612 Certified Copy

[Jeff]

Certified Copy



The great Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami travels to Tuscany for a luminous and provocative romance in which nothing is as it appears. What seems at first to be a straightforward tale of two people—played by Oscar-winning actress Juliette Binoche and opera singer William Shimell—getting to know each other over the course of an afternoon gradually reveals itself as something richer, stranger, and trickier: a mind-bending reflection on authenticity, in art as well as in relationships. Both cerebrally and emotionally engaging, Certified Copy (Copie conforme) reminds us that love itself is an enigma.

DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION:

- New high-definition digital restoration, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
- The rarely seen 1977 Kiarostami film The Report, which deals with similar themes
- New interview with director Abbas Kiarostami
- Let’s See “Copia conforme,” an Italian documentary on the making of Certified Copy, featuring interviews with Kiarostami and actors Juliette Binoche and William Shimell
- Trailer
- New English subtitle translation
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic Godfrey Cheshire

[perkizitore]

Despite a smattering of post-screening boos at Cannes, it sounds like Kiarostami is back in peak form.

A captivating cinematic divertissement, Certified Copy marries post-modern reality games with mature romantic comedy in a single breezy and thought-provoking package... Imagine a middle-aged Before Sunrise rolled up with Under the Tuscan Sun but spiked with elements of The Game.

Delicate and mysterious, this is the kind of movie about which it’s best to say relatively little; I’d encourage those of a trusting nature to just resolve to see it as soon as it comes anywhere near you... it’s possible to view Certified Copy as an exercise in gamesmanship along the lines of Last Year In Marienbad, but its tone is closer to a philosophical, magical-realist, fiftysomething version of Before Sunset—one in which identity is mutable and emotion is paramount. Best of all, Kiarostami the magnificent imagemaker is back with a vengeance—there are sequences here as stunning in their use of offscreen space as anything he’s done before, coupled with a massive leap forward in his recent fascination with the close-up. (No, it does not date back to Close-Up.) Welcome back, Abbas. I missed you. [Grade: A-]

I'm still at a bit of a loss to tell you what Certified Copy is about. I'm pretty sure it's about a relationship between two people, either real, faked, or imagined. I know that it stars Juliette Binoche and William Shimell, and it takes place in Italy. Those feel like facts. But the specifics of the plot? It's all a spoiler; contradictory information is presented throughout, and I don't think there's meant to be a "true" answer. Still, it's an amazing film, and one worthy of our adoration [Grade: A]

It sounds like a future favorite of my mum!

[harry]

I'm in Italy at the moment and have the opportunity to see this film tonight. The catch is that the subtitles will, of course, be in Italian (which I don't speak/read). I'm really tempted to go anyway, but I realize the experience may be unbearably frustrating. Advice?

[mrmarbach]

It may be too late, but if I were you I would go. It can be very interesting when one doesn't really understand the language. And even more interesting to then watch it with subtitles at a later date.

Anyway, you're not watching it just to understand the words, are you...

[DDillaman]

I'm 10 days into the NZ Film Festival, and now that I've seen this I'm relieved to say that I've finally seen a masterpiece at the festival. The fact that comparisons range from LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD to BEFORE SUNSET should give you a sense of just how unique and special this film is (I was reminded of HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR in one late scene). It's rare that a film that's so freaking smart and inquisitive, as well as so formally strong, is also so just flat out enjoyable and funny. It's been ages since I've read any, but for some reason I felt some assonances with the playfulness of Kundera. It's been a while since I've seen Kiarostami and I don't remember him having much of a sense of humor, but now I worry I missed it in translation or dryness or something. (I did find the repeated pilgrimages for cell-phone coverage in THE WIND WILL CARRY US funny, to be fair.)

And yet it's hardly "just" a comedy: about 30 seconds after the film ended I got hit with a wave of tears. There's a lot of true raw emotion under all the gamesmanship, and I imagine more than a few members of this forum will find a few uncomfortable assonances along the way.

If I see another film this good at the festival, I'll be damn lucky.

[tenia]

Personnally, I've been quite disappointed by the movie.

Kiarostami job behind the camera is quite good, but I found as a whole the writing kind of lazy. Binoche spends half the movie with wet eyes (reminding me of Jolie in The Changeling), and James is a so monodimensional character it is much closer to the caricature than anything else.

