Yes

Sally Potter's Yes premiered this evening at the Toronto International Film Festival before a 1300-strong crowd, with the director and star Joan Allen in attendance. I am so grateful to have been present at this extraordinary event (the film is still in negotiations for distribution). Yes is a love story between She (Joan Allen, stunning in the role of a lifetime) and He (Simon Akbarian). She is married (to Sam Neill, who manages to play both boorish and sympathetic), a scientist, and Irish-American, living in London - a city Potter loves to photograph and whose different, colliding cultures she conveys superbly. He is Lebanese, working as a chef in London. She meets He. Love ensues.

It sounds so simple, and in a sense it is. The film is luminous, elegant, ravishingly beautiful, subtly erotic. The love scenes feel so natural. And yet -- all the dialogue is spoken in rhymed iambic pentameter. Scenes are shot from canted angles, through glass or water, sometimes from CCTV cameras. Jump-cuts, motion blur, internal monologue, an unsettling score - all these elements challenge the simplicity of the idea of love. He and She are unnamed, but they have backgrounds, political and religious beliefs that take the narrative so far beyond the usual romantic pap of Hollywood cinema. Every frame and every gesture invites multiple viewings and multiple readings, partly for the precision and lush beauty (each city has its own colour scheme), and because so many other films and paintings are evoked (including an audacious nod to Orlando early on!) And because this is a Sally Potter film, the passion and the politics have a strain of humour. Or in this case, a frame, provided by Shirley Henderson as She's cleaning woman. Her opening and closing monologues in the whiteness of She's London house are immediately engaged, and totally unlike anything else you'll see or hear in film (at least English-language film). In fact, that's a good summary: Yes is totally unlike anything you've seen before.

Not since Shakespeare's day have playwrights written entire screenplays in iambic pentameter, but writer/director Sally Potter might single-handedly start the trend again. However, it took me over a half hour to realize that the whole film was one epic poem – before then all I thought was, "This dialogue is horrible! People don't actually speak like this!" But that's the point. Poetry is not meant to imitate average speech. That's why it's poetry.

Joan Allen plays a lonely wife (whose name is never mentioned) trapped in a loveless marriage who has a fiercely passionate affair with a Muslim man from Lebanon. Because she was born in Northern Ireland (but raised, however, in America), she thinks she understands her lover's pain and suffering as an Arab man living in London. These two lovers fight about race, class, religion, politics, stereotypes, and identity, and with the recent bombings on the London Underground, this film is unsettlingly too relevant. Yes is a superb love poem that speaks volumes about what we, as a society, are afraid to mention in our post-9/11 world. But unfortunately, sitting through this film feels more like homework than pleasure.

I saw it at the Toronto Film Festival but I had not seen any of Sally Potter's previous films prior to this and mainly saw it because of Joan Allen. Yes is a film with Joan Allen and Sam Neill and directed by Sally Potter. It is about a woman who is in a loveless marriage who has an affair with a Lebanese chef who was a surgeon in Beirut. Shirley Henderson plays the cleaner who acts as narrator and sort of Greek chorus to give background and opinion. I didn't like this film but I think women, in general, will. The acting is good especially Joan Allen and Simon Abkarian (apparently this was his first major role in English, I could not tell he was that good) but slow paced with some artistic shots (shots through water or glass or some obstruction because in real life we don't always have the perfect angle and things are not always clear). Most of the dialogue was in iambic pentameter with rhyming couplets. If you've seen Sally Potter's other work and liked it, then I think you'll like this. It is definitely different and Joan Allen was gorgeous but more for the art house crowd who appreciate a Dutch angle or the lens obstacles or the fact the film speed was off. There was deliberate slowing or disjointing of the frame speed in several scenes with her and her lover. As if the film was being shown at 22 or 26 frames per second or time was passing differently (which could have been a case of trying to catch the human perspective where time sometimes seems sped up so an hour goes by in a blink of an eye or a moment can seem to last forever). While most of the audience loved it, I think the average guy would be bored by this film. Having said that, there are several layers to this film and may improve with additional viewings

I saw this film at the Telluride Film Festival and cannot wait to watch it over and over again. It was by far the festival favorite for everyone I talked to (minus a few teenage boys).

Sally Potter does a wonderful job of turning what could be a cliché story about a white woman falling in love with a man from the middle east into a socially, sexually, and emotionally conscious film.

The style itself is truly Potter with breathtaking cinematography that plays color and costume together in a well choreographed filmic space.

The use of verse throughout the film only adds to the plot and the characters' intensity.

All I can say is go see it, you will not be sorry. 10/10

Yes is possibly the most beautiful film I have ever seen.

Sally Potter began work on this film on September 12, 2001. The impact of the previous day's events can be felt throughout the film as He and She try to make sense of their lives and discuss both the meaning of life and the world around them.

Told in rhyming couplets, the comparison to Shakespeare is natural. Potter claimed that she would be thrilled if even one line of hers was as good as the Bard's. I believe much of her work is on par with his. The text is both witty and intelligent and addresses a plethora of modern day issues of conscience. The iambic pentameter flows very naturally throughout the film and is never a distraction - only a credit to the abilities of the writer! As with any Shakspearean production, the feelings and inner turmoil of the main characters are central.

The cinematography is excellent. The film is simply beautiful to watch and behold. As if the images were not enough, the music provides a perfect complement to all that goes on on screen.

Go see this movie. It is unlike any other. Everyone shines!