A brilliant lawyer is recruited by a Mexican cartel boss who wants to fake his own death, transition and start a new life as a woman named Emilia Pérez. Then, her past resurfaces in the new life she has built. Jacques Audiard's Spanish-language musical smashes genres together to talk about identity, crime and the violence of transformation.
Emilia Pérez is a 2024 crime, musical and drama film directed by Jacques Audiard. This breakdown covers 4 techniques (3 narrative and 1 sound), each with the scene where you can see it. If you like how it is made, Some Like It Hot uses several of the same techniques.
Mixing several genres in 1 film, such as crime, romance, horror and absurd comedy. The clash between them keeps you from settling into a single way of watching.
How this film uses it
Audiard mixes the cartel crime film, the Hollywood musical, the transgender identity story and the legal thriller into one film. The pieces don't match, and that mismatch is the point. That is, the story of becoming yourself can't be told inside a single genre.
Where to see it
The first musical number. Rita's courtroom argument in the murder case is sung and staged as a number. The clash between courtroom drama and musical staging sets up the film's mix of genres.
Giving a film 2 very different tones, such as comedy and tragedy, often split into halves. Each makes the other hit harder, and the film never blends them into 1.
How this film uses it
The first half plays Emilia's transformation inside the crime world as dark comedy. The second half drops that and becomes a tragedy about things that can't be undone. The tone moves from genre entertainment to real grief at the point where Emilia discovers that her new self can't escape the consequences of the old one.
Where to see it
The change in tone after Emilia reconnects with her children. The genre machinery slows down as the emotional consequences of her double life become impossible to avoid.
Using sounds the characters themselves can hear, like footsteps, radios or traffic, to build tension or show how someone feels. The sound does more than make the scene realistic.
How this film uses it
The musical numbers are staged as events that really happen inside the film's world, which is fairly unusual for a musical. This is called diegetic music. Characters sing because no other way of communicating is enough for their situation, so the songs come across as desperation.
Where to see it
Emilia singing to her children about her absence. The number is a kind of confession she couldn't deliver in dialogue. Only a song is big enough to hold the guilt.
Structuring the story so a character's rise or cruelty is mirrored by its opposite. A parallel story shows a different outcome, or a powerful figure loses everything in ways that echo earlier wrongs.
How this film uses it
Emilia gets the identity she has always needed and builds a new life. The second half then shows, piece by piece, that this new life is built on the ruins of the old one. The transformation is real, and she still can't escape the consequences.
Where to see it
Emilia's past returning in the form of the woman who loves the cartel boss she used to be. The past self arrives to destroy the new one. Her hopes get turned upside down, and that is what makes the film a tragedy.
Questions
Emilia Pérez: quick answers
What filmmaking techniques does Emilia Pérez use?
CineCode breaks down 4 techniques in Emilia Pérez (2024): Genre Collage, Tonal Bifurcation, Diegetic Sound Design and Tragic Inversion Structure.
Who directed Emilia Pérez?
Jacques Audiard directed Emilia Pérez, released in 2024. CineCode also covers The Sisters Brothers (2018).
What films are similar to Emilia Pérez?
Films that share techniques with Emilia Pérez include Some Like It Hot (1959), Nashville (1975), Parasite (2019), The Shining (1980).
