“Emilia Pérez,” directed by Jacques Audiard, defies genres and categorization. Even though it is based on Audiard’s opera libretto, loosely adapted from Boris Razon’s 2018 novel “Écoute,” it’s not precisely opera. The Spanish-language film abounds with energetic songs, music, and percussive dance numbers, but isn’t quite a musical. It’s certainly not a straight film with its sometimes otherworldly approach, yet it does have a linear narrative.
What “Emilia Pérez” is not is quite like anything you have seen before — and it is most certainly intriguing.
The film will play at the M.V. Film Center several times, starting on Nov. 1. It opens with the frustrated, underappreciated young criminal lawyer, Rita Mora Castro (Zoe Saldana), stuck in a dead-end job. Her big break comes when the large, fearsome hunk of man Juan (“Manitas”) Del Monte — a Mexican cartel leader (Karla Sofía Gascón) — comes to her with a proposition. He will make Rita rich beyond her wildest imagination if she helps him fake his death and reach his heart’s desire … to become the woman he has always dreamed of.
One of the film’s impressive scenes is the paradox when Manitas sings to Rita about why he, a strong man on top of his world, wants to change gender. He has everything — money, power, influence, family, but not his soul.
With great skill, Rita helps arrange Manitas’ new life as Emilia Pérez. Sadly, what he leaves behind is his severely distraught wife Jessi (Selena Gomez), who doesn’t understand her husband’s disappearance, and then is destroyed when he is reported killed by his enemies. Manitas’ most significant loss, though, is his two children, whom he adores and can’t entirely give up.
What follows is an odyssey of these three women as their lives intertwine, secrets are kept and revealed, and other relationships are formed.
Most complex is Emilia’s journey. When Rita asks a doctor (Mark Ivanir) to perform Manitas’ sex transition operation, he warns her, “I only fix the body. I don’t fix the soul,” and that Manitas will always be a wolf, and she will be a sheep.
The story weaves and bobs and continually surprises around this issue. It is simultaneously a fascinating exploration of these three women that touches on desire, love, compassion, and forgiveness.
The cast is impressively talented as they seamlessly act, sing, and dance to build fascinating characters we want to follow to see what will unfold next. The ensemble of women, in fact, won the best actress award at the Cannes Film Festival.
The original songs were contributed by French singer Camille, the score by Clément Ducol, and choreography by Damien Jalet.
An article in “Tudum” by Netflix notes that Saldana leaped at the chance to work with Audiard, but it took a moment to wrap her head around the film’s script. “It was described to me as this film noir that didn’t really exist in any of the conventional kind of genres, but it was a musical,” she said. “It was actually an opera, and based in a crime world, but there was going to be a sense of justice, and validation, and sanctification. And I was just like, ‘What?’ I had to read it more than once. And then I couldn’t stop thinking about it.”
The film is billed as a musical crime comedy-drama, and once you see it, that seems as good a description as any. What is for sure, though, is that “Emilia Pérez” will leave you pondering it long after the final credits roll.
“Emilia Pérez” starts on Nov. 1 at 7:30 pm at Martha’s Vineyard Film Center. For tickets and more information, visit mvfilmsociety.com.
