1990 ‘کلوزآپ ، نمای نزدیک’ Directed by Abbas Kiarostami
This fiction-documentary hybrid uses a sensational real-life event—the arrest of a young man on charges that he fraudulently impersonated the well-known filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf—as the basis for a stunning, multilayered investigation into movies, identity, artistic creation, and existence, in which the real people from the case play themselves.
100/100
Cinema, even within its immaculate bursts of truth, is a realm of masks and modest deceit. The mystical aura of the screen is the equivalent of a magician's assistant, cluttering and distracting the audience from the formation of the tapestry of the entire experience. Close-up, directed by Abbas Kiarostami, is a stirring deconstruction of cinema and its various influences on society and its audience. With natural and affecting "performances", a faultless sense of editing, and a monstrously quintessential view on the power of moving images; Close-up is simply one of the greatest films ever made (maybe even THE greatest) and one of most extraordinary viewing experiences that I've ever had.
For a film to weave fact and fiction so…
PTAbro's World Tour Stop 16: Iran
This is the story of a liar. An earnest man who lies for the sake of art. A fabricator of reality, in order to control the immediate, the susceptible, the observers. One man who takes a situation he is presented with, twists the facts, and presents them as truth. He manufactures a role, and draws others into the world he is creating; taking normal people and turning them into participants in a thought experiment to see how much they will believe, how far can he take it before it all falls apart. Suspicions arise, but he has a gift for soothing the wary. He creates a back-story, seemingly on a whim, and strengthens his…
100
"We'd like to film this trial. Is that all right with you?"
"All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up."
Close-Up is pretty damn flawless. It is a minimalistic yet nothing short of unique, humanistic, sad and layered work of empathy, understanding, a film about film, art and how it affects us, about wanting to be someone you're not. It is a film difficult to describe and classify, but what Kiarostami achieves by subverting genre in his storytelling is remarkable. Sabzian's film obsession is very relatable, his little speeches in the court room gets to me. And what a beautiful, beautiful ending with the most gorgeous piece of music, can't really get better than that. That last freeze-frame. Magic. Masterpiece. How was this even made?
As Close-Up proceeded, I immediately thought of Color Me Kubrick, another true story about someone impersonating a famous, but somewhat reclusive director. While Color Me Kubrick was an amusing film, made especially absurd by John Malkovich’s portrayal, it wasn't really anything to write home about. One thing that did strike me with Close-Up was the opening credits, where everyone was listed as playing ‘themselves’. Now that’s novel. Is this a prank?
Those thoughts quickly vanished as I began to get sucked deeper and deeper into this beguilingly simple re-enacted quasi documentary. As I was watching, I simply couldn't rationalize why it captivated me so. Absent was dramatic tension, traditional plot beats, court room emotional histrionics, anger, or tears. Just calm,…
The act of watching films is almost laughable in its strangeness. For a couple of hours we believe that the people onscreen actually exist, and their stories have the power to move us in ways that stories in real life cannot.
Close-Up is about a man who impersonates a director he admires. He carries out in real life the same conceit that films do, except this time nobody knows subconsciously that he's just pretending. There was never a moment when I was sure that I was watching a documentary or a film.
The film eschews all traditional methods of storytelling to focus almost exclusively on brilliant, self-aware dialogue. At the beginning of the film, the impersonator, Hossain Sabzian, asks the…
I don't really know what to say. There's a lot of hype surrounding this and I was pretty excited to finally watch it. It didn't really meet all of my expectations. Sure, the last 10 minutes are incredible and made me feel something, but outside of that, I wasn't very enthralled.
Like everyone else has said, it is a unique film and a technical achievement. Just not quite my cup of tea.
A gorgeous film. I think Kubrick would have liked this film, I'm unaware if Kubrick ever spoke about this film or if he saw it, but it's form bending structure and just how powerful it is should be admired and I think Stanley would have appreciated this. A masterpiece!
A stunning work on the indeterminable divide between art and reality. The best neo realist meta fictional docu-drama mockumentary I've ever seen.
Kiarostami's a beast.
This is not only one of the most fascinating films ever made but I think it's also one of my new favourites.
I was transfixed for the entire run-time. The way Kiarostami mixes fact and fiction, manipulates your perspectives and expectations of fact and fiction, and straight up destroys the mythical wall between narrative and documentary cinema is endlessly compelling and challenging. It's a piece of cinema to change cinema itself.
Believe the hype, this is one of the greatest films ever made. Easily.
While Close-Up presents itself with an interesting concept, the filmmaking and overall enjoyment brought about this film is lacking. Many times, the story feels like it's simply rehashing itself and often lacks the creativity to make it more interesting. This film felt like it could have had better potential if it were lengthened to possible a 120-minute runtime. The main character is interesting on paper but when put to the big screen, he is repetitive and pretty much a one trick pony. It felt as if it was trying to get the audience to sympathize with him too much despite his forgiveness being easily earned. Overall, a cool concept with underwhelming execution.
i tried watching this a few weeks ago and i remember stopping it after 45 minutes cause i just wasn’t feeling it at all. but after this semi-rewatch i really loved it!! if it was made any other way i don’t think i would’ve been interested in it at all, but the experimental transitioning between documentary and drama works really well.
i deadass thought this film was made in 1967 until the last half hour
The gripping dialogue within this uniquely told, and well crafted, story held me by the throat with its engrossing realism, yet I was emotionally detached from start to finish.
Godard has been right on at least two occasions. The first being, Nicholas Ray is cinema. The other being that film begins with DW Griffith and ends with Abbas Kiarostami.
Close-Up asks the question of "what is a director"? They're faceless but they reign control of not only the audience but the ones helping the director capture the reality around them. So with this in mind who is the director of Close-Up? Well, the credits say Kiarostami himself but one gets a sense that it could be Hossain Sabzian. The man who pretends to play Mohsen Makhmalbaf. He cons a family in this guise and when they find out they take him to court. In his defence, he professes his…
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