Another deep look at humanity and cinema from Kiarostami. The layers of irony and meta-commentary are astounding. Just like Taste of Cherry and Copie Conforme, Close-up is a film I'm going to be thinking about for a long time.
This story is so achingly beautiful. No fiction compares to the curiousness of real people.
I can't believe what he did at the end of this film. How did he dare to humiliate the protagonist by taking him to his friend Mohsen Makhmalbaf to apologize and cry. This is the most conservative film I have ever seen. Repent is a virtue!!!
If you are invisible in your society, you don't have the right to trick this foolish society, which runs after stars, to get some respect. And at the end when he is arrested, he should repent for what he did and promise not to do this again and apologize to his hypocrite society and their stars. A typical arrogant middle-class moral. Of course it is well-wrapped in a storytelling style.
It's more like "meeting" his idol than apologizing him (which is deeply touching)... and how do you suppose they set Sabzian free in order not to be conservative, bombing the jail and get help from Rambo? You've certainly noticed this film is not fiction (it's documentary) and you're certainly aware that things work different in real life.
Close-Up captures Kiarostami's 'art of looking' as recall in a cinematic world that refers only to itself and what is real in itself. This idea, best comprehended through Sabzian's description of himself as akin to the protagonist of Kiarostami's earlier film The Traveler, is one of the finest embodiment of the Deleuzian notion of "repetition" in film, or elsewhere for that matter, that I've ever seen.
this film is a fascinating masterpiece. what seems real is utterly fake and what seems fake is perhaps the most real. the characters within characters is fascinating. and the fact that kiarostami gives a documentary feel to something which is mostly staged is perfection. the comments on the idols of cinema in iran and the manner of social positions is also brilliant. this is one of the landmark cinematic works.
For me, exactly this film shows what cinema can do. What is simple sometimes is more true and says more about a person than any philosophical movie.
"Art is the experience of what you've felt inside". This sentence proves that Kiarostami is a true artist. 5 stars
Wow. What more can you say. Any attempt at synopsizing this film would reduce it to less than it is, or at least set one up to see something other than what this film is. One of the most human and moving films I have ever seen. The best angle on cinema-verite and neo-realism principles. The human spirit in all it's grandeur.
To be able to do a film like this makes you a brilliant man. He impressed me with each and every film. There's not one wasted moment in all of his films (that I've seen)
Got to see this again at the Cinematheque yesterday. Words can't describe how this movie makes me feel.
never been a "simple" film like this has a very emotionally involving effect as this in my life. Just like the film title, whenever the camera takes a close-up shot into the face of Ali Sabzian, the Makhmalbaf imposter, the feeling is a feeling of fragility, and yet, makes me deeply symphathise into his character.
This is a great film. One of my favorites. I didn’t like the other two Kiarostami films I have seen, whereas this just blew my mind. Rarely have I seen such fidelity to characters in a film.
Directed at Kimberly: That's the beauty of the film, intentional or not? Fictional or not?
So the part when the sound cuts out, is it intentional or not? I've always wondered what other fans of the film thought.
Best Kiarostami work I have seen thus far, he gets truly deep into the characters in "Close-Up" (for once, every piece of dialogue is valuable) and his examination of reality vs. fiction is more intricate than ever. Great film.
