This film is directed by Abbas Kiarostami. He is an Iranian filmmaker whose film, Taste of Cherry, won the Palm D'or at the Cannes Film Festival. I have been interested in him for awhile so I rented this. I was expecting something slow and meticulous and I guess some people would watch this film and think that, but I was suprised how fascinating this film was. There is not much plot. You could basically sum it up with an engineer and his colleagues are waiting in village for an old woman to die and they are supposed to take pictures of the funeral ceremony. The film reminds me of something more along the lines Eric Rohmer than Robert Bresson with the constant talking covering up the fact there is not much plot development. This is not a bad thing, but I could see how people could get bored. The meaning of the film is not immediately apparent until a conversation between the engineer and a doctor. The doctor recites a poem and I basically took it in as the meaning to the whole film. The engineer and his colleagues are waiting for death when they should really just be living. The film is marked with idleness and repetition. The conversations are more or less the same. The engineer constantly gets called and has to drive his car to higher ground to talk in a cemetary. He talks to a man digging a well up there and happens to come across a bone. He keeps the bone throughout the film until the end. The ending seems like a major change in the engineer's life throughout the whole film. I took it in as he is done waiting and ready to start living. This film is a modern masterpiece.
Pros:
-Beatiful photography
-Realistic acting
-Repitition is used almost comforting in a way
-The film has little plot development, but remains extremely interesting all the way through
Cons:
-Can be boring to some
-Repetition might annoy some
-Too much talking?
-Not much backround on the protagonist?
Overall: A modern masterpiece
**** out of ****
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