their online meetings are often at the wee hours of the night. Eventually, Nora decides they need to take a break from their online video chats. She said she can’t concentrate on her work because she’s constantly thinking about looking up flight schedules to Korea. His studies are suffering as well but it is her decision to pause the relationship.

Once again, Hae Sung feels abandoned by the woman he loves. He accepts her decision only reluctantly.

Shortly thereafter, she attends an artist’s residency program in a rural location where she meets a young American writer named Arthur.

The movie again jumps 12 years and Nora is married to Arthur. We learn little about their life together until late in the movie.

The last half of the movie shows us when Hae Sung travels to New York to visit his now-married old girlfriend. As Nora and her husband are anticipating the visit from her old friend she explains a bit of Korean philosophy to Arthur. She says, “There is a word in Korean. In-Yun. It means “providence” or “fate”. But it’s specifically about relationships between people. I think it comes from Buddhism and reincarnation. It’s an In-Yun if two strangers even walk by each other in the street and their clothes accidentally brush. Because it means there must have been something between them in their past lives. If two people get married, they say it’s because there have been 8,000 layers of In-Yun over 8,000 lifetimes.”

The question the film poses is, “With which of the men in her life does she have the strongest In-Yun?” Is she destined to be with Arthur or with Hae Sung? How much In-Yun did she have with either of these men in a past life or is this just the first of many lives she will live with one or the other of them?

When Hae Sung arrives, he and Nora wander around New York City sightseeing and reminiscing for a couple of days. She then comes home and talks about the experience with her husband and we begin to learn more about their relationship. Arthur notes that this would make a great story in which he was the evil white husband who kept her from her destiny with her childhood sweetheart. She laughs it off but we doubt the strength of her relationship with her husband as we learn more about their history.

I enjoyed the movie but I am not sure it is Oscar-caliber. I found the pace to be extremely slow.

Greta Lee plays the adult Nora. Previously, I very much enjoyed her work as TV executive Stella Bak in the Apple TV+ series “The Morning Show”. Hae Sung is played by Teo Yoo who I have not seen before and his IMDb credits don’t include anything you probably ever saw.

Interestingly enough although both are of Korean descent, Lee was born in the US, and Teo Yoo was born in Germany. He studied at the Lee Strasburg Institute in New York and then moved to Seoul in 2009.

The performances were adequate but nothing extraordinary. I thought that the 40-year-old Greta Lee’s portrayal of the 20-something-year-old version of Nora showed some great acting skills but compared to Lee’s outstanding work in “The Morning Show” overall her performance in this film did not impress me. In interviews both Lee and Teo Yoo have raved about the opportunity to play such characters but it just didn’t do much for me. I suppose if there is any nomination with which I could agree it might be for the screenplay but that is a weak endorsement.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s a nice little story of unrequited love and a marginally interesting exploration of the idea of fate when it comes to relationships.

Those of you who are familiar with my autobiographical episodes of this podcast know about my relationship of unrequited love with my childhood sweetheart Rosie. That includes a reunion with her many years after we parted ways after high school. At that reunion, I got to meet her husband. So there are many parallels between this story and my own life. Yet, I did not feel it triggered any emotions in me. Perhaps I never grew to care much about the characters. I didn’t have the feeling that they were telling “my story” despite the parallels.

I was however moved by the final scene of the film but I can’t tell you how or why without spoiling the ending. At the very end of this episode, I will put a brief epilogue explaining my reaction to the final scene. It will include a huge spoiler warning in front of it in case you want to skip it.

In addition to the Best Picture nomination, Korean-born writer-director Celine Song is nominated for Best Original Screenplay Oscar. She has also been nominated by the Directors Guild for Outstanding Achievement in Directing a First Time Feature Film. Her only other credit on IMDb is as a staff writer for the fantasy series “The Wheel of Time.”

IMDb lists 197 nominations and 68 wins including three BAFTA nominations for Best Film Not in the English Language, Screenplay, and Lead Actor for Teo Yoo.

Also, five Golden Globe nominations for, Best Drama, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Non-English Film, and Greta Lee for Lead Actress in a Drama.

The film opened in June 2023 and has earned nearly $11 million in the US and Canada and over $23 million worldwide.

Is currently available for streaming on Paramount+ with Showtime and available for rent or purchase on Amazon and YouTube.

