Like Someone in Love

They can be a strange breed the cinema going public, some films that are barely worth watching they will flock too and others, that are far superior, will almost be ignored. A good example was this week’s Robert Burns Centre Film Club screening of Abbas Kiarostami’s latest movie, the intelligent and adult themed Like Someone in Love (2012). It attracted a very small audience for such an interesting film, made all that more appealing by its structure. Its has Japanese and French finance and production, an Iranian directed and wrote it, its filmed in and around Tokyo with a Japanese cast and uses the Japanese language. I think you will agree it’s quite an intriguing blend. The story it self is no less fascinating, slow and precise it basically involves three main characters.

Firstly there’s Akiko (Takanashi Rin) a college student who moonlights as a ‘paid date’ to raise money for her education. She arrived in Tokyo two years ago and now regrets putting out phone box flyers to advertise her availability. She works for Hiroshi (Drenden who I last saw in Cold Fish (2011)) who runs a high-class agency to provide escorts for men. The second main character is Akiko’s date, Watanabe Takashi (Okuno Tadashi) an elderly writer and translator who when she arrives after a long car journey at his book filled flat discovers that he is more interested in having her join him for a meal and a chat and not as the young student expected in having sex with her. The following morning Watanabe stops at her college to allow Akiko to complete some work before he drives her home. It’s outside the college that this kindly old man meets the third main character in our elliptical edited film[1]. Higuchi Noriaki (Kase Ryo said to be the Japanese equivalent of Ben Whishaw) is Akiko’s possessively jealous boyfriend who is set on marrying her. It’s at this stage in our story that things get a little complicated when Noriaki takes Watanabe to be Akiko’s grandfather.

 

The Student.

Mr Alec Barclay made a welcome return this week to the host chair and captivated us with a brief outline of Kiarostami’s background before tonight’s movie began. He even read out a previous movie ramble that mentioned two of the Iranian’s earlier films, one of which being his collaboration with the Italian director Ermanno Olmi and our own Ken Loach, 2005’s Tickets. The other was his first full-length film in English Certified Copy (2009), which I had described as ‘an observational snapshot of human behaviour’ and to be honest that description fitted this latest movie very well. Alec went on to tell us that the 73-year-old Kiarostami had been active in film work since 1970 and had made over 40 films. Greatly admired by both Michael Haneke and Martin Scorsese he was one of the few directors who remained in Iran after the 1979 revolution.

 

The Writer/Translator. 

The Mechanic. 

Abbas Kiarostami is an actors director, what I mean by that can be seen in one of the directors trademarks: conversations in cars, no real action in the true sense of the word, just facial movement and the way that long and protracted conversations are spoken between the characters. Using a minimalist approach with a simple and uncomplicated story, which has no defined beginning or end, allowing us just a glimpse into a mere interlude in three peoples lives. This film, for me, was a real pleasure to watch and lets hope we have more like it rather than mainstream drivel that sometimes fills out non-independent cinemas. I will quote something the director said during an interview at this year Cannes Film Festival and which our host read out. ‘Happily, I can choose my viewers’ he said ‘and I’d rather not have the exasperated among them. Cinema seats make people lazy. They expect to be given all the information. But for me, question marks are the punctuation of life. When it comes to showing human beings, complexity and concealment are a crucial part of the character. If I show more than the character shows, it doesn’t make sense. And if the spectator doesn’t accept that, there’s not much I can do.[2]’ Very well put Mr Kiarostami.

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[1] Elliptical editing is a technique used in film editing that allows an event's duration on-screen to be shorter than its duration in the story.

[2] The Guardian 28^th May 2012.

Certified Copy

 I’m familiar with Iranian film director Abbas Kiarostami because of his collaboration with two other directors of international repute, Italian director Ermanno Olmi and our very own Ken Lynch, who joined together to direct three interwoven stories, that take place during a cross European journey to Rome, that form Tickets (2005). Kiarostami section dealt with a haughty, middle-aged widow of an Italian general with an undefined relationship to her young travelling companion. His latest full-length feature film Certified Copy (2009) is in English, French and Italian.

This observational snapshot of human behaviour set in Tuscany, includes three of the most irritating and annoying characters I have ever seen in a movie. James Miller an English author gives a talk on his new book about ‘authenticity and originality in art’ in which he proposes that a good reproduction can be as authentic as the original. In the audience are an attractive Frenchwomen and her son; ‘she’ leaves Miller a note inviting him to visit her antiques shop. They decide to go for a drive to somewhere more interesting and end up in a restaurant where the proprietress mistakes the pair as a married couple. We then spend the remainder of the movie trying to determine if the argumentative twosome are, or have been, man and wife?

Juliette Binoche received the Best Actress Award at this years Cannes Film Festival for her performance as ‘she’. British opera singer William Shimell portrays James Miller, in his first feature film role. Binoche’s performance carries the film and certainly over shadows the more restrained performance from Shimell. Interesting without being absorbing.

Tickets

Three highly acclaimed directors of international repute joined together to direct three interwoven stories that take place during a journey from Central Europe to Rome. Tickets (2005) was intended from its inception to be made as a single feature film and not as three separate stories. It was the Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami who first suggested the idea and it was he who invited Italian director Ermanno Olmi and our very own Ken Loach to take part in this project. The three men had never met before but they were familiar with each others work. Total freedom was given to each director except for two rules: each of the sequences should be in some way connected and with the stories all taking place on a train. The first segment was by Olmi, the second by Kiarostami and the final by Loach in conjunction with writer Paul Laverty.

The characters in the stories connect through casual encounters and set forth a story of love, chance and sacrifice. An older businessman finds solace and a new insight into life when he is forced to wait at the train station due to bad weather. A young man is reminded of life's obligations and is introduced to love. Three Scottish lads on their way to the football match of their dreams are forced to open their eyes and see the bigger picture. This single train journey sparks changes for many people. This is a film about privilege and exclusion, and the reality of the value of just one ‘Ticket’.

Sit back and enjoy the work of three directors who obviously have a lot of mutual respect for each other.