35 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"There's nothing about this case that's worth filming.", January 21, 2003
By A Customer
This review is from: Close-Up (DVD)
Nothing less than a narrative nesting-doll of reality informing illusion that's based on reality that might be illusion, etc. etc. This legendary film from Abbas Kiarostami concerns itself with a true-life case in Iran involving an imposter who -- for no real motive other than a "love for cinema" -- presents himself to a well-to-do Tehran family as the famous Iranian director and Kiarostami colleague Mohsen Makhmalbaf. The movie begins with the apprehension of the imposter from the family's gated residence. It then becomes quite documentary-like: Kiarostami, with back turned toward the camera, interviews the suspect in jail, asks permission of the local bureaucrat assigned to adjudicate the case if the trial may be filmed (to which the bureaucrat replies bemusedly, "There's nothing about this case that's worth filming"), and then finally sits in on the actual trial itself, which is shot in an inferior film stock that would seem to indicate that we're watching the proceedings as they're happening rather than watching an actual movie. This whole "is-it-live-or-is-it-Memorex" feel continues on to the meeting between the actual Makhmalbaf and his imposter. During this scene, you can hear Kiarostami griping to his sound man in the background as the pair exchange hugs. Then the sound starts cutting out as the camera crew follows the pair through Tehran on a motorbike. (Don't get mad at your DVD -- it's on purpose.) All this would seem to tip the scales towards actual documentary, but perhaps Kiarostami is simply having a bit of postmodernist fun with us. The film has a happy resolution, but questions remain: WHY did the imposter pretend he was a famous director? "Love of cinema" doesn't seem to quite cut the mustard as a motive. WHY, once he ingratiated himself into this wealthy family's daily life (he claims to be making a new film and wants the young adult son, who's a Makhmalbaf fan, to be the star of the picture), didn't he burglarize their home? Clearly, money wasn't the motive. Perhaps he did it for fame . . . which brings up the final haunting question: is the imposter being genuine in this movie, or is he once again playing a role, this time as the guy who was playing Makhmalbaf to a credulous family? In either case, the imposter got the fame he perhaps wanted. It goes without saying that this endlessly subtle film, rippling with layers of widening significance like a lake on a windy day, has only added to Kiarostami's fame.
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22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Perhaps Kiarostami's best work -- but you have to be patient, December 25, 2004
This review is from: Close-Up (DVD)
A man on a bus gets mistaken for the famous Iranian filmmaker Mohssen Makhmalbaf, and he pretends to be him for a while, ingratiating himself into the life of a family by speaking of a project he is working on. He's not in it for the money, though he borrows taxi fare and is given food. It's the sense of being someone, someone who matters, someone who these people he has come to care about will look up to. When another Iranian filmmaker hears about the trial for this alleged conman, he asks permission to film it and follows up by reconstructing elements of the case, using the actual perpetrator as his main actor.
I don't want to give away more of the situation, captured here in a unique blend of documentary and fiction. What I do want to give is a personal account of my experience with this film, that I hope will motivate a few to take a look -- and to be patient. The film doesn't work its magic right away -- and in fact the beginning of the film can be somewhat disorienting.
Kiarostami has a way of finding the fantastic in the mundane. Somehow, he sets up his films in such a way that I can find myself for the most part merely interested wondering what it is all about, and then suddenly surprised to find myself overwhelmed, surprised by an emotional response that was not manipulated from me with music but somehow, mysteriously. This happened to me while watching ABC Africa, and even more powerfully during this film. His style, the way he achieves this, can almost be thought of as an anti-style -- I know that may not make a lot of sense, but it would take longer than I have here to make clear what I am thinking when I say this. It seems like he is doing very little, but the effect is (in my experience) magical, unexplainable and overwhelming. (For those familiar with Paul Schrader's provocative
work on "transcendental style" in Bresson, Ozu and Dreyer, I'd suggest Kiarostami as another who works in this vein -- but whose work is quite distinct from these three).
I'll admit, I'm biased. I've become fascinated by the work of Kiarostami in the past few years. Plus, I am very much drawn to films where reality and fiction intersect and overlap in interesting ways. Still, I'm convinced that with a bit of patience -- if you just give yourself the time to let the film work on you without bringing to it expectations that it won't fulfil -- anyone would be overwhelmed by the marvelous simplicity of this film.
I'm very excited to hear that Criterion is re-releasing this film, and hope that it manages to receive wider attention and acclaim. Here's what to expect on the Criterion dvd release:
-a new, restored high-definition digital transfer
-an audio commentary by Mehrnaz Saeed-Vafa and Jonathan Rosenbaum, authors of Abbas Kiarostami
-The Traveler, a notable early feature by director Abbas Kiarostami
-"Close-up" Long Shot, a forty-five-minute documentary on Close-up's central figure, Hossein Sabzian, five years after Kiarostami's film
-a new video interview with Kiarostami
-A Walk with Kiarostami (2003), a thirty-two-minute documentary portrait of the director by Iranian film professor Jamsheed Akrami
-a new and improved English subtitle translation
-and a booklet featuring an essay by film scholar Godfrey Cheshire
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Assumed identity . . ., March 27, 2010
Shot in 40 days, using courtroom footage and reenactments with people playing themselves, this "new wave" film by Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami is an absorbing journey into the nature of identity. What does an ordinary man become when he is assumed to be someone famous? The answer can be poignant, as it is in this film, and surprisingly complex.
Moved by director Mohsen Makhmalbaf's film "The Cyclist," a divorced and unemployed printer's assistant pretends for a moment to a fellow bus passenger that he is the director himself. Suddenly becoming the object of respect and admiration, he allows himself to be drawn into a ruse involving an entire family, who believe that he wants to make a movie about them.
Legally, he admits in court, he is guilty of fraud. But morally, he argues, he has not done and never intended any harm. He has the heart and soul of an artist, which the limited circumstances of his life have never permitted him to be. Respected and admired, taken seriously maybe for the first time in his life, he is lifted out of his suffering. How this is all played out before the cameras makes for a fascinating study of art, imagination, and self. This film is both wise and touching and a worthy addition to the Criterion collection.
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