|
Close-Up
Film
Footage Is...
viewed April 22, 2000 at the AMC Kabuki
For full
information about Close-Up, click
here
For full
information about Film Footage Is..., click
here
My introduction to the world of Abbas Kiarostami was
a real treat -- the two-story big screen of the
Kabuki. The theater was nearly packed by the time
I arrived that I had to go to the balcony, which turned
out to be a blessing in disguise. There is
something commanding about the view from the balcony
(the front row, anyway), being able to watch half of the
audience in the shadows, having a god-like awareness to
their reactions to the screen.
Kiarostami understands the power of being behind the
scenes all too well, that he subjects it to
scrutiny. Close-Up, which Werner Herzog
hailed as "the greatest documentary on filmmaking I
have ever seen" can just as well be called an
anti-documentary. There is hardly a moment where
we are not aware that this is a film depicting reality
that is being made at the expense of intruding into that
reality. The ever-present question in Kiarostami's films is the
implication of the filmmaker and his relationship to his subject.
Such terms of filmmaking are challenging, and can be
construed as egocentric depending on the
execution. In Kiarostami, we almost always trust
his intentions, and we are rewarded with an immense
feeling of human kindness.
The story is bizarre even for American tabloid
standards: Hosein Sabzian, an impoverished printmaker's
assistant befriends a family under the pretense that he
is the acclaimed filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf. He
spends a period of time with them at their home,
persuading them that he will make a movie set around
their house. Eventually the jig is up (when the
family sees the real Makhmalbaf's picture in a magazine)
and Hosein is imprisoned.
Kiarostami picks up the story from there, convincing
the judge to let him film the trial while interviewing
both the plaintiffs and the defendant about their
bizarre experience. At the trial we hear Hosein's
remarkably lucid explanation for his deception: that it
was a rare opportunity for him to control the lives of
others. With this confession we reflect on what
Kiarostami is doing: directing the lives of others, even
the Iranian judicial system, for his purpose.
Essentially, Kiarostami is getting away with the very
act for which Hosein was arrested. Thus we see the
power that Iranian cinema has on its society and its
people -- quite a revelation for a country regarded by
most Americans as culturally repressed.
Culturally, Iran has little to worry about (with films
like these, Iran gives Hollywood a run for its money, at
least quality-wise); economically it appears to have
troubles. The characters each in their own way
long for the joys of the entertainment industry as a
reprieve from the bleak job outlook of the time.
In this way Kiarostami justifies the value of his
profession -- while offering a subtle criticism of the
social ills left unsolved by the government.
Kiarostami is able to reunite the family and the
impostor to recreate three brilliant scenes of their
time spent during the deception; and so the family and
the impostor get to be in a movie set in the house after
all. In a final poetic act, Kiarostami sets up a
meeting between the impostor and the real Makhmalbaf, a
bizarre blending of the staged and the
spontaneous.
-----
Much later in the evening I treated
myself to a program of experimental found footage, as a
way to sustain my interest in the format. (Last
month my debut short "Inspiration" was turned
down for broadcast due to its use of unlicensed footage
of Jackson Pollock).
"2 Spellbound" was an exhilarating
recycling of the Hitchcock film Spellbound, shown at
over 12 times its normal
speed, allowing for a novel examination of a
master's technique. On hyperspeed, faces are blended,
allowing us to see how much he relied on direct reverse
shots between characters. A real eye trip.
"Oz Mix" is Ozu's Tokyo Story -- with a hip hop twist.
Filmmaker Harada Ippei had heard that Ozu's film, whose
original print no longer exists, would be remastered
and so he wanted to remaster it for himself. He turns
the film into a hip hop video full of visual loops and
samples from the
soundtrack. Harmless irreverent fun.
"Outer Space" -- the most technically
dazzling of the four films, is like watching film get
raped. The footage is based on a scene from
"The Entity" in which Barbara Hershey is
assaulted by a ghost. The result is a lo-fi
visceral terror that exceeds the effects of Blair
Witch. Astounding and disturbing
work.
"Film is..." -- is an impressive
compilation of found scientific and educational clips
catalogued into chapters defining what film is. It
quickly loses gas, however, midway through its 60 minute
stretch, though the footage of eye surgery towards the
end does perk things up a bit.
Home
|
