Last night my wife and I finished watching Emilia Pérez on Netflix. We loved the movie, which won four Golden Globe awards this year and likely will be nominated for many Oscars.
We tried to imagine what the pitch would have been to movie studios. "Hey guys, we want to make a film about a man who is a vicious Mexican drug lord, but whose dream is to become a transgender woman. It will be largely in Spanish with English subtitles and feature lots of singing and dancing."
Yeah, right, not going to happen seemingly would have been the typical response. Yet Jacques Audiard, writer and director, did succeed in making the movie -- which blends the genres of a musical, drama, and thriller.
I found the song lyrics deeply moving, especially those in which cartel kingpin Juan "Manitas" Del Monte, played by transgender actress Karla Sofía Gascón, expresses his deep desire to be who he truly is, a woman, before he dies.
Basically Manitas is saying, I want to truly live before I die. Which is how almost everybody feels. Yet often we don't reveal to others, or maybe even to ourselves, what our innermost nature genuinely is.
Before I watched Emilia Pérez, I was very sympathetic to transgender people who undergo gender-affirming care. After seeing the movie, even more so. Manitas has to go through a huge amount of trouble, making tremendous sacrifices, to become the person he feels himself to be.
This is the power of movie-making. Watching a marvelously-made film about someone transitioning from a man to a woman had much more of an emotional effect on me than all of the news stories I've read about transgender people and gender-affirming care.
Yes, the director apologized after Mexican outrage over Emilia Pérez, which was made in Spain. And he's come in for criticism from a LGBTQ group. But I think critics of the movie are missing what really counts about it: how we humans can have an intense desire to be true to ourselves that compels us to make great sacrifices to that noble end.
This sounds like what I've heard a lot about the 'big and popular' movies of today. This though as a cartel leader might go a step beyond. The main thing I believe about trans is the objection is when they are children before they reach a mature age to be sure it's what they want. Basically, they are becoming eunuchs if they go to surgery for it along with a lifetime on hormones. Kids need a lot more information than a glamorous version of it for adults. What do I know about it? Quite a bit since the issue is in my family as it was a supposed solution for known psychological problems with the child given no clue as to the problems in the future. Oh, and parents kept ignorant as best the school could do-- even though when they found out, they were supportive. What is the parents' choice? Possible suicide as the threat. This is a big issue for a few of us and a movie like this one seems all wrong to glamorize it for liberals, who already think this way, but don't face it directly.
Posted by: Rain TrueaX | January 24, 2025 at 08:02 AM
That was an oops in using the word eunuch. Trans can appear like the sex they want to be. What so far they cannot do is reproduce other than some female trans who have maintained their reproductive organs. I don't know what the hormones will do to the offspring or maybe their own longevity. I do know they are not well educated on those risks for younger ones. Someone who does it earlier, like Jenner or the one in the movie won't face those issues. Hence a desire that they not begin too young, dress like the opposite sex, etc. Just wait as some have regretted it too late. I hope that won't happen to our family member and that it'll work out okay. What we want for anyone facing difficult emotional choices.
Posted by: Rain TrueaX | January 24, 2025 at 03:24 PM