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Certified copy - (2010) - Kiarostami
The act of looking at illusions
Art house flick. The set-up? A writer (William Shimell) is in Tuscany on a book tour for his latest opus: Certified copy, an artsy fartsy essay on the nature of reproduction in art. He advances the premise that a knock-off is just as good as an original. He does his reading and book signing. And the next day, he's got a day to kill before his train leaves later that night, so he accepts an invitation from an art dealer (Juliette Binoche) to show him a little sight seeing. She opts for a day trip to the nearby village of Luciagno. On the surface, the film is a walking tour of a this small Tuscan village with an intellectual conversation between two strangers.
They filter life through their respective personalities. Being an author and an intellectual, James, is at home parsing the smallest sliver of thought and can pontificate on emotional minutiae---yet he's also surprisingly earthy. She's vibrant and emotional with both feet planted in the here and now but quick to challenge some of his assumptions when need be.
But perception depends on reality and reality depends on information. There's a scene in the film that perfectly illustrates this: William watches a middle aged couple in a courtyard, the man (with his back to him) is haranguing his wife, so much so, one fears for the woman's safety. Then the man does a quarter turn and everything we assumed about them completely changes.
The film grows by narrative echoes. These little details, suggest something deeper or completely spin the story in a totally new direction depending on how authentic they were. This constant playfulness between the real and the imagined produces a kind of delicate vertigo that makes certain scenes in the film quite stirring.
Now, the 64 dollar question, will you like it? In the first person, spending a day strolling through a Tuscan village would be a treasured memory---years if not decades later one would recall the line of newlyweds waiting to have their picture taken before the golden tree; or walking through a darkened passageway and suddenly coming into a sun dappled plaza; or having lunch beneath leafy trees at a sidewalk terrace with a light breeze dancing with the table cloth; or the lapping of the water in the fountain; or the minuscule museums crammed with tourists and treasure. But alas, we are watching a distillation of that experience. How deeply can a copy resonate within you? It's up to the viewer to decide.
Also, the narrative is wonderfully open ended; at the end of the film what we thought was real and what was fake---with only a slight dilation of the eyes the exact opposite is also true ... and what exactly was being copied there? It's up to the viewer to decide.
Certified copy ~
Wow, what a difference a re-watch makes. Ten years later, instead of two strangers on the make in this tourist town; this is now clearly, an old married couple bickering their way through the afternoon, He is on a book tour, so he is only touching base with her, he has an evening train to catch later on. An instead of a first visit (they only live 30 minutes over in the next town) this was the location of their honeymoon 15 years earlier, so the visit is a rather shabby copy of that event. In a café, their babysitter first calls him, then annoyingly calls her immediately afterwards not knowing they are sitting across from one another and she blows up angrily. This ancient village is awash with young married couples positively vibrating with happiness putting James in the minority. Part of the wedding ritual here is a visit to a museum as a talisman for happiness; each couple will have a copy of themselves standing with the golden tree. James isn't down with the show, in fact he has a hissy fit in the museum refusing to be photographed with a young couple that has requested their presence in their picture because he doesn't want to encourage all this emotional sap. The truth is, the majority of them will grow distant and break apart. I loved all the echoes here; twice their couple is contrasted with a couple that is growing old together.
The act of looking at illusions
Art house flick. The set-up? A writer (William Shimell) is in Tuscany on a book tour for his latest opus: Certified copy, an artsy fartsy essay on the nature of reproduction in art. He advances the premise that a knock-off is just as good as an original. He does his reading and book signing. And the next day, he's got a day to kill before his train leaves later that night, so he accepts an invitation from an art dealer (Juliette Binoche) to show him a little sight seeing. She opts for a day trip to the nearby village of Luciagno. On the surface, the film is a walking tour of a this small Tuscan village with an intellectual conversation between two strangers.
They filter life through their respective personalities. Being an author and an intellectual, James, is at home parsing the smallest sliver of thought and can pontificate on emotional minutiae---yet he's also surprisingly earthy. She's vibrant and emotional with both feet planted in the here and now but quick to challenge some of his assumptions when need be.
But perception depends on reality and reality depends on information. There's a scene in the film that perfectly illustrates this: William watches a middle aged couple in a courtyard, the man (with his back to him) is haranguing his wife, so much so, one fears for the woman's safety. Then the man does a quarter turn and everything we assumed about them completely changes.
The film grows by narrative echoes. These little details, suggest something deeper or completely spin the story in a totally new direction depending on how authentic they were. This constant playfulness between the real and the imagined produces a kind of delicate vertigo that makes certain scenes in the film quite stirring.
Now, the 64 dollar question, will you like it? In the first person, spending a day strolling through a Tuscan village would be a treasured memory---years if not decades later one would recall the line of newlyweds waiting to have their picture taken before the golden tree; or walking through a darkened passageway and suddenly coming into a sun dappled plaza; or having lunch beneath leafy trees at a sidewalk terrace with a light breeze dancing with the table cloth; or the lapping of the water in the fountain; or the minuscule museums crammed with tourists and treasure. But alas, we are watching a distillation of that experience. How deeply can a copy resonate within you? It's up to the viewer to decide.
Also, the narrative is wonderfully open ended; at the end of the film what we thought was real and what was fake---with only a slight dilation of the eyes the exact opposite is also true ... and what exactly was being copied there? It's up to the viewer to decide.
Certified copy ~
Wow, what a difference a re-watch makes. Ten years later, instead of two strangers on the make in this tourist town; this is now clearly, an old married couple bickering their way through the afternoon, He is on a book tour, so he is only touching base with her, he has an evening train to catch later on. An instead of a first visit (they only live 30 minutes over in the next town) this was the location of their honeymoon 15 years earlier, so the visit is a rather shabby copy of that event. In a café, their babysitter first calls him, then annoyingly calls her immediately afterwards not knowing they are sitting across from one another and she blows up angrily. This ancient village is awash with young married couples positively vibrating with happiness putting James in the minority. Part of the wedding ritual here is a visit to a museum as a talisman for happiness; each couple will have a copy of themselves standing with the golden tree. James isn't down with the show, in fact he has a hissy fit in the museum refusing to be photographed with a young couple that has requested their presence in their picture because he doesn't want to encourage all this emotional sap. The truth is, the majority of them will grow distant and break apart. I loved all the echoes here; twice their couple is contrasted with a couple that is growing old together.