
PASSAGES — Ira Sachs's "endless circle of desire"
08/03/23 • 22 min
"Let's just say I wanted to make a liberated film. I felt like...am I allowed to say 'f*** it?' Like, 'f*** it.'" So says legendary indie filmmaker Ira Sachs about PASSAGES, his seriously sexy Sundance hit about an insatiable artist in a messy modern love triangle.
In this special episode, Sachs tells host Rico Gagliano how his all-star cast (Ben Whishaw, Franz Rogowski, and Adele Exarchopoulos) liberated their characters, and why he and Hollywood are on the outs.
PASSAGES opens in theaters on August 4 in New York and Los Angeles and arrives in cities nationwide throughout August. Coming soon to theaters in more countries as well, including Canada, the UK, Ireland, Germany, LATAM, and more. For tickets & showtimes, visit: mubi.com/r/passages
MUBI is a global streaming service, production company and film distributor dedicated to elevating great cinema. MUBI makes, acquires, curates, and champions extraordinary films, connecting them to audiences all over the world. A place to discover ambitious new films and singular voices, from iconic directors to emerging auteurs. Each carefully chosen by MUBI’s curators.
"Let's just say I wanted to make a liberated film. I felt like...am I allowed to say 'f*** it?' Like, 'f*** it.'" So says legendary indie filmmaker Ira Sachs about PASSAGES, his seriously sexy Sundance hit about an insatiable artist in a messy modern love triangle.
In this special episode, Sachs tells host Rico Gagliano how his all-star cast (Ben Whishaw, Franz Rogowski, and Adele Exarchopoulos) liberated their characters, and why he and Hollywood are on the outs.
PASSAGES opens in theaters on August 4 in New York and Los Angeles and arrives in cities nationwide throughout August. Coming soon to theaters in more countries as well, including Canada, the UK, Ireland, Germany, LATAM, and more. For tickets & showtimes, visit: mubi.com/r/passages
MUBI is a global streaming service, production company and film distributor dedicated to elevating great cinema. MUBI makes, acquires, curates, and champions extraordinary films, connecting them to audiences all over the world. A place to discover ambitious new films and singular voices, from iconic directors to emerging auteurs. Each carefully chosen by MUBI’s curators.
Previous Episode

Cannes Conversations — Ildiko Enyedi on short cinema
Oscar-nominated Hungarian filmmaker Ildiko Enyedi is celebrated for her bold, unclassifiable features (like the Cannes-winning sci-fi MY 20TH CENTURY). But at this year’s Cannes she trained her eye on smaller-scale visions: She helmed the jury picking the festival’s best short films.
Enyedi tells host Rico Gagliano about her own whimsical shorts, her optimism for the future of the form, and fangirls out on fellow master Ruben Östlund’s first, one-shot foray into cinema.
Every May, the population of sleepy Cannes, France triples — as film pros and cinephiles from around the globe convene for the two-week movie-thon called the Cannes Film Festival. For the fourth season of the MUBI Podcast, we sent host Rico Gagliano into the eye of this celluloid storm, accompanied by an intrepid camera crew, to grab interviews with a cross-section of filmmakers who made Cannes 2023 one of the most celebrated in years. Guests include legendary director Wim Wenders, perennial Cannes favorites Kleber Mendonca Filho and Monia Chokri, and a slew of new filmmakers destined to be world cinema's next wave — from Belgian hip-hopper-turned-auteur Baloji to New York's wry boundary-smasher Joanna Arnow.
Episodes air twice weekly. Follow and watch on Spotify or Youtube... or listen wherever you get your podcasts.
MUBI is a global streaming service, production company and film distributor dedicated to elevating great cinema. MUBI makes, acquires, curates, and champions extraordinary films, connecting them to audiences all over the world. A place to discover ambitious new films and singular voices, from iconic directors to emerging auteurs. Each carefully chosen by MUBI’s curators.
Next Episode

Sebastián Silva on ROTTING IN THE SUN — "Everyone and everything in it *will* get trashed"
Sundance favorite Sebastián Silva tells host Rico Gagliano about his self-described "misanthropic comedy" ROTTING IN THE SUN—the satirical story of a happy hedonist and a not-so-happy filmmaker who end up in the middle of a Hitchcockian mystery.
Silva dishes on how he teamed up with superstar Instagrammer Jordan Firstman, the importance of self-mockery, and the film's already-infamous sex sequences featuring "all the d***s."
ROTTING IN THE SUN is showing in select US theaters and releases exclusively on MUBI (almost) globally starting September 15th.
MUBI is a global streaming service, production company and film distributor dedicated to elevating great cinema. MUBI makes, acquires, curates, and champions extraordinary films, connecting them to audiences all over the world. A place to discover ambitious new films and singular voices, from iconic directors to emerging auteurs. Each carefully chosen by MUBI’s curators.
MUBI Podcast - PASSAGES — Ira Sachs's "endless circle of desire"
Transcript
Heads up, this episode includes spoilers.
So your main character is a guy who can't settle down. Yes. He's got two lovers and he can't decide between the two of them. I know you are now in a monogamous relationship, but is this something you struggled with? Why did you want to explore that? No, that's... I'm much more obsessive. I'm more single-focused, I would say. But I have thought about the fact, this film is a love triangle, so it'
If you like this episode you’ll love
Episode Comments
Featured in these lists
Generate a badge
Get a badge for your website that links back to this episode
<a href="https://goodpods.com/podcasts/mubi-podcast-209469/passages-ira-sachss-endless-circle-of-desire-32131860"> <img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/goodpods-images-bucket/badges/generic-badge-1.svg" alt="listen to passages — ira sachs's "endless circle of desire" on goodpods" style="width: 225px" /> </a>
Copy