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Close-Up
Abbas Kiarostami's stripped-down, hand-held, available-light, strictly linear
semi-documentary films, have been praised as works of minimalist genius and
dismissed as snore-fests. His influence among Iranian filmmakers and the
esteem with which Kiarostami is held among Western critics and filmmakers
should be a clue that while his films may challenge audiences accustomed to
Hollywood action movies, his way of seeing presents a perspective that can
actually expand our own culturally-conditioned (and limited more than we
realize) sense of reality. Fortunately, Kiarostami's
universally-acknowledged masterpiece, Close-Up is his most accessible
film and one in which his ongoing projects of questioning conventional
reality and the conventions of cinema are suited precisely to the subject
matter. The protagonist, Mr. Sabzian is a lonely, unemployed Iranian man who
wants to be somebody: so he impersonates a famous film director, Moshen
Makhmalbaf (director of Kandahar and Gabbeh among others).
When Mr. Sabzian's fantasy lands him on trial for attempted fraud, matters of
reality and the movies become both form and content as Kiarostami combines
documentary footage from the trial with re-enactment of the story involving
all the participants. The unvarnished longing of the would-be director and
the audacity of the real one make this film an unforgettable experience
— especially when Mr. Sabzian finally confronts his would-be
doppelganger, the real Moshen Makhmalbaf.
Copyright 2002, Cornerstone Communications, Inc.
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