After winning the jury prize and a collective female performance prize at the last Cannes Film Festival in May, Emilia Perez triumphed at the Golden Globes on Sunday. Jacques Audiard’s feature film left the ceremony organized by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association with four trophies: best musical or comedy film, best non-English film, best supporting actress for Zoé Saldaña and best original song.
But, in the middle of the concert of praise, dissonant notes were soon heard. Or rather to be revived. Because the online posting ofEmilia Perez in November on Netflix, for the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, had already been greeted by numerous negative reviews, reproaches and indignation. Success at the Golden Globes therefore put a coin back into the machine.
“The exploitation of a tragedy”
If you are not one of the million spectators who have seen it in French theaters since its release in August, know that it is a French film shot in Spanish. The heroine giving its title to the feature film is a trans woman who, after having benefited from gender reassignment surgery in the greatest secrecy, builds a new life for herself, turning her back on her past at the head of a Mexican cartel. She tries to redeem herself by creating a support structure for the victims of these criminal organizations and their loved ones. The plot is built around musical, sung and dance sequences, filmed with a sometimes disconcerting formal audacity.
Quoted by the BBC, Mexican film critic Gaby Meza criticizes the film for “exploiting, for entertainment purposes, the tragedy that Mexico is experiencing with drug trafficking and disappearances in this context of violence”. As recalled by GuardianMexico records some 30,000 homicides each year and more than 100,000 people go missing. Emilia Perez therefore makes people cringe for their lack of sensitivity and tact. Irony of the story: although a lot of ink has been spilled in Mexico, the film has not yet been released on screens there. Many Mexicans form their opinions by reading the foreign press or based on extracts posted on social networks.
The fact remains that certain reasons for indignation are based on factual criteria. Starting with the fact that the main characters are Mexican but they are played by actresses from other countries, with the exception of Adriana Paz. The main heroine is played by the Spaniard Karla Sofía Gascón, while the secondary protagonists are played by the Americans Zoé Saldaña and Selena Gomez. Also, after being warned by the casting director that the latter had a strong accent when they spoke in Spanish, Jacques Audiard modified the script to indicate that their characters were not of Mexican nationality.
“No one who knew was involved”
From Deadline, the Mexican Rodrigo Prieto, director of photography nominated for an Oscar last year for his work on Killer of The Flower Moon by Martin Scorsese declares that he found the film “inauthentic” and thus sums up the impression of many of his compatriots. “It really bothers me. Especially when the subject is so important for us Mexicans, he laments. Why not hire a Mexican decorator, a costume designer or at least a few consultants? (…) You would never see a sign on a prison saying “Cárcel”, it would say “Penitenciaria”. These are just details, but it shows me that no one in the know was involved. »
The film was actually shot in the Paris region, in the Bry-sur-Marne studios. “I haven’t studied (Mexico) that much. What I had to understand, I already knew a little,” said Jacques Audiard in an interview and the video extract which is circulating on social networks fuels many tensions.
The Spanish researcher and philosopher Paul B. Preciado sees in Emilia Perez a “laden amalgam of racism, transphobia and anti-Latino exoticism”, as he wrote this Thursday in the daily The Country. In October, in his column signed for Liberationhe was already taking out the sulphate: “Audiard dreams of himself as Demy, Almodóvar or González Iñárritu against the backdrop of Notre Dame de Paris in Mexico, but without sharing either the look or the trans, queer and Mexican experience, he ends up taking us on a trans-racist tourism trip. The further we advance in the film, the more we sink into a kitsch trans-Mexican amusement park (…)”
“A step backwards for trans representations”
The philosopher thus denounces the instrumentalization of trans people and their experiences, in general in cinema, and in particular in Emilia Perez : “We have a story, stories, which have not been told and which cannot be told by Audiard despite his talent as a filmmaker. » Glaad, an American media monitoring association on the treatment of subjects related to LGBT+ people, affirms that this film “is a step backwards for trans representations” in cinema.
Our file on transidentity
On the British site PinkNews, trans journalist Amelia Hansford finds Emilia Perez “of a mediocre, fallacious and harmful absurdity”. “Gender transitioning is not a moral decision, and transitioning alone cannot absolve you of your past. It’s neither a death nor a rebirth,” she emphasizes about the trajectory that the scenario offers its main heroine. Heroine who, in the eyes of this editor, stands out as “one more psychopathic trans character” in the history of cinema.
An impact in the race for the Oscars?
The actress Karla Sofía Gascón, herself trans, explains in numerous interviews that she helped Jacques Audiard to refine certain points of the script. “The trans experience is not the same for everyone: my trans experience is different from that of others,” she declares in the pages of Vanity Fair. More vehemently, she also tells detractors: “If you don’t like it, go make your own film. Go create the representation you want to see. »
The criticisms made againstEmilia Perezand their media coverage, may have consequences on the film’s Oscar campaign. There is a good chance that it will land nominations in several categories – including best non-English feature film where it could represent France. The suspense will be lifted on this point on January 17. Then, it will be up to the members of the Academy to vote and some will perhaps be influenced by the bad buzz. One thing is certain: if, on March 3, Emilia Perez leaves the ceremony with statuettes in their arms, not everyone will have the heart to rejoice.
