Saturday 12 May 2012

J’ai adore la film Copie conforme


If you wondered my French classes have reached that far that I can create this title for my Blog piece – yippee you are right !
Before I begin my own interpretation of a Kiarostami film, the brief  is that ‘Copie Conforme’ is a 2010 Iranian film, starring Juliette Binoche and the British opera singer William Shimell, in his first film role. The film is set in Tuscany, and focuses on a British writer and a French antiques dealer, whose relationship undergoes an odd transformation over the course of a day. The film was a French-majority production, with co-producers in Italy and Belgium. The dialogue is in French, English and Italian.
Now that the basics are through, my journey to another cinematic catharsis. I decided against all obstacles of work, motherhood, agendas to take a peek at the film …an evening screening of course..otherwise why the hassels at all? It was at Alliance, my favorite spot in the whole of Delhi.  Convinced some film makers to attend, who had other agendas. Went with the minimalistic of expectations- because that is the most damaging of them all. High hopes of a known auteur. And wallah what do I discover….for myself….another cinematic journey with a lingering after-taste !
A distinct way of storytelling. In the beginning very regular conversation as if you were overhearing a very overrated dialogue between two people. I kept thru it because of the male protagonist whose screen presence is extremely engrossing. Initially, the process of trying to decipher the signature of the autuer…some sparks here and there. And then as you move a ‘surrogate’  motive to the narrative…you are almost standing on the egde of the real and the surreal. Their conversation becomes personal. You had thought the writer and the French dealer ( whose cleavage was a consistent visual distraction for me….) were just getting to know each other and then you wondered when had they actually met. The transition in the audiences mind of time and space blurred at a surreal level leaves you high if you enjoy complicated mature storytelling.

Coming to Juliette, who looks remarkably attractive as an artist. The camera with her in closeup actually invites the viewer to become the active participant in the otherwise mundane narrative (which you believe it is when it starts). Her each expression giving away tons of stories that either a male viewer can interpret or a female viewer can re-experience. The fine line between spectator and artist broken with simple frames.
The New Yorker called the film "fascinating, beautiful, and intentionally enraging: a brilliant return to form from a director whose work, in the past, has joined modernist game-playing to ethical propriety and modesty."

I personally found it fascinating and the beauty of the interpreation or gap between the male and the female side of human life was brought about in the seamless of ways.
They talk about technology and 3D these days….and I wonder, will I or a true cinephile ever get that kick of adrenalin from 3D action or is it always going to be the ‘rawanagi’ of a simple story and the attractive pebbles that add gravitas and you see when you walk a cinema pathway. I am scheduled to see ‘the avengers ( mind you 3D) tomorrow with my kids while I still haven’t overcome the dose of yet another work of an autuer!.........

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