Past Lives

The opening of Bradley Cooper's film, Maestro, is a title card with a quote from Leonard Bernstein:  

“A work of art does not answer questions, it provokes them; and its essential meaning is in the tension between the contradictory answers.”

Celine Song's Past Lives is a sweet film, that left me feeling happy that I'd seen it.  Jess and I watched it together, which made it all the sweeter.  Occasionally I find that it's helpful for me to mention who I saw a film with, or what state of mind I was in at the time, because I do believe that our impressions of a film have much to do with what we bring to the experience.  Not only was Past Lives sweeter because I watched it with my wife, but it just so happens that we had just finished binge-watching 1883 and 1923 (to fill the Yellowstone void in our lives).  Watching those shows back-to-back was a depressing experience; there was one episode of 1923 in particular that made me consider selling my television on Craigslist...  If I remember correctly, the guy who sheltered the runaway girl got killed protecting her, but not before finding that his son had also been abducted and killed.  The same people who killed the father and son, previously killed the girl's grandmother, and were seeking to capture her because she had killed two nuns who had horrifically abused her.  And yes, that was all in one episode.  I mention these terrible things for two reasons, first, I found it to be somewhat cathartic, so thank you for letting me get that off my chest.  And second, we need films like Past Lives from time-to-time as a reprieve from the the dark and cynical world that we live in.  Past Lives tells the story of a girl from South Korea, who realizes that she has fallen in love with her childhood friend, just in time for her parents to move the entire family to Canada.  In a certain sense the film is about bad timing - if only they had moved before she fell in love, her heart wouldn't have been broken.  Years later, after she has moved away from home to New York City, she and her lost love are reunited over the internet, and reignite a relationship that is influenced by their fond memories of time together in South Korea, and by the hopes and dreams that they've had since being separated.  It's unnecessary to describe any more of the plot, because I already described everything that you need to know to decide whether you might like this film too.  Which brings us to the question, does Past Lives meet Bernstein's definition of a 'work of art'?  I am happy to inform you that the answer is most assuredly yes.  The subtle direction by Song is interested not only in what the childhood sweethearts say to each other when they finally meet again in person after 24 years, but what do their eyes say, and their body language, and most importantly, what don't they say.  I would venture to say that the tension created by Song at the end of this film gives all the other Best Picture nominees a run for their money, except of course for one film in particular, but that's not fair, because its very subject is tension.