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The original was posted on /r/hobbydrama by /u/Ataraxidermist on 2025-03-30 18:34:29+00:00.
Original Title: [Emilia Pérez] The heartwarming movie about a Mexican transgender drug-lord that angered Mexicans, transgender people, probably some drug-lords too, and a truckload of other people too for good measure.
Well hello you handsome devil, fancy seeing you here in the graveyard of fake good intentions, broken legitimacy and glittering jewellery turning out to be fake. A perfect setting for a tale of ignorance, wilful ignorance, proud ignorance, the unsurprising response this ignorance brought, and a dash of racism because why wouldn’t we?
Look around you and take a deep breath. Smell the glitter, the gold, the decay and damnation. We are in the world of movies. Stars, champagne, heart-breaking and tear-inducing tragic pieces inspiring generations and showing the world the way forward. At least that's what movies hope to be.
In practice, it’s mostly dull, senseless drivel, and idiocy. For a change in scenery, this isn’t happening in Hollywood. Oh no. Far worse.
We’re in France.
Careful, you nearly passed out when I said the f-word.
In F… that country, there is a peculiar movie industry. I have lots of personal feelings about it, more on that later, we're here for one particular movie.
Here's a basket. Go on, dip your hand into it and fish out the beast. There. Big script you hold in your hands. Emilia Perez. Smell it, that's the smell of black powder aching to find it's match and light up like Sputnik.
This is the story about a transgender Mexican drug lord made by a guy who has no idea about any of these subjects.
May God have mercy on our souls.
Every good sin starts with a backstory
Emilia Perez is a movie by Jacques Audiard. As no good story takes place in a void, let me give you some context first.
Jacques Audiard was born in 1952 to Marie-Christine Guibert and Michel Audiard, a legendary french screenwriter who left his mark on the french cultural landscape. Michel worked on classics like Les Tontons Flingueurs (crooks in clover in English), or A Monkey in Winter with Jean-Paul Belmondo, another French movie giant. Michel Audiard's style was prominently seen in the dialogues: witty, irreverent, full of endlessly quotable moments and plenty of sarcasm.
If I may allow myself a personal tangent, I am someone with little interest in black and white movies, but have a gander at Les Tontons Flingueurs, either with subtitles or a translated version if it exists. Some of it will be lost in translation, obviously, but it should retain enough juice to make it worth your while, I consider it the epitome of French class and humor.
Admittedly, recent discovery that Michel was part of an antisemitic and collaborator group during the war stained the legend, but that debate isn't for this thread.
With such a father, it's no surprise son Jacques entered the world of cinema in turn. He started working on movies like The Professional, no, not the one with that french giant Jean Reno, this one starring giant Jean-Paul Belmondo, and with music from yet another legend, Italian Ennio Morricone.
After playing support, Jacques Audiard got behind the camera himself.
While I'm not fond of his style, Jacques has shown to be no slouch in the movie-making department. You may have heard of or seen The Beat That My Heart Skipped, A prophet, or Rust and Bone (if I could recommend one of these three, pick The Beat that my Heart Skipped). Over time, he garnered many awards, both in the Cannes film festival and internationally.
Yes, being the son of a giant helps and the movie world is rife with nepotism, but credits where it's due. His movies do look like they come from the heart (mostly), and many awards were absolutely deserved.
And then, in 2024, he filmed and produced a little known piece called Emilia Pérez.
Emilia Pérez is a Spanish-language French musical crime drama depicting Mexicans and Mexico while being filmed in a studio in Bry-Sur-Marne near Paris.
Still with us?
It follows a Mexican cartel leader (Karla Sofía Gascón, an openly transgender actress) aiming to disappear and transition into a woman, helped by her lawyer (Zoe Saldaña, who is in about every successful movie ever). Also stars Selena Gomez, because we can't have nice things.
It touches on themes like fear and shame, the safety of your loved ones, truth and freedom, and then some. It won jury prize at Cannes, got 13 Oscar nominations and won 2, and some other awards.
The ingredients were good:
An awarded director, a modern story about actual societal issues that gives the role to a transgender woman and advocates for freedom in songs while depicting a country and its people that aren't often seen in movies. It should have been loved and adored by the transgender, the Mexicans, Spanish-speaking public, general public, and then some. Except the "no politics in my movie" crowd, but that's to be expected.
Somehow, everything that could have gone wrong went wrong.
Mexicans, transgender associations, Spanish-speaking public and a good chunk of the general public can't stop dunking on the movie. So does the "no politics in my movie" crowd, which is good because if they hadn't, I wouldn't have dared writing about the subject.
Villain, thy name is Opportunism
You'd think a name is straightforward. It's just a name, it shouldn't hide mind-breaking conundrums like Thus Spoke Zarathustra or Studies in Zoroastrian Exegesis, right? But as my beard turns gray and my eyes piercing, I realize that what seems simple and straightforward is often the most complicated. Like the movie Donnie Darko. Or any future documentary about Roman Polansky.
Where do we start? Normally my existence is a calm river, it goes from point A to B and I merely have to follow the flow.
Emilia Perez is closer to nitroglycerin blowing up inside a rusted iron container hanging over a chasm and sending debris in a 360° arc. Try to work with that.
Oh well, I can start with what I believe to be the spark that lit the fuse. A spark named Jacques Audiard.
Jacques is man with a vision for his movies, that much is true. In fact, he doesn't seem too bothered when his vision openly conflicts with reality, and I believe this here is the root of (most of) the problems that would come up.
I don't keep tabs on Oscars, and I admit I have a 100% venomous distaste for the current French movie industry (more on that later), so I didn't hear much about the movie.
But then I saw... THE INTERVIEW.
In which Jacques Audiard casually calls Spanish the language of poor people and immigrants at 3:40. Needless to say, Spanish media and people raised a few eyebrows hearing that.
So did I. Dude doesn't speak a word of Spanish, and yo hablo un poco espanol, but bear with me. It does make some sense that the Spanish empire, one of the biggest colonizer in the history of the world, spread its language and then left many broken countries speaking Spanish. Under that light, I get the argument.
...Then again, that would make French the language of the poor and the immigrants just as much because if there's one department they are aiming for first place, it's colonizing.
Spanish-speaking countries around the world felt a little bit rattled to say the least. Argentinian linguist Alicia Maria Zorrilla pointed out in La Nacion that the statement shows Audiard knows nothing about Spanish, that there is no language for the poor or the rich, and that the only superiority lie...
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