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Close-Up (The Criterion Collection)

Mohsen Makhmalbaf , Abbas Kiarostami  |  Unrated |  DVD
3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)

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Product Details

  • Actors: Mohsen Makhmalbaf
  • Directors: Abbas Kiarostami
  • Format: Color, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled
  • Language: Farsi
  • Subtitles: English
  • Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  • Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
  • Number of discs: 2
  • Rated: Unrated
  • Studio: IMAGE ENTERTAINMENT
  • DVD Release Date: June 22, 2010
  • Run Time: 98 minutes
  • Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
  • ASIN: B003D63G5E
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #73,222 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
  • Learn more about "Close-Up (The Criterion Collection)" on IMDb

Special Features

  • New, restored high-definition digital transfer
  • Audio commentary by Mehrnaz Saeed-Vafa and Jonathan Rosenbaum
  • The Traveler, a notable early feature by director Abbas Kiarostami
  • "Close-up" Long Shot, a 45 min documentary on Hossein Sabzian
  • New video interview with Kiarostami
  • A Walk with Kiarostami, a 32 minute documentary portrait of the director
  • New and improved English subtitle translation
  • PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film scholar Godfrey Cheshire

  • Editorial Reviews

    Internationally revered Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami (Taste of Cherry, Ten) has created some of the most inventive and transcendent cinema of the past thirty years, and CLOSE-UP is his most radical, brilliant work. This fiction-documentary hybrid uses a sensational real-life event--the arrest of a young man on charges that he fraudulently impersonated well-known filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf--as the basis for a stunning, multilayered investigation into movies, identity, artistic creation, and existence, in which the real people from the case play themselves. With its universal themes and fascinating narrative knots, CLOSE-UP continues to resonate with viewers around the world.

    Customer Reviews

    3.9 out of 5 stars
    (15)
    3.9 out of 5 stars
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    Most Helpful Customer Reviews
    36 of 38 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
    Format: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.... Read more ›
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    23 of 25 people found the following review helpful
    Format: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.
    ... Read more ›
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    6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
    5.0 out of 5 stars Assumed identity . . . March 27, 2010
    Format:DVD
    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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    4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
    5.0 out of 5 stars Close-Up July 11, 2007
    Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
    This brilliant dramatic re-creation of an unusual case of criminal impersonation examines the conceits of cinema on one hand, but also the state of post-revolutionary Iranian society, where dire poverty and lack of opportunities can crush aspirations, artistic or otherwise. The writer-director, Abbas Kiarostami ("A Taste of Cherry"), read about Sabzian's predicament in a magazine article, decided to film the trial, and then asked everyone involved to play themselves. A fascinating mash-up of reality and artifice, "Close-Up" is a minor miracle of engaged storytelling whose compassionate final minutes will leave an indelible impression.
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    Most Recent Customer Reviews
    5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant! -- must watch more than once...
    And this edition from the Criterion Collection is exceptionally good with restored footage, descriptive booklet and bonus material including a second film, The Traveler.
    Published 2 months ago by Diana Prechter
    5.0 out of 5 stars ABBAS IS ALWAYS A MASTER AT CATCHING HUMAN SPIRITS.
    ABBAS IS ALWAYS A MASTER AT CATCHING HUMAN SPIRITS. CLOSE-UP IS REALLY ORDINARY, BUT THERE ARE ALWAYS SOME THINGS THAT WILL CATCH YOU AT SOME MOENTS WHILE WATCHING.
    Published 4 months ago by HAN XIAO
    4.0 out of 5 stars Need some patience
    One has to be patient with this movie. You may find it a little boring at first, but it finally touches you in the end. Read more
    Published 6 months ago by ipjackie
    3.0 out of 5 stars Good
    Although this film was made almost two decades ago, there is an odd feeling one gets while watching Sabzuian, for he looks very much like Iran's current wacko President, Mahmoud... Read more
    Published 12 months ago by Cosmoetica
    3.0 out of 5 stars Kiarostami's Famous Film Now On Criterion Blu Ray To Mixed Results!
    This is the second Iranian film that I've watched with the first one being also on this disc as the Special Feature bonus "The Traveler" which I actually enjoyed watching more than... Read more
    Published 23 months ago by Frederick Baptist
    1.0 out of 5 stars Like going to a family dinner
    The idea behind the movie is OK: a man pretends to be a famous director, and receives gifts from a family because they're impressed. Read more
    Published on March 6, 2011 by Huldren
    3.0 out of 5 stars Abbas Kiarostami's second Criterion release
    This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film

    Close-Up is directed by Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami. Read more
    Published on December 26, 2010 by Ted
    4.0 out of 5 stars Humane
    Like other movies by this director, Close-Up moves slowly but somehow develops a quiet momentum that continues after the screen goes dark. Read more
    Published on October 31, 2007 by Glen Koehn
    4.0 out of 5 stars A Simple Film...
    Elegant, mystifying, sad, beautful, these are just some of the words and feelings which come to mind having watched Close Up. The mixing of genres; is it fact, is it fiction etc. Read more
    Published on December 9, 2003 by Ken Walshe
    1.0 out of 5 stars This movie will get you snoozing faster than ..........l
    I have attempted to watch this movie more than 5 times in the last 6 months, only to find myself bored beyond belief within the first 15 minutes. Read more
    Published on August 5, 2003 by Ray E.
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