X
- 2011
- Not Rated
- Sundance Selects
- 1 h 46 m
- 2011
- Not Rated
- Sundance Selects
- 1 h 46 m
Summary In Italy to promote his latest book, a middle-aged English writer meets a young French woman and jets off to San Gimignano with her. (IFC Films)
Directed By: Abbas Kiarostami
Written By: Caroline Eliacheff, Abbas Kiarostami
- 2011
- Not Rated
- Sundance Selects
- 1 h 46 m
- 2011
- Not Rated
- Sundance Selects
- 1 h 46 m
Certified Copy
7.6
Where to Watch
Summary In Italy to promote his latest book, a middle-aged English writer meets a young French woman and jets off to San Gimignano with her. (IFC Films)
Directed By: Abbas Kiarostami
Written By: Caroline Eliacheff, Abbas Kiarostami
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 23 Critic Reviews
82
91% Positive
21 Reviews
21 Reviews
9% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 23 Critic Reviews
82
91% Positive
21 Reviews
21 Reviews
9% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Though it's dominated by two people walking and talking, after a point it's as difficult to parse what's real and what's constructed in Certified Copy as it is in the home stretch of "Inception" (although "Before Sunset" and Roberto Rossellini's "Journey To Italy" provide closer models).
Abbas Kiarostami's Certified Copy is exactly that: The Iranian modernist's first feature to be shot in the West is a flawless riff on our indigenous art cinema.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 61 User Ratings
7.6
77% Positive
47 Ratings
47 Ratings
15% Mixed
9 Ratings
9 Ratings
8% Negative
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 61 User Ratings
7.6
77% Positive
47 Ratings
47 Ratings
15% Mixed
9 Ratings
9 Ratings
8% Negative
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
That this purposefully twisting exercise takes place amid the sun-burnished cypresses and towns of Tuscany - where ancient statuary is as commonplace as pasta and wine - only makes this playfully enigmatic meditation the more pleasing.
Despite the film's coy artiness and a lassitude that sometimes passes for soulfulness, Certified Copy is strangely haunting.
Although the film has elements of a puzzler by Michelangelo Antonioni and a psychodrama by Ingmar Bergman, it never becomes compellingly intellectual or unnervingly emotional.
A sort of middle-aged "Before Sunrise" unfolds, meandering and talky. But from the get-go these characters' colloquy is a mutual provocation, not a romantic seduction.
The romantic fable of love, marriage, art and second chances may not add up to all that much but the journey is exquisite.
Be careful if you prefer your movies wrapped up in a pleasant little bow with an obvious beginning, middle, end, and with all questions and conflicts answered and sorted out. Certified Copy raises hundreds of absorbing and metaphysical questions, none of which will be answered for you at the end. In fact, the audience is cerebrally supposed to do the heavy lifting here. If you see this with your significant other or a friend, plan on dedicating the hour post-film to declaring and defending your arguments on who the couple is, where they are in their relationship, and what is the truth. Writer/director Abbas Kiarostami is not teasing his audience as some viewers might accuse him; rather, he is challenging them. If you do not want to work in your movie going experience, go to your local multiplex and watch the latest forgettable wide release. However, if you are intrigued by piecing together intellectual puzzle pieces, Certified Copy will give you as much of a contest of wits as the Sunday New York Times crossword puzzle. From the setup; however, there are no signs at all that this film will be anything other than a modern, romantic European dialogue driven movie. This is Before Sunrise in a small Tuscan village with middle-aged characters instead of Vienna seen through the eyes of naive early-20s backpackers. The man, James Miller (William Shimell), is on a book tour in Italy because unexpectedly, his work has become quite popular with Italians, even more popular than in his native England. His premise concerns original art versus its copies. Why are originals valued and exalted more than copies which may be even better than the original it was forged from? Furthermore, why does having the knowledge of whether or not a piece of art is actually the original change the viewerâ
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This film is a puzzle that grows on you after leaving the theater. In my view many of the critics have entirely misinterpreted it. The philosophical debate that occupies the forefront of the story is a disguise for a deadly serious and contrary reality behind it. In any case the story is beautifully filmed and acted and will echo in the mind long.
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Certified Copy is cynical and postmodern and may be true to the reality of some. The style of the performance is a kind of anguished improv (which is certainly different). But the product is not very true to the trailer, and those wanting to watch a positive and romantic film may find Certified Copy disappointing. I would have classed it as a drama, and may have enjoyed it more if I had different expectations, but did not dislike it.
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One thing I learned, analyzing the films I see, is that just because the film is different doesn't mean it's good. This maxim fits perfectly in this **** film's proposal, to be almost a kind of deep philosophical essay on the nature of things, failed. In place of such ambition, the viewer is delivered 106 minutes of a boring film, where there is no conflict, no suspense, no romance and no **** dialogues, interspersed with wanderings and more wanderings through an Italian village, lead nowhere in the drama and could well be reduced to monologues enclosed in a room, which would save on the cost of locations, the actors' salaries and the costs of the technical team.
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Production Company
MK2 Productions,
BiBi Film,
France 3 Cinéma,
Artémis Productions,
Cofinova 6,
Cinémage 4,
Soficinéma 5,
Canal+,
Rai Cinema,
France Télévisions,
Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée (CNC),
Regione Toscana,
Toscana Film Commission,
MEDIA Programme of the European Union,
Tax Shelter du Gouvernement Fédéral Belge,
Anglo-Belge Special Risks NV,
Abbas Kiarostami Productions
Release Date Mar 11, 2011
Duration 1 h 46 m
Rating Not Rated
Awards
International Cinephile Society Awards
• 1 Win & 6 Nominations
Cannes Film Festival
• 2 Wins & 3 Nominations
International Online Cinema Awards (INOCA)
• 1 Win & 3 Nominations
