Maybe Kiarostami's best work to date; it's at least my favourite of what I've seen, which is admittedly only a handful. Still, though, terrific film.

His films have always been overtly meta, but never as playful and illusory as here. Perhaps working in Europe, as opposed to Iran, opened him up, because he's never felt nearly as loose or light-hearted, despite the weighty themes. The way it deals (heavily) with its theories about art and originality in the opening act, only to apply them to human relationships and reverse our pre-ordained narrative notions (in a Hitchcockian bit of plot maneuvering) in the final act, is simply masterful. Binoche and Shimell (who's fantastic - unbelievable it's his first film role) play off each other expertly, totally selling the idea of these characters as cyphers, or copies (or are they?). The scene where Shimell mistakes an elderly couple for an abusive relationship is pure sleight-of-hand, but it's so light and breezy that it just works. And that's like everything else in the film. When the credits roll down a window that could just as easily be the frame (another possible Hitchcock reference), you know exactly what you've gotten - and it's beautiful.

So yeah, I loved it.

This opens at a nearby theatre on Friday. I definitely want to see it.

Have you seen any other Kiarostami?

Actually it's far from his best... therefore more of a B-/C+ from my corner. Trixster's review got it all wrong...

Sadly, no.

To be honest, the only other film of his I'm aware of without consulting IMDb is Taste of Cherry.

Certified Copy, Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami's first film set in Europe (and, I must admit, the first film of his I have seen), is a cerebral and well-acted romantic drama. It centers on two characters: the emotional Elle (Juliette Binoche) and the brusque, removed James Miller (William Shimell). He is an English author who has just published "Certified Copy," a cynical exploration of the notion of originality in art and life, and he has come to Italy to promote it. He meets her, a French woman, at one of his lectures. They decide to spend an afternoon together, and a relationship begins to blossom--or does it? As the afternoon goes on, lines become obscure and perceptions shift. A coffee shop proprietor (Gianna Giachetti) confuses them for husband and wife, and Elle does not correct her. Are these two people who just met, or are they role-playing lovers with a long and troubled shared history?

On the surface, Certified Copy bears more than a passing resemblance to Before Sunrise and Sunset, as well as Lost in Translation. Two people spending a limited amount of time together in a beautiful and foreign locale, a connection between them coming into ever clearer view, etc. But Kiarostami's film is more of an intellectual challenge than those films, which I intend as both praise and criticism. It's a fun film to absorb and dissect, overflowing with playful moments where assumptions are challenged or subverted.

Yet it doesn't have the lasting emotional impact of Before Sunset or Lost in Translation. Despite an ebullient turn by Binoche (who won a best actress prize at Cannes) and an engaging debut showing by Shimell (an opera singer turned actor), neither character ever becomes more than a broad construct. They are well-spoken pawns on Abbas Kiarostami's intellectual chessboard, not flesh-and-blood human characters. And at the end of the film, I appreciated the film's cleverness and gaiety, but I wasn't truly moved.

B

second kiarostami i've seen, and i think i love him. close-up though was a masterpiece, this was merely great.

80