Passages is the sexiest - and most stylish - film of 2023
Ira Sachs' new offering is a lesson in neo-sleaze dressing for the 21st Century. It's also super horny
In an age when the rights of lgbtqia+ people are being reversed around the world, the big screen is becoming an increasingly safe space for considered expressions of queer romance.
I haven’t been able to stop thinking about Lukas Dhont’s gay coming of age tale Close, since I first watched it earlier this year, Paul Mescal shone in Charlotte Well’s heartbreaker Aftersun, and Olivier Peyon’s Lie With Me, about a gay writer revisiting his doomed first love, was charming.
Now, filmmaker Ira Sachs has thrown a horny fourth contender into the big gay fray of 2023.
Passages is a poignant, occasionally funny, insistently sexually-charged paean to the complexities of 21st century relationships - queer or otherwise. The film tells the story of libidinous filmmaker Tomas (played by Franz Rogowski in the mode of a GHB-fuelled Joaquin Phoenix on a night out at The Berghain), who leaves his husband (Ben Whishaw) after falling in love with a young female teacher named Agathe (Adèle Exarchopoulos).
The action which ensues is captivating. As Tomas pinballs across the screen on his fixie, pedalling between his two loves as he attempts to figure out what exactly it is he wants from them both; emotions become frayed, hearts become broken, sphincters become stretched and excellent clothes become worn.
Because despite the fact that Passages offers an important musing on the fluidity of contemporary love, and although the sex scenes are among the most beautifully filmed this side of Call Me By Your Name and Meet Joe Black (don’t @ me) - Whishaw’s back in one of the key coital scenes is positively Christan Schad-esque! - the true excellence of this film can be found in its costume design, overseen by Khadija Zeggaï.
Take Tomas, whose wardrobe is a thing of neo-sleaze excellence. Full to bursting with the kind of clothes you’d imagine Keith Richards wearing if he was big on TikTok and in possession of a Dover Street Market discount, Tomas’s wardrobe perfectly encapsulates his freewheeling hormonal unhinged-ness.
From his Dries van Noten tiger print cargo pants, to his artfully moth-holed Acne women’s acid green sweater and that sheer black dancing top, Tomas’s is a look which speaks of both confusion and confidence; of sexual dominance but also childlike playfulness, and his character is all the more beguiling for it.
There’s an excellent scene where Tomas meets the parents of his new female paramour wearing a viscose dragon print crop top. Like a pair of antibiotic pills attacking a dangerous navel-bearing pathogen, Agathe’s parents lunge for Tomas, questioning his intentions towards their daughter.
Even though you know you would feel the same if you were wearing their chaussures, you can’t help but find yourself disliking Agathe’s parents and, in turn, rooting for Tomas. Sure, he might respond petulantly to their probing by storming out of the room, but if he’s brave enough to wear a crop top in wintry Paris, then surely he’s deserving of a break.
Whishaw’s wardrobe is more restrained - reflecting his character Martin’s measured approach to life. Yes there’s a pussy bow blouse in cornflower gauze, and absolutely he wears a hideous haemoglobin red silk dressing gown to bed - potentially the least sexy garment to have graced the screen since Shiv’s entire wardrobe in the final season of Succession - but he’s also reliable and homey in his outfit choices: a belt and braces British counterpoint to Tomas’s footloose European lustiness.
There’s a a navy blue cable knit sweater, which perfectly compliments the tasteful walls and art of Tomas and Martins’ Paris apartment, there’s a Junya Watanabe-style khaki collarless jacket, and there’s wide array of tastefully hued waffle henley tops which look like they were purchased from American Apparel before it went bust.
But the true brilliance of the costume design in Passages has less to do with the fact that it so perfectly assists in the development of the key characters; and more that it acts as a mirror of Western society’s fractured, messy and increasingly open approach to love, sex and dating.
According to OK Cupid, open relationships are increasing in popularity (31% percent of users said they had considered trying non-monogamy in 2022, compared to 26% in 2020), whilst dating apps such as Feeld promote sexual openness and experimentation. The app has two million subscribers and counting.
Although Tomas’s loosey-goosey approach to matters of the heart (SPOILER ALERT) comes back to bite him by the end of the film - during a scene in which he is cleverly trussed up in a tuxedo and bow tie - I personally couldn’t help but feel entranced by his dedication to the pursuit of freedom, whether sexual, sartorial or otherwise. I didn’t want to be Tomas as such - his life seemed improbably stressful - but I at least wanted to look as liberated as he behaved.
That being said, if you ever catch me within 10 paces of a foamy silk dressing gown in a haemoglobin hue, feel free to put me out of my misery.