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…
A impeccable piece of cinema. Shot exceptionally well and directed to perfection. Close-Up is a re-enactment of a unique real life story that will impact anyone who loves film. That being said, this is a must watch for anyone that embraces film as apart of their life. The last act of Close-Up is legitimately one of the greatest moments I’ve ever seen in film.
Multi-faceted and beautiful. Blends documentary and narrative so incredibly - never seen anything like this before. Cinema as a reflection on itself.
من دوست دارم هدف. خیلی از من فکر می کنم که روش معمولی تفکر من را در برداشته است و من تنها می توانم در مورد هدفم فکر کنم. من دارم
آگاهی تغییر یافته این فیلم عالی است و من چیزهای بسیار مثبتی و خوشمزه ای را به ارمغان آورده ام. اما احساس می کنم که؛ یا مردم بیش از ستایش بوده اند و به نظر می رسد که شما هرگز چیزی شبیه آن را ندیده اید یا چیزهایی را از دست داده اید.
Was, and probably would have stayed, really uncompelled by this one had I not had a great discussion about it immediately afterwards. It’s really difficult to decide how to approach understanding both the intent and technique of this: as a film, a documentary, or a video/performance art piece. Turns out all are pretty interesting and valuable, but it makes the film itself feel incredibly arbitrary.
I still do believe that this film is in essence approaching filmmaking through the techniques of video and performance art. With this in mind (and as was my original feeling), this film is kind of unremarkable. To me the only thing holding this together in comparison to works and discussion of video art is the narrative elements and using this to understand the filmmaking process.
is there something wrong with my speaker or was the audio supposed to glitch at the 90 minute mark with the motorcycle ? asking for a friend
MomSaysItsOK 100 films
Resuts based on BBC poll of 209 critics (Oct 2018)
www.bbc.com/culture/story/20181029-the-100-greatest-foreign-language-films
Justin Wiemer 1,848 films
Includes Criterion
Not listed: Fanny & Alexander - TV Private Screenings: Liza Minnelli (2010) Sophia Loren: Live from the TCM Classic…
Peter Stanley 1,210 films
All the films from all the editions, including those subsequently removed, presently totalling 1210. An easy way of seeing how…