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Our second film this week is the French film “Anatomy of a Fall”. German actress Sandra Hüller plays a successful novelist named Sandra Voyter. She is married to an unsuccessful writer named Samuel Theis played by Samuel Maleski. I don’t know if it’s a coincidence that the actors share the first names of their characters or if the part was written for them or what. They have an 11-year-old son Daniel who is visually impaired.

Early in the film, Daniel finds his father has fallen from a third-story attic window to his death. The question is, did he fall accidentally? Was this a suicide in which he jumped? Or did Sandra push him out the window?

After some meetings with her lawyer and interviews by the police, the film jumps one year later to a trial in which she is charged with the murder of her husband. The majority of the film is a courtroom drama in which we try to form our own opinion as to what really happened.

The visually impaired boy is the only witness to events and his recollection has varied between interviews with investigators.

Through the testimony in the courtroom, we gradually come to understand the deeply troubled marriage. Sandra is German but had agreed to live in France even though she is not happy there. Samuel is frustrated by his own lack of success and jealous of his wife’s success. One of her most successful books is based on an undeveloped idea that Samuel had. She testified that he agreed to let her develop the story but when it was a big success, it only furthered his sense of failure.

Samuel blames himself for their son’s visual impairment. It was caused by an accident a few years ago. He was supposed to pick up his son after school but forgot. Samuel sent the babysitter to pick up the boy late and as the boy ran to meet her, he was struck by a car. There is tension because Samuel blames himself for the accident. Sandra blamed him but claims to have gotten over it. It is unclear how much the boy blames his father for his condition.

In Samuel’s unsuccessful attempts to come up with a winning story idea, he decided to begin making audio recordings of his everyday life hoping to find inspiration. Sandra was aware of some of these recordings but not aware of a very key recording that was made a few days before his death. Samuel recorded a bitter argument between the two of them unbeknownst to her. The recording was played in open court.

As the audio recording was being played in court, the film shows us the scene as it actually occurred right up until the point when the argument became physical. It then switches back to the courtroom where you can only hear what happened but not actually see the truth. You can hear items crashing and the sound of a physical struggle. We only have Sandra’s testimony as to what was going on during the crashing sounds.

I thought that the scene depicted during the playing of the audio recording was one of the most realistic and believable portrayals I had ever seen of a domestic argument. It was not the usual over-the-top melodramatic shouting match that you typically see depicted in film or TV. It was a pointed conversation between people in a deeply troubled marriage trying to understand each other’s position.

That scene was so well-written that it is the major reason why this film is my favorite screenplay of the year. The rest of the story is quite compelling and well-written as well.

The dialogue is a combination of English and French with English subtitles. In the home, she and her husband spoke English because her French was poor and his German was poor. In the courtroom, the proceedings take place in French however Sandra eventually insists on speaking English and using an interpreter.

I was fascinated by the significantly different courtroom procedures used in France. It is vastly different from what we are accustomed to in American and British courtroom dramas. When a witness is on the stand, the prosecutor and the defense have the opportunity to turn to the defendant and begin questioning them about what the witness just said. The defendant can immediately rebut testimony.

Both the prosecution and defense are given great leeway to expound their theory of the case while questioning a witness. To the extent that American dramas reflect American courtrooms, normally such exposition would be met with an objection, “Is there a question in that statement?” Only once during the proceedings did the judge admonish the defense attorney to “Save it for your closing arguments.” American court proceedings seem to be totally limited to a question-and-answer format except for the opening and closing statements yet in this courtroom, the attorneys had much leeway to argue their case.

I have no idea how accurate was this depiction of French courtroom procedure. Nor do I know how accurate American TV and film dramas depict our actual courtroom procedures. My only experience of real courtroom proceedings was the hours I wasted watching the O.J. Simpson trial which could hardly be construed as an ordinary proceeding.

Throughout the film, as my opinion wavered back and forth as to Sandra’s guilt or innocence, I was worried that the film would end with us not knowing what really happened. For now, I will say I was initially satisfied with the ending but upon further review, I had some doubts. I won’t explain that because it would spoil too much. See the spoilers section at the end of this episode only if you have seen the film.

None of the cast were familiar to me. Their credits are all French and German films Sandra Hüller gives an outstanding performance which has earned her lead actress nominations for both Oscar and Golden Globes. Note that she also stars in the nominated film “The Zone of Interest” but that is the one film that I’ve not yet been able to see. I’m really looking forward to her performance there even though it did not receive any acting nominations. I’m a bit surprised she did not receive a SAG nomination.

