Customer Reviews

Close-up [VHS]

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1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

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

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.

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.

Like other movies by this director, Close-Up moves slowly but somehow develops a quiet momentum that continues after the screen goes dark. I think this is partly due to Kiarostami's sincerity. He feels a genuine interest and affection for his characters, and his movies can give you a powerful sense that yes, their lives are really like that, revealed in repetitions and small struggles.

The New Yorker excerpt quoted above suggests that Close-Up contains a protest against religious authority in Iran. I don't see this as a main theme. There may be some subtle reading on which post revolutionary Iranian society is criticized, but the Islamic judge in the trial appears as a fair minded man and not in the least a zealot. He helps bring about a satisfying resolution. Of all the characters it's the journalist who comes off looking most like a shabby opportunist.

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. all leave you wondering afterwards, asking yourself what is reality, what is fiction?

That a movie as deceptively simple as this one has the power to stimulate one's mind in such a profound way is a great tribute to the filmaker. It also goes to show that there is a part of our brains, by-passed by almost all contemporary, Western cinema, which is open to simple stories about humble humanity and it's wayard dreams.

If all this sounds a little bit o.t.t., then watch the movie for yourself, allow it wash over you and I guarantee you will get an itch somewhere deep in your head, the part which actually makes you human.

Quintessential cinema from the master Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami, it weaves dramatic reconstruction and documentary reportage in the actual story of a man - Hossain Sabzian - who is charged with fraud and impersonation, when he ingratiates himself into the midst of a well off Tehran family, who take him for the famed Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf. Against the background of the real court case, Kiarostami examines the relativities of truth and untruth, playing with the fabricated artiface of film, and evolving ultimately a celebration of the human spirit and imagination, and of cinema itself.

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 the main course. "Close-Up" isn't bad it's just that "The Traveler" moved me more and appears to be the overall better film. This Criterion Collection Blu-ray version of the film is a mixed bag. The picture quality is patchy with some frames looking really good on 1080p and the others not so good. The sound quality only comes in mono which isn't too bad given that this film is mostly dialogue-driven but still it would have been nice to have had surround sound options.

The storyline is interesting though about a poor man who dares to dream outside of his current position in life resorting to escapism in the form of becoming a movie nut and imagining too deeply about being his own favourite movie director, Makhmalbaf, that when the chance came along to impersonate him, he decides to play along to see just how far he can get away with it. You sense that although he expressed remorse in court to escape jail-time his moment in the sun when he was able to fool people in a higher social status than him albeit for a short while that he was actually pleased that he was able to pull off the very thing that he had always dreamt of being which is a famous and good actor. He had that satisfied look that said that "I'm so poor there is nothing really worse that you can do to me but you cannot take away the fact I was able to act so well to get away with it for so long and to enjoy my 15 minutes of fame and now my life is complete!"

This is a touching story and you can't help but root for the underdog and it shows the great gap between the rich and the poor and how despondent the poor can get when it seems no matter how hard they try they cannot break out of their realities except in the dream or fantasy world and for Sabzian at least for a while he had great difficulty distinguishing between the real and the unreal.

Overall this is a good Criterion release seeing as how you get two feature films and while "Close-Up" is good I still liked "The Traveler" better.

This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film

Close-Up is directed by Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami. It is loosely based on a true story of a man who was arrested for impersonating a famous movie director. The film depicts the man's trial and events leading up to it. I thought this was a great film and would like to see more of Kiarostami's films. His films are very interesting and interest in Iranian cinema is growing in the west due to his work.

The DVD includes commentary by Kiarostimi scholars Mehrnaz Saeed-Vafa and Jonathan Rosenbaum, Kiarostami's first film "The Traveler" Interviews with Kirarostami, a look at the film's subject, Hossein Sabzian, and a 2003 documentary on Kiarostami.

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. When the family finds out they've been conned, they take the man to court, and this part of the story is filmed in real time during the actual trial.

And that brings us to the biggest problem of the movie: there is no plot here, just a series of speeches. And speeches. And more speeches... The whole movie is filmed with what looks like a low-budget 70s camera, and it never ends. With scenes this long, I need more than just the underlying meta-philosophy to contemplate, but there's nothing: no music (other than for one scene at the end), no nice cinematography, and the people simply aren't interesting enough to carry it all by themselves.

Another puzzling thing is that even though everyone involved is real, they still come across as terrible actors; ill-prepared, and they keep repeating themselves. I'm not expecting real people to speak like script writers, but when I'm watching someone talk for an hour and a half, I need them to be somewhat eloquent or at least smart. Maybe the low education of some of the people onscreen is meant to be part of the appeal. Does that make it more real?

To me, the idea behind this movie is a lot more interesting than the actual film. Watching the movie is like being at a family dinner, with the most boring family members ever. Someone please pass me the soup.