"Like Someone in Love" is the latest film from Kiarostami. Set in Japan, it opens with a tavern scene in which the person talking is not in the frame, so we are slowly introduced to the call girl who is the central character, gradually accumulating hints from one side of her phone conversation, and interruptions from others who approach. This sets the tone for the film, which takes its time, gradually revealing a situation and subverting conventional plot expectations that this might be about the hooker with the heart of gold who is "saved" by a lonely old scholar. The process is done with such mastery and such exquisite photography (mostly in confined spaces - a taxi, a small apartment, the professor's Volvo) and such a confidence in the power of the film medium to show without telling, that I'm going out on a limb and declare this the best foreign film of 2013. And maybe just the best film, period.

My film companion and I were rendered speechless for some time after leaving the theater and both of us agreed that the emotional impact of the film would grow during the coming days, rather than fade away. I will contemplate for a long time what I've been shown about the things people hide from each other and themselves....and the mystery of the ending, if there is one.

The film is now on a limited run in arthouses and independent theaters in the U.S. I urge you to find one and see it on the big screen - there is a taxi ride through Tokyo that is one of the most extraordinary and immersive experiences I've ever had in a theater. Moments which, if I were to describe them might sound rather sedate and lacking in much interest or forward momentum, draw you in and obliterate any possible distance between the viewer and the characters.

"Like Someone in Love" is a masterpiece.

Ghulam, this was my reaction in April 2013....



So I guess I liked it, too.

"Certified Copy" (2010) is another excellent Kiarostami film, where he again shows his brilliance with seemingly static tripod shots that somehow pulsate with meaning and emotion, and, as in "Like Someone in Love," (which I commented on 3-4 weeks ago), a knack for showing people in confined spaces, especially cars. Can't describe what happens without entering into spoiler country, as the viewers perception undergoes a disturbing alteration and a situation proves to be not what it seems. Juliette Binoche, a French woman running an antique shop in Italy, gives a sterling performance, as she becomes involved with a visiting British author, played by an opera singer* who proves to be an amazing actor - haven't seen him in anything else, but I hope he continues moonlighting. Kiarostami is a genius - there are sometimes scenes where you want to look away, but the camera doesn't and so you won't. I don't know how else to put it. 

* William Shimell (and I see that he played "Geoff" in "Amour," two years later...)

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"Man Push Cart" is a beautifully told depressing story of a Pakistani in New York who pushes his doughnut and coffee cart to a street corner each morning to serve his familiar customers who call him Ahmed. He has some shallow friendships but is lonely, living in very poor circumstances with no hope of advancement. His wife is dead. His in-laws are raising his two year old son, but when he goes to visit his son, his in-laws are hostile to him and his son barely recognizes him. We do not know much about his past except some allusion to the fact that he was once a famous singer in Pakistan but then came on hard times.

This is the fourth movie of director Ramin Bahrani, an Iranian-American, that I have seen. In my view, "Man Push Cart" and "Chop Shop" are his best works.

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My favorites are Chop Shop and Goodbye Solo.

You know what bothers me about that movie? He pulls the damned cart. Never once does he push it. The kind of false advertisement that made me hate Snatch and There Will Be Blood.