In addition to the Best Picture nomination, writer-director Justine Triet is nominated as Best Director and along with co-author Arthur Harari is nominated for Best Original Screenplay. The film has earned 7 BAFTA nominations. The film was awarded the prestigious Palme d’Or which is the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival. The boy’s service dog was also awarded the Palme Dog at Cannes – seriously that sounds like a joke I made up but there really is such an award. Who knew? It also has an Oscar nomination for Film Editing for which I have no opinion. IMDb lists 191 total nominations and 66 wins.

It opened in August in France and October in the US. On an estimated budget of $6.6 million, it has earned $4.5 million in the US and Canada and nearly $28 million worldwide.

This was my second favorite nominated film this year and tied with “American Fiction” for my favorite screenplay. I highly recommend it. It is still being shown in theaters and is available to rent or purchase on Amazon Prime and YouTube.

Next week, I will review the hit film Barbie and another film closely related to it. Guess what… I’m not talking about Oppenheimer! Tune in next week to find out. Stay tuned after my typical acknowledgments and closing remarks for some spoiler-filled comments about this week’s films.

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I will see you next week as we continue contemplating life. Until then, fly safe everyone.

Okay, here we go with the spoilers. Do not proceed unless you’ve seen the movie or don’t care if the endings are spoiled.

I said that “Past Lives” should have resonated with me more because I was much like Hae Sung who had an ongoing crush on his junior high school sweetheart Rosie. Like Hae Sung, many years after Rosie and I parted ways I had the opportunity to see her again and to meet her new husband. There was only one part of that parallel to my life that touched me emotionally. At the end of the film, Nora bids farewell to her visiting childhood friend, walks back to her apartment, hugs her husband, and begins sobbing uncontrollably.

If you’ve heard my Episode 22 in which I read my award-winning story “The Reunion” you will know that after bidding farewell to Rosie, her husband, and the school where we spent our teen years, I cried all the way home. But I never thought about what Rosie’s reaction might have been. I wondered if she went home, hugged her husband, and cried as well.

Let’s talk about the ending of “Anatomy of a Fall.” The boy Daniel returns to the witness stand after hearing of all the turmoil between his parents which was played out in open court. Among the things he discovered was that Sandra claimed that at one point, she had found Samuel unconscious and he had vomited up a large amount of aspirin which she claimed was a failed suicide attempt. This bolstered her claim that the fall from the third-story window was a successful suicide attempt and she did not murder her husband.

The boy recalled that his dog got sick at about that time and had to be taken to the vet. He concluded that the dog had eaten some of his father’s vomit before Sandra discovered him unconscious. The boy deliberately gave his dog an overdose of aspirin to see if it reacted the same way. It did. This led him to conclude that his father really had attempted suicide. There was still the possibility however that Sandra had given Samuel the overdose.

The boy then relates a story about a conversation he had with his father on the way to the vet with the dog. The father was explaining that the dog had been loyal and served him well but he needed to prepare for the fact that someday the dog would no longer be with him. It was obvious to us the audience and to Daniel that Samuel was really talking about the day when his father would no longer be there. Daniel concluded that his father was preparing him for the day when he might be successful in his suicide attempt.

Based on Daniel’s testimony, the jury believed it and acquitted Sandra.

I was pleasantly surprised that the ending was unambiguous. At least I felt that way for a time.

Shortly after seeing the film, I read a review by Adam-Troy Castro who is a famous science fiction and horror author. He publishes a brief movie review on his free Patreon page every day. His review of the film convinced me to rethink the ending and now I’m not so sure my initial assessment was correct.

When Daniel and his mother are reunited after the trial, it is an awkward reunion. One might have expected that Sandra would thank her son for “telling the truth”. But that did not happen. It leaves you wondering. Did Daniel make up the story about his father trying to prepare him for the day when he would be gone? Did he lie to save his mother? If he did lie, was it simply to avoid the loss of both parents? Was he sympathetic to her that she suffered an unhappy marriage? Did Daniel blame his father for his blindness?

That kind of ambiguity which can at one moment make you believe one version of events and then again make you doubt them indicates a very cleverly crafted piece of writing.

It would’ve been disappointing if the film simply left you hanging without an opinion one way or the other of what really happened. But this clever bit of storytelling gave you a simple explanation but hinted that there might be a different conclusion. So I was not at all disappointed by the ambiguity. Rather, I was intrigued by it.

Okay. that’s it for our spoiler cast. See you next week as we continue Contemplating Life. Fly safe everyone.