On a short turnaround following Kevin’s Halloween Special, I decided to go with a movie I hadn’t seen – and now only the second Abbas Kiarostami film I’ve watched – a film that is considered among his masterpieces, 1990’s Close-Up.
Close-Up is a fascinating movie, and while its cinematography is basic at best, it is unique in the way it tells its (true-life) story. As a bit of background, the story involves the case of a man named Hossain Sabzian, who attempts to impersonate the famous Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf. When Kiarostami heard about the man’s arrest on fraud charges, he stopped production on his current film and immediately set to work producing this documentary. What is perhaps most remarkable about it is that as best I can tell, aside from the courtroom scenes (which Kiarostami got permission to film as they were happening) and the final sequence of the film, the remainder of the film is a re-enactment – and better than that, every major player appearing in the re-enactment is in fact the real person who was involved in the actual events. (I mean, maybe the cab driver is in fact the same cab driver, but that would be…amazing.) In the documentary, events play out a bit out of sequence for dramatic effect.
Aerosol Can, Aerosol Can, Aerosol Can hates Journalist Man, if they ever fight, Journalist wins, Journalist Man!
The film opens with a journalist, Hossain Farazmand, joining some police on a cab ride, where they are going to arrest Sabzian, the impostor Makhmalbaf. (The fact that the police take a cab to the arrest is odd, and is remarked upon.) The poverty-stricken Sabzian has been getting close to the Ahankhah family, promising to put them in his next film, and even to use their home as a location. One of the Ahankhah sons has even loaned Sabzian 1,900 tomans (which would appear to have translated to about $250), a sum which Sabzian probably can’t repay. But the family’s father has grown suspicious of Sabzian, has checked out his story, and has now called on the police to arrest him for fraud, asking the journalist along to confirm that Sabzian is not, in fact, Makhmalbaf.
Question 1: What famous impersonage is this with his toes showing through his socks? Yes, it was the film director Makhmalbaf, 5 points. “An Iranian film director” is not sufficient.
The arrest occurs, and Kiarostami begins to document his efforts to move the trial forward and to film it, both of which are successful. He intersperses re-enacted scenes from the events with some courtroom footage. Sabzian apparently bears a vaguely passing resemblance to Makhmalbaf, and as a film buff, people have noted it to him before. When one day he is riding on a bus with a copy of the screenplay of Makhmalbaf’s most recent film, the mother of the Ahankhah family sits next to him and strikes up a conversation about the book, and where he had gotten it. He generously offers the book to Ahankhah, but she rejects the offer until he claims that he is in fact Makhmalbaf, and insists on signing it for her.
Well, one lie leads to another, and having fooled the lady Sabzian begins to think he can possibly wheedle a home-cooked meal out of the situation. One thing leads to another, and before long “Makhmalbaf” is spending large amounts of time with the Ahankhah family at their house and is planning out a feature film to star them in, before, as we know, the whole thing crashes down.
No, I don’t think I’ll ever be over Macho Grande.
The courthouse scenes spend most of their time focusing on Sabzian’s motivation. He does not deny the crime and says that he will accept any punishment the court sets upon him. He explains that he was wrong and that he got in over his head, but does deny (very plausibly) that he was not attempting to case the Ahankhah house for a robbery or to commit a large monetary fraud on them (you know, outside of the 1,900 toman he borrowed). Finally, the judge asks the Ahankhah family if they will be willing to pardon him, and in a reversal of their position when the trial began, they do, on the condition that Sabzian becomes a productive member of society.
Traveling With Che Makhmalbaf: The Making of a Documentary
Sabzian is freed, and being a world-famous Iranian director with strings to pull, Kiarostami is able to secure the participation of world-famous Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf, to introduce the two, and to get the real Makhmalbaf to drive Sabzian to the Ahankhah home to ask forgiveness, which is where the movie ends (and presumably the Kiarostami re-enactments begin).
There’s a genius in this film that is hard to put my finger on. It’s not boring, but it’s slow, and for a while it’s a bit difficult to understand what the point of the film is – until you begin to realize that in these re-enactments, Sabzian is in fact interacting with the members of the family whom he lied to, even going so far as to have many scenes shot in their own house. In a way, Sabzian has in fact, through the intervention of Kiarostami, made good on his false promise! The Ahankhah family does star in a film, and their house is a major location. More than that, you realize that despite their initial insistence on prosecuting the impostor, the family must in some way relent in the end, because they have consented to participate in the re-enactments with Sabzian in their own house. Because of that, the family’s pardon at the end isn’t a surprise, and even though it’s expected, it’s a forgiveness that is very satisfying. The appearance of the real Makhmalbaf at the end is really the cherry on top of the film, and as they wind their way on the motorcycle through Tehran to the Ahankhah household, you realize that you’re watching an unexpected masterpiece of cinema.
Cinema 1544: The As-Official-As-It-Gets Site 