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Friday, December 16, 2011

THE TEN BEST FILMS OF 2011     10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Certified Copy             4

William Shimell as James and Juliette Binoche as Elle in Abbas Kiarostami's drama "Certified Copy".  IFC Films 
  
Abbas Kiarostami, director, writer
1 hour 46 minutes
(IFC Films)
In English, French, Italian languages with English subtitles
March 2011
Juliette Binoche, William Shimell
Blu-Ray/DVD (U.S., Canada)


 "I know you hate me.  There's nothing I

can do about that.  But at least try to be a

little consistent."


by Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com        Follow popcornreel on Twitter FOLLOW                                           
Friday, December 16, 2011
Abbas Kiarostami ("Taste Of Cherry") makes his English language feature film debut with the terrific "Certified Copy".

The film, also sometimes in French and Italian, is set in Tuscany and Lucignano, where a pompous, successful British writer James Miller (Mr. Shimell) is touring his book on imitations being more real than the real thing.  The subtext is evident: a French woman and art curator (Ms. Binoche) will meet him, converse and then an organic interaction will unfold.  What is real and what is fake?  Relationships are theatre and language is the ingredient upon which they either thrive or collapse.  And of the increasingly riveting interactions between Ms. Binoche (excellent here) and Mr. Shimell is the irresistible Bill Withers question: "who is he, and what is he to you?"

"Certified Copy" is the equivalent of an optical illusion of a conversation.  How we receive what we hear as we watch, and how it is spoken and what it looks like in this well-written and expertly directed film, is the key.  Mr. Kiarostami's film is a sublime mystery of dialogue, double meaning and dilemma.  One of the year's most literate and adult conversation pieces, "Certified Copy" was a film in which every word heard mattered and every inflection that engineered it told the story.

Even more impressively, the pictures that matched the words, or at least accompanied them, were priceless, mirroring the intrigue and mystique of the spoken word.  "Certified Copy" made me feel so glad to be alive with the beautiful struggles and adventures of language, interpretation and an intellectual battle of the sexes that was endlessly entertaining and thought-provoking.

Full written review here.

NEXT: NUMBER 3

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