The great Iranian director Abbas
Kiarostami made "Like Someone In Love" in Japan but it could have been
set anywhere for this is a film that knows no boundaries or borders. As
you would expect from Kiarostami it's brilliantly written and directed
and beautifully played, particularly by Tadashi Okuno as an old
professor whose loneliness draws him to a young student supplementing
her income by working as an escort. He's not looking for sex, just
conversation and company and when, the next day, they run into her
jealous boyfriend the old man allows himself to be mistaken for her
grandfather ... and then the boy finds out the truth.
It's a film
of mostly small dramas and when violence finally erupts Kiarostami
keeps it off screen. For the most part these people simply talk, about
their problems, their relationships and life itself and Kiarostami films
sequences in 'real time' and with a fixed camera just as he does in his
Iranian films. I found it mesmerising, at times funny, sometimes moving
and in the end, really rather shocking. It makes for essential viewing.
The great Iranian director Abbas
Kiarostami made "Like Someone In Love" in Japan but it could have been
set anywhere for this is a film that knows no boundaries or borders. As
you would expect from Kiarostami it's brilliantly written and directed
and beautifully played, particularly by Tadashi Okuno as an old
professor whose loneliness draws him to a young student supplementing
her income by working as an escort. He's not looking for sex, just
conversation and company and when, the next day, they run into her
jealous boyfriend the old man allows himself to be mistaken for her
grandfather ... and then the boy finds out the truth.
It's a film
of mostly small dramas and when violence finally erupts Kiarostami
keeps it off screen. For the most part these people simply talk, about
their problems, their relationships and life itself and Kiarostami films
sequences in 'real time' and with a fixed camera just as he does in his
Iranian films. I found it mesmerising, at times funny, sometimes moving
and in the end, really rather shocking. It makes for essential viewing.
No comments:
Post a Comment