Still, there are also some real nice moments, especially with the Italian mamma in the coffee shop, but what about it ?
Basically, the scene I prefered was the one where it's explained that Hey ! Guys are guys, and women should just accept that and deal with it.

And god ! Binoche's boy was awful ! I wanted to bash him after 5 seconds. If the purpose was to have an unbearable kid because he's a guy too, well, good job.

[Fierias]

My reaction to the film is pretty close to DDillaman's (right down to the unexpected tears when the credits started). Some of the performances were a bit hammy, which put me off a bit until I reality the intentionality of every moment. I'm not sure what is so offputting for tenia about the boy, I thought he was pretty good, and he is hardly even in the film. The only character I have reservations with is James, who at least comes off as charming. I hadn't connected it with Marienbad until now, but now it seems obvious.

[tenia]

I'm not sure what is so offputting for tenia about the boy, I thought he was pretty good, and he is hardly even in the film. The only character I have reservations with is James, who at least comes off as charming. I hadn't connected it with Marienbad until now, but now it seems obvious.

I really felt as Kiarostami tried to empathize to women through Binoche's character : she has kind of an unhappy marriage, bla bla bla. But, as he empathizes to women, he seems to show figures of "mean" men, even Jean Claude Carrière, which summarize women as people who just want men to put their hands on their shoulders to feel good.

So far, I would say 'OK, it's a very simplistic way of seeing this, but OK".
But there is also this boy, man AND kid at the same time, enough for Kiarostami to say "Yeah, women really suffer because of us guys, even since we're only little boys".

I felt like it was too much.

That's pretty much what kept me out of the emotion, but maybe I missed the point (and that's pretty possible).

[Michael Kerpan]

tenia --

have you seen Ten?

[tenia]

have you seen Ten?

Not at all. If I remember well (I can have seen another one movie from him without knowing he directed it), it was my first Kiarostami.

[Michael Kerpan]

Your criticism of the new film is similar to a lot of the negative reiews of Ten when this first came out -- including the statement that the main character's young son was annoying. ;~}

[zedz]

Put me in the plus column. I saw this just after Police, Adjective, and it struck me as having very similar qualities of dealing with abstract ideas in an intelligent, sophisticated and playful way without disturbing the straightforward surface of what superficially appears to be an entirely different kind of film. It manages to explore its thesis in extraordinary detail without elevating that subtext awkwardly to text. If only every intellectually ambitious film could resist that temptation! And it's also, pointedly, just the sort of film (a light, witty Tuscan romance) it's counterfeiting as well as being simultaneously something entirely different: a Kiarostami film of ideas in the tradition of Close Up, Life and Nothing More and The Wind Will Carry Us.

Tenia, I think the point of the Carriere scene - and specifically his advice - is that we are supposed to consider whether or not the counterfeit gesture of the counterfeit couple differs materially from an 'authentic' gesture. After all, he's really touching Binoche and she seems to be really responding. And the broader implications of this can be traced out - aren't all 'calculated' (or conscious) gestures, words, actions equally counterfeit and equally genuine? And if you can't know whether a gesture is 'authentic' or 'counterfeit', can you really privilege authenticity. And this is just one single gesture in the film (which, in traditionally playful Kiarostami manner, occurs when our view of it is momentarily blocked) - just about every moment plugs into the same matrix of ideas and raises its own questions.

Oh, and further to the characterisation of Binoche, don't forget that she's the one who's calling the shots in the film's various relationships (even, just about, in the original, cinematic meaning of that phrase)

[tenia]

Your criticism of the new film is similar to a lot of the negative reiews of Ten when this first came out -- including the statement that the main character's young son was annoying. ;~}

I didn't know that at all. But thanks for the info. I thought about seeing it, though. Maybe soon.

Tenia, I think the point of the Carriere scene - and specifically his advice - is that we are supposed to consider whether or not the counterfeit gesture of the counterfeit couple differs materially from an 'authentic' gesture. After all, he's really touching Binoche and she seems to be really responding. And the broader implications of this can be traced out - aren't all 'calculated' (or conscious) gestures, words, actions equally counterfeit and equally genuine? And if you can't know whether a gesture is 'authentic' or 'counterfeit', can you really privilege authenticity.

