Post by klep on Nov 1, 2021 15:27:11 GMT -6
MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 11/1: Where Is the Friend's House?
MENA FILM WEEK!
Note: This week's essay is graciously provided by a guest contributor.
Abbas Kiarostami made films with deceptively simple premises. A boy uses a broken camera to take pictures and earn money in The Traveller; a man looks for someone willing to bury him after he dies in Taste of Cherry, or a couple discuss what is true and false, fake and original in the art world of Certified Copy. But all his films hide a complexity that repays a viewer that's willing to face it --- from the deconstruction of the "film rules" in Close-Up or the ever-evolving emotional complexity that always shows new facets in Like someone in love. Kiarostami was a director that knew how to work with two completely different things, and see the way it could talk with one and another.
This may sound like a template for difficult films to like, but you just need to watch Where Is the Friend’s House? to see the care and compassion for humanity that Kiarostami worked in his films. Here is the story of Ahmed Pour, a boy who takes a colleague's notebook by mistake and needs to return it, otherwise the colleague will be punished for not having done the homework.
Where Is the Friend’s House? does not stray from that simple premise, and follows Ahmed closely in his various attempts to find his classmate. He zigzags between the villages of Koker and Poshteh, meeting people who point in various directions. Some are keen to help, others seem to not care that much where they are sending the child. Some don't even believe in his mission, or the importance he sees in it.
Underneath that simplicity, Where Is the Friend’s House? it operates an always revealing beauty of everything that can happen in a single day --- the happiness, the sadness, the worries and also the gifts of the day to day. I always forget about one or another detail of the lives that Ahmed crosses on his journey, and the film is always willing to show them with the same affection and curiosity.
For example: in the opening scene, in the classroom, one of the students did not do the homework theme because he had back pain. The professor doesn't believe this story, and I thought it was a lame excuse (I've probably used this one multiple times). But Ahmed runs into that classmate much later, and we can see the reason for his back pain by helping his father at work.
Where Is the Friend’s House? is doing that all the time, in all its levels: there is always some detail in the image that will reward a viewer who happens to be looking at it, right until its last frame. It is sort of a two-way care: one for its characters, who have the dignity of being well worked, and not just stereotypes; and another for the viewer, inspiring them to be as curious and as thoughtful as Ahmed. It's a small movie in scale or duration, but with enough space for everyone who appears in it and wants to watch it.
Abbas Kiarostami said that the future of cinema will be a film that can be a hundred other films --- a different film for each viewer, which will fill in the gaps left by the director with their own eyes. This line is often referred to as the key to understanding the mysteries of his latest films, such as Certified Copy and Like someone in love, with its fleeting and malleable narratives. But I also like to think it fits right in all of his work, because it helps me understand why I'm always back at this film again and again. Its images and its premise are always the same. But there's always something new in Where Is the Friend’s House?, ready to surprise me. It's just one movie, but it feels like Ahmed is helping me to see much more in it.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 11/8: Deep Red
GIALLO WEEK!
Next week we celebrate this singular subgenre with a work from one of the masters. Join us next week as we discuss Dario Argento's Deep Red, available on Shudder and for rent at the usual places.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 11/3: Dune
This week the podcast tackles another story inspired (in part) by the life of T.E. Lawrence, Denis Villeneuve's adaptation of Dune. Be sure to join our discussion on Wednesday; Dune is in theaters and available on HBO Max.
MENA FILM WEEK!
Note: This week's essay is graciously provided by a guest contributor.
Abbas Kiarostami made films with deceptively simple premises. A boy uses a broken camera to take pictures and earn money in The Traveller; a man looks for someone willing to bury him after he dies in Taste of Cherry, or a couple discuss what is true and false, fake and original in the art world of Certified Copy. But all his films hide a complexity that repays a viewer that's willing to face it --- from the deconstruction of the "film rules" in Close-Up or the ever-evolving emotional complexity that always shows new facets in Like someone in love. Kiarostami was a director that knew how to work with two completely different things, and see the way it could talk with one and another.
This may sound like a template for difficult films to like, but you just need to watch Where Is the Friend’s House? to see the care and compassion for humanity that Kiarostami worked in his films. Here is the story of Ahmed Pour, a boy who takes a colleague's notebook by mistake and needs to return it, otherwise the colleague will be punished for not having done the homework.
Where Is the Friend’s House? does not stray from that simple premise, and follows Ahmed closely in his various attempts to find his classmate. He zigzags between the villages of Koker and Poshteh, meeting people who point in various directions. Some are keen to help, others seem to not care that much where they are sending the child. Some don't even believe in his mission, or the importance he sees in it.
Underneath that simplicity, Where Is the Friend’s House? it operates an always revealing beauty of everything that can happen in a single day --- the happiness, the sadness, the worries and also the gifts of the day to day. I always forget about one or another detail of the lives that Ahmed crosses on his journey, and the film is always willing to show them with the same affection and curiosity.
For example: in the opening scene, in the classroom, one of the students did not do the homework theme because he had back pain. The professor doesn't believe this story, and I thought it was a lame excuse (I've probably used this one multiple times). But Ahmed runs into that classmate much later, and we can see the reason for his back pain by helping his father at work.
Where Is the Friend’s House? is doing that all the time, in all its levels: there is always some detail in the image that will reward a viewer who happens to be looking at it, right until its last frame. It is sort of a two-way care: one for its characters, who have the dignity of being well worked, and not just stereotypes; and another for the viewer, inspiring them to be as curious and as thoughtful as Ahmed. It's a small movie in scale or duration, but with enough space for everyone who appears in it and wants to watch it.
Abbas Kiarostami said that the future of cinema will be a film that can be a hundred other films --- a different film for each viewer, which will fill in the gaps left by the director with their own eyes. This line is often referred to as the key to understanding the mysteries of his latest films, such as Certified Copy and Like someone in love, with its fleeting and malleable narratives. But I also like to think it fits right in all of his work, because it helps me understand why I'm always back at this film again and again. Its images and its premise are always the same. But there's always something new in Where Is the Friend’s House?, ready to surprise me. It's just one movie, but it feels like Ahmed is helping me to see much more in it.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 11/8: Deep Red
GIALLO WEEK!
Next week we celebrate this singular subgenre with a work from one of the masters. Join us next week as we discuss Dario Argento's Deep Red, available on Shudder and for rent at the usual places.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 11/3: Dune
This week the podcast tackles another story inspired (in part) by the life of T.E. Lawrence, Denis Villeneuve's adaptation of Dune. Be sure to join our discussion on Wednesday; Dune is in theaters and available on HBO Max.