IFG 7: Everybody Knows (Asghar Farhadi, 2018)

by

25

ek

Original Title: Todos lo saben

Director: Asghar Farhadi

Cast: Penélope Cruz, Javier Bardem, Ricardo Darín

Release Date: 8th May 2018 (Cannes Film Festival)

Stills from the film Everybody Knows starring Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem

Trailer:

 

IMDb Rating: 6.9

What the critics said:

“[…] rather than follow in the enigmatic footsteps of his 2009 anti-thriller About Elly, Farhadi makes the disappearance the catalyst for a schematic study in class exploitation, as Laura must turn for help to onetime servant’s son and ex-lover Paco (Javier Bardem), whose personal fortunes have reversed.

The starry cast (especially the stalwart Bardem) do their best to distract us from Farhadi’s thematic architecture, but it’s as conspicuous as the drones that hover about the proceedings, surveilling the ground-level activity like a filmmaker too removed from his subject.” Steven Mears, Film Comment, January-February 2019.

“Farhadi, the Iranian director of the Oscar-winning “The Salesman,” takes his time moving into the meat of the plot; we get to know Laura’s extended family slowly, figuring out the connections, sensing that everyone here has a story that might potentially get told. And there’s a lovely sense, throughout the film, of how real life sometimes interrupts things, the way a child’s prattling disrupts the pretty wedding ceremony, or how even in the midst of grief breakfast must be made.” Moira Macdonald, Seattle Times, February 28, 2019

The IFG Ratings:

Film Reel 4  Dominik

Film Reel 6  4Porcelli

Film Reel 6  Razvan

Film Reel 7  Donnie

Film Reel 7Film Reel Half  Romcomloveaffair 

Film Reel 8  Arpatilaos

Film Reel 9  Debbie

Film Reel 9  Rob

IFG Average Rating: 7.06

 

REMINDERS:

Have your say on who SHOULD win and who WILL win the Oscars.  Please email me your predictions.  Further details are here: The IFG Oscar Winner Predictions

Please email me your suggestions for the IFG 11, 12 & 13 poll ASAP (this will decide the next three monthly films).  The poll will open in February.

By the end of February 2020 send me your rating for 10 Cloverfield Lane (Dan Trachtenberg, 2016).

 

25 thoughts on “IFG 7: Everybody Knows (Asghar Farhadi, 2018)”

  1. Pingback: Welcome to the International Film Group | Oasis of Fear

  2. I had not seen Everybody Knows before, but I really enjoyed it. Asghar Farhadi is one of my favourite working directors and About Elly is in my top ten films of all time. Everybody Knows reminded me a lot of About Elly, with similar themes but transferred to a Spanish setting. I loved how the kidnapping, which would normally carry a film, became the subplot for all those secrets, lies and unspoken grudges. I did find it difficult to grasp the relationships between all of the characters, but actually that confusion added to the tension for me. Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz were great, as usual and Farhadi maintains his place as one of my favourite directors. If you haven’t seen it do give About Elly a try!

    Like

    Reply

    • I agree on the thematic similarities to About Elly – the problem for me was that the location changed but the different culture does not seem to have been taken into account/see below. This might have worked better if set in Iran or similar.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  4. Good actong, escellent cinematography but I might have liked it better if I had not been under the impression this was a thriller rather than a family drama that seemed to go nowhere. Had a real pacing problem and could have been 20-30 minutes shorter; there seemed to be a 2-3 second pause after every sentence. The set-up took forever and I had a hard time figuring out the relationships between many of the characters: Who exactly was the girl involved in the kidnapping plot? Penelope’s niece? And the fact that Javier was the servants’ son when Penelope grew up was casually ,mentioned once when it is the key to the dynamics between the charavcters. I also think the movie would have been helped by at least some music… they used a lot of natsounds which somehow seemed to include a lot of wind but it didn’t seem all that windy.
    I read somewhere that Farhadi had written the script in Farsi and then it was translated, which would explain some of the issues to me. The whole way people interacted just did not seem Spanish at all. They seemed very repressed, with these endless pauses; there would and should have been more histrionics, bad as that sounds it’s true, and people would not be talking this slowy so that added to my disconnect. A lot of times artists just work best in their familiar environment – like Penelope who was mostly poor in Hollywood films, Farhadi may be one of them.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • I added the first part of the sentence at the top and immediately made two inane typos – my bad. The content that follows makes sense, I swear!

      Like

      Reply

  5. I think Everybody Knows is an OK movie, but I had bigger expectations from this director, I love Farhadi’s A Separation. I thought the acting was really good and I liked the way the film looked, the cinematography was very nice. I think the main problem with the movie is the editing, the pacing is off and the story dragged a bit, especially in the 2nd half. For a movie involving a kidnapping I didn’t feel there was much tension and a sense of urgency and in part that’s because the movie was very lacking of a musical score. It was more of a family drama and that would’ve been fine too, but as porcelli said it was pretty hard figuring out the relationships between many of the characters and that made it a bit confusing and difficult to care about most of them.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  6. I really enjoyed watching Everybody Knows. For me it did work as a thriller, both because the kidnapping took me by surprise, and because Penelope Cruz’s performance as the grief stricken, desperate mother was very compelling. I agree that some plot elements especially in relation to character development were a bit muddled and not properly explained. Maybe it’s been a while so I don’t remember details very well, but I wasn’t quite sure why Bardem and Cruz’s relationship failed…was it because of social class pressures? Likewise, I think Ricardo Darin’s character was not very much fleshed out. His inclusion for me was more of a nod to a number of really interesting Argentine dramas/thrillers from 2000 onwards, rather than a crucial part in itself. Maybe his recognisable Argentinian-ness was necessary for the film’s larger concerns with immigration and global economics… Generally, for me the film worked as an intimate drama and a thrilling narrative of how these greater forces impact on one family. Was it perfect? No… But within a degree of messiness that is unavoidable when dealing with such complex issues, I think it came pretty close.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • Agree that the Darin casting was a bit of a missed opportunity – whether he was there or not really would have made no difference and it could have opened up a number of interesting opportunities: First, as you said, immigration, an angle that was totally dropped after initial suspicion of the migrant farm workers; second again on character relationships: In the present it looks like Penelope went for the drunk loser instead of attractive successful Javier – though that apparantly wasn’t always the case as Darin used to have money and as you said we do not know why Penelope and Javier broke up. There’s a much better story somewhere in there than the one they filmed.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      • I imagine they will be rather bewildered by people reacting with endless silence to the kidnapping of a family member.

