Close-Up (1990)

Rating: 4 Stars (out of 4)

Holding a Mirror Up to the Movies

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Buy Close-Up on DVD.

The more Abbas Kiarostami films I see, the more I'm convinced that he's one of our greatest living filmmakers. The thing that sets him apart from most others is that he's capable of making beautiful films that are carefully planned and executed pictures and that tell about the human soul. But at the same time, he's able to make quick, slapdash, hurried pictures that tell about the human soul. And they all carry the Kiarostami seal. One of these slapdash titles, Close-Up (1990), is one of Kiarostami's most remarkable movies.

Kiarostami had just completed his successful and acclaimed Where Is the Friend's Home? when he got wind of an unusual story. An Iranian man named Hossain Sabzian had been caught and arrested for impersonating another great Iranian director, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, whose films include The Cyclist (1987), Gabbeh (1996), and A Moment of Innocence (1996). Sabzian had been accepting the hospitality of a family, promising them that he was going to use them and their house for a new film.

Kiarostami quickly assembled a crew and filmed Sabzian's trial. He shot with two video cameras, one in close-up on Sabzian and the other roving the courtroom and catching the judge, the plaintiffs, and the accused's mother. When the trial was over Kiarostami convinced all parties involved to re-enact what happened to them for a film. Finally, he convinced Makhmalbaf himself to meet with Sabzian for an amazing and lovely conclusion.

In effect, Close-Up can be considered a documentary, as the trial and the meeting with Makhmalbaf are absolutely real. The rest of the film, though based on real events, is staged. This is the kind of movie that infuriates American marketers who want everything to fit into categories. But that's exactly what makes Close-Up such a groundbreaking movie. The marketers should be following the filmmakers' example and not the other way around.

It gets better. Kiarostami didn't simply stage the events of the story in chronological order. The best way I can describe it is that it's Tarantino-esque. (Quentin Tarantino himself is reportedly a fan of Close-Up.) The movie starts out with a jolly little journalist riding in a cab with two uniformed men in the back seat. He tells the story of the impostor to the cab driver. The men in the back turn out to be police who are going to arrest Sabzian and the journalist is going to get the exclusive scoop. But when we arrive, we wait outside with the cab driver while the action goes on inside. It's not until the end of the film that we see the same scene again, but this time from the inside of the house and Sabzian's point of view.

The more one thinks about Close-Up, the richer it gets. When Kiarostami tries to persuade the judge to let him film the trial, the judge replies, "there's nothing about this case that's interesting enough to film." But this case becomes much more interesting than, say, a simple murder trial. Sabzian becomes much more than just a sad character with no life. His story is elevated to the tragic because of its double-twist. He tells the judge that he used to "play at making films" as a youth and that Makhmalbaf's The Cyclist "is my life." (He also takes care, while in the courtroom and in Kiarostami's presence, to mention Kiarostami's 1974 film The Traveler.) He is accused of manipulating the family and lying to them about making a film about their lives. As we watch, we feel sorry for these folks who were deceived. And yet, there was a film made about their lives! What's even more interesting is that the subject of the film was Makhmalbaf but it was his colleague Kiarostami that had enough distance and foresight to conceive of the idea for Close-Up. (This is roughly the U.S. equivalent of Martin Scorsese making a film about a Steven Spielberg impostor.)

All this begs the question of which kind of film deserves more respect, Kiarostami's planned films like Where Is the Friend's Home? and Taste of Cherry (1997), or his happy accidents like Close-Up and And Life Goes On (1991)? At the end of the 1990's, five of Kiarostami's films kept turning up on critics' lists for the best of the decade, but Close-Up more so than any of them (depending on where you looked; Taste of Cherry was also a top contender). I want to be able to say that Close-Up is more lightweight and easier to watch than Taste of Cherry, but it's not. Kiarostami's "serious" pictures play as effortlessly as his "quickies."

In any case, Close-Up is a great movie, and definitely one to seek out. I found a video copy that had been dubbed from a British PAL tape (the movie has never been officially released in the U.S., either in theaters or on tape). The tape I got also included a short by Italian filmmaker Nanni Moretti (1994's Caro Diario) that's a kind of tribute to Close-Up. I've read that the film is soon getting a theatrical release on the East Coast. Hopefully that means the West Coast is coming, as well as a VHS and DVD release.

If you've never seen a Kiarostami film, I would recommend watching perhaps Where Is the Friend's Home? (which is available on VHS) first and also perhaps a Mohsen Makhmalbaf picture as well. Close-Up is so good, I wouldn't want anyone to miss out on any of its details. In the film, Sabzian tells about how he took the family to see The Cyclist so that "they could learn to appreciate the cinema." I feel the same way. I want to take the world out to see Close-Up to show them what film can really do.

DVD Details: Facets' new DVD comes with a filmed Kiarostami interview, and filmographies for both Kiarostami and Makhmalbaf (incidentally, not one of Makhmalbaf's films has been released on DVD as of yet). It's not quite a pristine film transfer, but the colors come through sharp and beautiful.

Starring: Hossain Sabzian, Mohsen Makhmalbaf
Written by: Abbas Kiarostami
Directed by: Abbas Kiarostami
Language: Farsi with English subtitles
Running Time: 100 minutes
Date: February 29, 2000