Close-Up (1990)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Close-Up (1990) – A. Kiarostami

Kiarostami's film works on a number of different levels: 1) there is the surface-level story of a man who naively impersonates a famous film director and goes on trial for fraud; 2) the fact that Kiarostami asked the original people involved in the case to play themselves in a re-enactment adds another level -- are they acting as they really did or as they would like to be perceived?; 3) there is the level of "cultural difference" where we foreigners are trying to understand Iran through the film; 4) there is Kiarostami's direction which playfully defies cinematic convention (withholding key information, focusing on trivial details, incorporating technical flaws); 5) there is the level of cinema as topic raising questions about film directors as celebrities and the ways in which film can influence an audience. Kiarostami's magic is to turn a simple story, simply shot, into something rich and profound.