No offence, but all this seems to me to be nothing else but over interpretation.

I just saw a guy trying a lazy thing to vaguely save his couple, which he seems not to care about anyway. So moreover, he's a faker !

That's also something that really disturbed me : the whole movie is about Binoche running after this guy. And he just doesn't care, since the very beginning ! His stand doesn't move at all, from the beginning until the end : he doesn't care, he doesn't remember, he doesn't like what she likes, he doesn't say nice thing, he doesn't notice her jewelry or make up, bla bla bla

Everything he does is negative, and he doesn't evolve from that at all.

This lack of evolution, this whole character just prevent me from being interested by him, thus from being interested by Binoche trying to reconquer him.
It was like seeing a friend in love in a guy who is just not for her.

At first, you watch, vaguely interested. Then, when you see that he really isn't for her, but that she's just stubborn to death, you just go away.

And this is just one single gesture in the film (which, in traditionally playful Kiarostami manner, occurs when our view of it is momentarily blocked) - just about every moment plugs into the same matrix of ideas and raises its own questions.

Well, if it's usual for Kiarostami, I think I just don't like his style. That scene, with the tree preventing us from seeing James putting his hand on Binoche's shoulder just made me say "Blah, of course, we won't see it".

At a whole, in fact, I think I just found the movie too easy as a whole.

[zedz]

Thanks for the replies, Tenia, though obviously we're not likely to see eye to eye on this film. But anyway, a few random responses.

No offence, but all this seems to me to be nothing else but over interpretation.

Well, the film is thematically about interpretation (how reception rather than origination confers value) and even, arguably, about over-interpretation (think about the 'origin story' of James' essay), so what do you expect!

I just saw a guy trying a lazy thing to vaguely save his couple, which he seems not to care about anyway. So moreover, he's a faker !

Bingo! And I hardly think it's an accident that it was Carriere who was cast in this role.

That's also something that really disturbed me : the whole movie is about Binoche running after this guy.

Well, that's not at all what I saw, and if you think back to the incident that started everything (five years before the film begins), you might reconsider where the film's different performances begin and end.

Everything he does is negative, and he doesn't evolve from that at all.

Are you talking about the author or the 'husband'? Don't forget that it's Binoche who scripts and casts the latter role. Just because there isn't a character specifically called 'the director' in this film (as there is in Close Up, Life and Nothing More, Through the Olive Trees and The Wind Will Carry Us) doesn't mean the film doesn't have one - the same applies for Taste of Cherry.

It was like seeing a friend in love in a guy who is just not for her.

If you stick half of those words into quotation marks, this could be a pretty useful entry point for the film.

[ellipsis7]

UK trailer... Is released theatrically by AE so we should expect a DVD from them late 2010/early 2011 I presume...

[denti alligator]

Was this shot on film or DV?

[Fierias]

film; it looks spectacular, too.

Edit: must correct myself, it was shot on Red, and transferred to film.

[gyorgys]

MK2 announces Copie Conforme for late September 2010.

[ellipsis7]

MK2 have expanded their list of audio options on the French DVD release...

Audio:
Français:DD5.1
Anglais:DD5.1
International:DD
Français:DD2.0
Anglais:DD2.0
Sous-titres:
Français

[Don Lope de Aguirre]

Interesting review in the New Statesman

[ellipsis7]

Coming from AE on Jan 10th on Blu Ray & DVD... Intriguing film, conceptually sometimes a little schematic, lots of characteristic AK tropes finessed, ultimately leaving a pretty indelible and positive impression... His decoupage is especially masterful...

[J Adams]

Easily his best film. Abbas please do more real cinema. Possibly the best film of 2010, ham and all.

[swo17]

Beautiful film, though the less one knows going in, the better.

Spoiler

I love how many layers of copies we've reached by the end. We have a copy of a couple trying to copy (relive) the supposed "origin" of the copied couple (the honeymoon) with Binoche reciting seductive lines that she is no doubt copying from her own romantic dalliances (or perhaps even her experience viewing those of others) in the past. Beat that, Inception!

[ilan]

Does anyone know if the movie speaks only English or other languages too?

[ellipsis7]

Does anyone know if the movie speaks only English or other languages too?

I'm not quite sure what you mean, but the three languages spoken in the film are English, French and Italian...