There’s Some Wh0res in This House

On Passages.

Warning! This post includes spoilers.

Franz Rogowski in Passages. Photo: Screenshot.

There’s a song that plays in Passages that nearly feels bespoke: There’s a funky, jumping baseline on “Rain,” from the disco-house-y duo The Crystal Ark, and a simmering synth. I know you/But damn I want to know you more, the vocalist explains. And then, repeated again and again till the end: I can’t wait/I can’t wait/I can’t wait. It’s all anticipation, bouncing excitement, a song only about the good parts, no time for the bad.

I saw the Passages last night with Alex. I walked three extra train stops so we could keep talking about it after. By talk I mean giggle and by giggle I mean outright cackle: I felt delirious on the walk home, my cup runneth over! Tomas! Agathe! 

Is Passags really about a throuple? There aren’t really three people in the movie’s central relationship, there is only the wildness of one man’s desires. The German director Tomas (Franz Rogowski) is deliriously horny, chaotic, insatiable. He has such sprawl; he is a man with a blast radius, creating little disasters wherever he goes. Tomas is married to Martin (Ben Whishaw) and sleeping with Agathe (Adèle Exarchopoulos). He doesn’t bother to work out a timeshare. He doesn’t even shower between lovers. He is single-minded in two relationships.