Mubi revealed the official trailer for Passages, the French drama described as a “sexy portrait of romantic chaos,” starring Franz Rogowski and Ben Whishaw as a gay couple in a long term relationship, when one of them begins an affair with a woman, played by Adèle Exarchopoulos.

Directed by Ira Sachs, Passages world premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, then in Europe at the Berlin International Film Festival, and will open in theaters in the US with a release date of August 4.

In contemporary Paris, German filmmaker Tomas (Franz Rogowski) embraces his sexuality through a torrid love affair with a young woman named Agathe (Adèle Exarchopoulos), an impulse that blurs the lines which define his relationship with his husband, Martin (Ben Whishaw). When Martin begins an extramarital affair of his own, he successfully gains back his husband’s attention while simultaneously unearthing Tomas’ jealousy. Grappling with contradicting emotions, Tomas must either embrace the confines of his marriage or come to terms with the relationship having run its course. [Sundance]

First reviews are very good, with Guardian (4 out of 5 stars) saying, “It’s an eye-openingly explicit film, with one gay sex scene that is the most unfettered I have seen in relatively mainstream cinema for a long time, but otherwise emotionally restrained, denying us the more obvious scenes of conflict we might expect from such territory. Rogowski makes for a believably odious yet charming cad while Whishaw and Exarchopoulos neatly underplay their heartbreak, subtly showing the toll of putting up with someone who mistreats you and then putting up with yourself for allowing it.”

“In his pre-premiere introduction, Sachs spoke about being inspired during the pandemic to create a film about intimacy but his film makes a convincing case for staying alone, a slight yet scarring study of romantic chaos.”

Watch the official trailer for Passages