Cannes 2024: Jacques Audiard’s Mexican Cartel Musical ‘Emilia Perez’
by Alex Billington
May 19, 2024
One of the best things about being at film festivals is that most of the time you never know what is going to happen in the film you’re about to watch. At Cannes, it’s usually the first time the film is ever being shown to an audience. Walking into these films without any expectations or any idea what we’re all in for can result in some of the most wildly exhilarating experiences when you encounter a truly ambitious, unexpected, one-of-a-kind creation. That’s the case with Emilia Perez from French filmmaker Jacques Audiard. I shouldn’t be surprised, however, considering my love for Audiard’s films goes back all the way to my very first visit to Cannes in 2009 – Un Prophet (A Prophet) is still one of my all-time favorite Cannes films. 15 years later and Audiard has totally blown me away again with Emilia Perez, a full-on Broadway-esque musical about Mexican society and a Mexican cartel kingpin who changes sex and reinvents herself. I did not think we’d see a more ambitious film than Megalopolis at Cannes 2024, but here we are with Emilia Perez. Incredible.
Emilia Pérez is directed by and co-written by the acclaimed Palme d’Or-winner filmmaker Jacques Audiard, his 10th feature film so far. It’s also co-written by Thomas Bidegain and Léa Mysius, inspired by an opera. The story begins focused on a lawyer in Mexico City named Rita Moro Castro, played by Zoe Saldaña, who is skilled at getting criminals off the hook but isn’t really satisfied with her work. Before she can change her ways, she’s recruited by one of Mexico’s top cartel crime kingpins, a violent and shady individual who pays her millions to work on a secret mission – to help him become her, secretly hiring a doctor to complete a series of surgeries to make the transition and bury her past life. Once this happens, the story really kicks off – Spanish trans actress Karla Sofía Gascón stars in the lead role as the titular Emilia Perez. At first she sends her family to Switzerland to hide out, then she returns to Mexico City to start a new life as a woman. What happens next is astonishing and kind of unbelievable. The films attempts to ask viewers to contend with one of the biggest, boldest, most ambitious moral quandaries I’ve ever seen in cinema: can we perhaps sympathize with a Mexican cartel kingpin? Well, you’ll have to watch & see how you feel about this yourself.
This concept is part of what is so remarkably impressive about Emilia Perez. I couldn’t believe this was the actual plot, not only that, but this is the plot in an audacious musical about a trans woman. There are songs about corrupt leaders, songs about cartel henchmen getting ready for a shootout, songs about transitioning (“woman to man or man to woman?”). It’s a proper musical where in the middle of dramatic scenes actors will suddenly begin singing. If you don’t like musicals you might find it a bit cheesy and over-the-top but I loved how FULLY musical it was. So many unbelievable songs. I never thought in my entire life I’d watch a musical about Mexican cartels and the problems with Mexican society. After returning to Mexico City, the plot shifts into an edgy attempt to reconcile the hurt that cartels have caused – thousands and thousands of disappeared / missing people killed off for no reason. Yes, there are some songs about this, including one right in the middle featuring hundreds of random Mexican people singing about the missing people and it made me quite emotional. I’ve seen plenty of films over the years about Mexico and the problems within this country, but Audiard’s film really shook me up good. And not even made by a Mexican filmmaker! Go figure.
If you’re reading all of this and thinking this sounds absolutely ridiculous, you might not have a good time watching this. It won’t be for everyone. The melodramatic scenes and the dancing and the musical numbers are performed like all the big Hollywood musicals, not as gritty or nuanced as one might expect (for a film at Cannes). It shouldn’t work at all. But it totally worked on me I was ready to stand up & cheer “bravo, bravo” by the end. A pro-trans, anti-cartel, no-holds-barred musical – my jaw was on the floor throughout most of this film. It’s exceptional because of how challenging it is to pull this off. Yet it delicately, sensitively, and passionately deals with its trickiest topics – not only with how this trans woman feels freedom finally being herself, but also with her looking back on her past life as a cartel kingpin, while also trying to step forward into a new life & keep her past a secret. There’s some problems with some of the storylines interwoven into the plot, mainly with Saldana’s lawyer character never really getting her complete arc. And another strange subplot featuring Selena Gomez starring as Jessi, Emilia’s former wife from when she was a man. Emilia convinces Jessi that she’s his aunt and wants her to live with her, then things get a bit touchy between them.
All-in-all, I can do nothing but rave about this film. Jacques Audiard is one of the greats. Each new film he makes is entirely different and bold and refreshing, crafted with a masterful understanding for cinema and storytelling. Emilia Perez will unquestionably have a huge impact – audiences at the Cannes screenings were applauding & cheering louder than any other film so far. It’s certainly connecting with many viewers. Always invigorating to watch something you’d never imagined possible in cinema and somehow it comes together.
Alex’s Cannes 2024 Rating: 9.8 out of 10
Follow Alex on Twitter – @firstshowing / Or Letterboxd – @firstshowing
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