        Like

  7. A good film but not among director’s best. The thriller part didn’t interwine adequately with the family drama part. Felt like lacking a clear direction imo. Also, as others said and for different reasons, it was difficult to relate with the characters and their motivations.
    Great cinematography though, reaching the level of almost iconic (bell tower and pidgeons anyone?)

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  8. This is a film about disguise and how even the best kept secrets are impossible to hide. As such it would seem entirely appropriate to note that the initial style and editing are a disguise also. As the film begins, we are introduced to Lauar and her close intimate family, excitedly preparing for the wedding of her younger sister, in the local church of their Spanish village.

    Everything seems set to introduce a cosy but feisty family drama; from the warmly lit shots of Laura entering the church square as she goes to her sisters rehearsal, to her former lover Paco’s gorgeous wine growing vistas. In fact the first hour of the film feels rather like frustrating psychological foreplay. The audience is heavily led to know certain relationships are key but not exactly why they will shape the oncoming plot.

    This is particularly relevant in the case of Laura and Paco; former paramours both now married to other people but with an obvious spark left in place. Indeed, as the audience later comes to know, it is Paco and not her husband Alejandro (absent at first as he is in Argentina) to whom the future kidnap victim, Laura’s daughter Irene, owes her paternity. Although this film does later turnout to be a kidnap thriller it is their romantic past, that the early stages seem especially fascinated by.

    This is a history repeatedly told, but it is only made apparent, by Irene during the wedding as she enters the clock tower with her crush and Paco’s nephew Felipe, Observing the scratched out letters ‘L + P’, Irene asks Felipe, and he informs her that this refers back to her mothers and Paco’s long-standing and well known historic love. As he says ‘Everybody knows’, but not apparently Irene.

    Even so, it is perhaps in the use of the wedding that some note of what it is to come could be hinted. As in the rom-com, and other so-called genre films, the wedding is often a space for magical change and dramatic psychological restructuring. Think for example of the weddings seen in films like ‘My Best Friends’ Girl’ or ‘The Wedding Date’ and it is easy to see why that note of caution should occur. In this case, though it Is not the happy reunion or new relationships that forms, but the dramatic and dreadful kidnapping of a teenage girl. A fact made even worse by the knowledge she is just a visitor; a Argentinian merely in Spain to visit her mothers family and see one aunt marry.

    The kidnap does not however seem to be mean a large rise in tension. Whereas in standard Hollywood action fare like ‘Ransom’ or , the child’s kidnapping provides each films central modus, and the main hero’s motivation for retributive violence, here it just seems to hang as a quite framework for the further exploration of family dynamics. With the exception of Laura and Paco, no character seems to have a huge sense of panic or urgency.

    There are efforts to find out a retired police officer but such is the fear of local opprobrium and judgement, the need to direct action does not take place until late on. Paco, who is perhaps the most sympathetic character given his ultimate sacrifice of marriage and money for Irene, decides to contact the Kidnappers and give them their money. Only when facing the horror of a ‘body being splashed into the river, does he get his reward of a living Irene, found in his car after he returns from that horrific scene.

    In the meantime, there seems to be general torpor and the films main fascination seems focused on exploring the social dynamics that are left when Irene is taken. In fact, it does rather seem like the whole kidnap story is just a framework to look at the family realtionships; laura and paco’s love affair, irene’s paternity, Alejandros’ emotional impotence and financial incompetence. Then Paco’s wafer thin marriage. All seem to be far more interesting to the director and script then actually finding out where Irene is.

    In the end this is a film with much to recommend. Solid acting from its leads, Penelope Cruz & Javier Bardem, as well as some interesting choice of shots and beautiful editing. The lack of satisfying conclusion, and the films seeming determination to punish Paco, in both relieving him of his marriage and most worldly goods, whilst Laura returns to her life in Argentina, does however leave something of a bitter and poisonous taste. Irene is traumatised and may never fully recover but Paco is also a victim. Village jealousy at his success and Laura’s family’s bitterness over his acquisition of her land, as well as wife Bea’s decision to leave him, make sure that he is a character bereft and admonished by film ending.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    • Totally agree about the ending! It seems that Paco bears the brunt of the whole tragedy. Aside from the kidnapped girl that is. However, her character is a bit secondary, so essentially the whole pathos is centred much more on the mother…but by the end she gets a happy resolution upon the return of her daughter…so Paco is the only ‘victim’ in the end…I guess…

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

  9. Hi’ I’ve seen this film before and, if I remember right, the last movie I’ve seen on internet :/ The strongest points are the acting of the main characters (the three actors tend to be related to great movies) and the plot related to the open secrets of a little town (small town, big hell). I didn’t like the resolution and that’s what deprives it from being a memorable film in my opinion, even though I liked it.
    I read some reviews to post something different here but your comments are better 😛 The only interesting thing I gathered was the title of another movie with a similar topic and, according to what I’ve read, better. It’s called: “La Isla Minima” or “Marshland” in English.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

Leave a comment