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in 2020 i set out to watch at least a film a day. spoiler: i didn't. i did managed to get just over 250 under my belt, which was a lot more than i thought possible given that i was working 44h a week at the time. one of the 34 films i watched in april (look, i was working remotely during that month. there's a lot o can accomplish when no one's watching me do my thing and i don't have to spend two hours a day on a bus) was certified copy.
i wasn't familiar with kiarostami's work. i saw it on richard ayoade's criterion closet video and decided to give it a chance. To be quite honest i wasn't really impressed during the first half of it. but halfway through it i felt like someone had flipped a switch in my brain. it's a very particular scene; you'll know it when you watch it.
it starts as a wonderful conversation on the meaning of originality, and then evolves into an exploration on the main characters' relationship, dancing on the line between fact and fiction. kiarostami was a master on the art of dialogue and metalanguage, and certified copy is just another example of it (check out the koker trilogy if you love this kind of stuff). it kickly became my favourite film, and every time i rewatch it i spend a few hours processing it.
Jan 23, 2024
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I can't recommend something without explaining why it's good in my world.
Well, it seems I've found my favorite Tarkovsky film that completely captivated me—soul, eyes, heart, and ears. It's probably one of the most beautiful and aesthetic films I've ever seen.
I've often heard from stuffy film historians that the director's last two films are a self-parody of himself, suggesting that the form has become so pronounced that it now seems more like an imitation of Tarkovsky rather than Tarkovsky's own work.
Well. We dismiss that opinion and establish our own viewpoint. It's hard to abstract from the author and view the work in isolation from the facts, but despite the autobiographical nature of the beloved "Mirror" (which I didn't enjoy at all)—"Nostalghia" so far seems to me the most intimate, personal, sublimated, and reflective (and prophetic).
The theme of emigration, of the male creator, a Russian in Italy, far from home and consumed internally by guilt for abandoning his family—this is literally cinema about himself. Moreover, the film focuses more on the director's favorite idea—the sacrifice of the artist for humanity.
The visuals are as impeccable as possible. Tarkovsky no longer holds back and makes films that are visually closer to his beloved Fellini and Bergman, rather than his early works.
I admit, this is the first time I've seen Oleg Yankovsky, and now I understand the whole cult around his persona. He's truly monumental. An absolute powerhouse, every frame stolen completely, even if he is standing with his back to the audience and just breathing heavily.
The finale with the candle was the most unusual cinematic experience for me in recent years. A true spiritual revelation occurred on screen. The suspense is breath-holding, yet plot-wise, everything happening is safe.
Ten minutes of continuous meditative take, in which Yankovsky's character tries to light a candle and carry it through a small route—truly charged action, which you experience together with the hero almost to a religious catharsis in the finale. Absolute grandeur.
The final shot of a small house grown inside a destroyed temple is one of the strongest visual images I have ever seen. I sat in the cinema in complete stasis, afraid to move, and when it started to snow, I nearly lost my breath. It's been a long time since a film has captivated me like this.
P.S. I still need to watch "Ivan's Childhood" and "The Sacrifice."
P.P.S. If you don't know Russian(Italian), you'll need to prepare to read subtitles because there is no English version.
Jun 10, 2024
If you love it or if you don’t, this is a must see. A great work not just to introduce the iranian cinema but to also introduce a different culture and how creators find their ways to create through limitations. Iam absolutely amazed by this short film!!
Mar 31, 2024
What a lovely little shadowbox of a film.
The plot concerns a quiet man, Hirayama, who works as a public toilet cleaner in Tokyo's Shibuya ward. And his highly structured, routinized way of living both on the job as well as his leisure time pursuits (his passion for music, played mostly on vintage cassettes in his van throughout the movie; nature photography done the old-fashioned analog way; and reading the works of authors such as Faulkner and Aya Koda). There are some scenes that are highly reminiscent of the way that Sofia Coppola depicted Tokyo in "Lost in Translation" - dreamy, impressionistic, focused on images of beauty and human emotion vs. script that "moves the plot along."
Tokyo is one of my favorite places in the world and it's reminding me I need to get back there soon.
PS: Uncle Lou Reed would have been very proud of this film had he lived to see it.
PPS: Boy is Koji Yakusho amazing in the lead role. No wonder he won best actor at Cannes last year for this performance.
Apr 11, 2024
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this straw shall not break this camel's back!!!!!!!
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