There might be no second acts in American life, but there are second acts in Iranian movies set in Italy starring a Frenchwoman and Englishman. And sometimes, those second acts are so different from the first that it’s almost the start of a brand new movie.
That’s the case in Certified Copy, celebrated director Abbas Kiarostami’s first film made outside Iran. And even though sometimes it’s a little too clever and cheeky for its and our own good, Certified Copy is at the very least one of the most engrossing and strange movies that will play in Athens during 2011.
The film begins with a woman (Juliette Binoche) attending a lecture by James Miller (William Shimell), a renowned author visiting Tuscany. In his address, Miller explains that in art, questions of authenticity are irrelevant because every copy is itself an original, and even the original is a reproduction of something else. The woman, an antiques dealer, is intrigued and gets Miller to spend an afternoon with her driving through Tuscany discussing art.
Abruptly at a stop in a coffee shop the pair’s relationship changes. After the proprietor mistakes them as a married couple, the two speak as if they were a troubled married couple, their whole relationship and interaction changes. For the second half of the movie, they delve down into deeper marital hell, contrasted with the playful flirtations that mark the first 50 minutes.
It’s a bit of a mind-screw as the first half of the movie is completely dumped in a split-second change. Kiarostami has been messing with us — is the first half the original and the second half a cheap replica, or vice-versa? Are they both real, or both fake? Is reality only what the artist says it is? Or, as Miller would have us wonder, does it even matter?
Intriguing questions, and the only problem is that the whole thing is almost too confusing. Thankfully, Kiarostami’s experienced hand is deft enough to traverse the complex script, and his actors talented enough to pull it off.
The interplay between the two leads in the first half is reminiscent of the romantic playfulness between Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy in Before Sunrise, and as in that movie, just the two conversing is entertainment enough. The change to bickering oldyweds is seamless, adding to the instantaneous of the change in the film’s tone.
It was interesting to find that Shimell is in fact a professional opera singer, not an actor, and that this was his first role in any film. Binoche might have won the Prix d’interprétation féminine (Best Actress) at Cannes, and deservedly so, but the fact that first-timer Shimmel’s effortless tit for tat with her makes his the more impressive acting display.
Certified Copy isn’t for the faint of mind, but a 106-minute cerebral workout that requires jumping through serious mental hoops. But if you do make that leap, it’s a certified work of art.
— Cameron Dunbar is a sophomore studying journalism. Decertify his copy at cd211209@ohiou.edu.
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