COPIE CONFORME (CERTIFIED COPY)
France/Italy/Belgium, 2010, 104 minutes, Colour.
Juliette Binoche, William Schimmel, Jean- Claude Carriere.
Directed by Abbas Kierostami.
‘What was that all about?’ is a fair question. ‘Who was that all about?’ may be an even fairer question.
This is really a cinema essay, verbal and visual, about art and perceptions of art, about life and about fantasy. It is celebrated Iranian director, Abbas Kierostami, making a non-Iranian film and a film outside Iran (though he did make the short story in Italy which was his contribution to the 2005 Tickets).
A British writer on art theory delivers a lecture in Tuscany. A French art dealer who lives in Tuscany with her young son attends and disagrees with aspects of the book. She takes the author on a drive which leads to much (much) discussion about art, originals and copies, about marriage and relationships. An Italian lady mistakes them for husband and wife and the woman follows through with this role play, the author gradually joining in. They encounter young marrieds with the woman elated and the man surly and unwilling to be photographed, trying to be realistic about change in love and life. They argue about a statue in a piazza and she enlists some tourists to bolster he interpretation against his snobbishness. He is also snobbish about wine in a restaurant and does not notice the woman’s putting on lipstick and earings. Finally, they go to a hotel room which she states is the room of their wedding night fifteen years earlier. Will the author leave for his train or stay with the woman? Here the film stops leaving us to speculate after the credits.
For audiences who like the director and this kind of debate cinema, they will be delighted. Others may not have the staying power, even though Juliet Binoche is the woman and William Shimmell is very good as the man. (Kiersotami fans might be wondering in the first part of the film but there is a Kierostami relief moment when the camera goes on to the front of the car to film the conversation and they indulge in a Kierostami drive!)
1. A film, an essay in words and images?
2. The work of Kierostami, his traditions, style, experimental? This film as non-Iranian? A film of Italy and Tuscany? Italian characters, French characters, British? The western perspectives? The characteristic Kierostami car ride? The musical score, songs?
3. The narrative development: the lecture, mother and son, the outing, arguments, phone calls, the Italian woman reflecting on women, the couple getting married, the heroine and James as a couple, the role-play, seeing the wedding, the psychodrama and the anniversary, the photos and the reaction against, the statue, the travelling couple and their opinions, the restaurant, the woman and lipstick and earrings, the wine, in the piazza, the hotel, room nine on the third floor? The end or the film just stopping? The audience continuing with ideas and reflections?
4. The introduction to James, the professor, his being late, the audience, his book, the signings? Theory of Art? His British background, introduction, jokes, his paper, the interruption by the mobile phone? The themes of art, originals and copies, origins and birth? Humans as DNA copies of ancestors? Copies, the technical aspects, the viewer response?
5. The woman, sitting in the front, her son, his texting, awkwardness? Her leaving, walking with her son, going to the café, his wanting Big Mac food, her being irritated with her son, the information about her life, his comments about her attractions? Her disliking the book? The gifts? James’s later story of the mother and the son following at fifty paces, the woman identifying with this, explaining she was ill at the time?
6. The invitation, James coming to the shop, subterranean? The ride in the car, the camera on the car, filming the conversation? The woman talking about her sister and her husband, her being irritated with James and his views? The information about her life? James’s story of the mother and the son? The discussions about simplicity?
7. Stopping for coffee, the talk, the story, the phone call, the attacking lady and her conversation with the woman, the discussion about wives, about being married, status, husbands and their love for work, the women and their control? James as a loving husband? Her misinterpreting, the woman allowing her to go on? The Italian lady convinced that she had the truth because she could see it? The woman identifying as married, and the talk about being married, the detail?
8. Her own phone call, her son, irritated with him, looking for something in the drawers? James’s reaction?
9. In the street, the discussions, going to the museum, seeing the wedding couples? The woman and her enthusiasm, wanting to be photographed, because of the anniversary? James and his being surly, remaining outside, the bride drawing him in?
10. The woman and her comments about subjectivity and observing art, James becoming more irritable? The statue in the piazza, the man protecting the woman? James’s disdain? The woman talking with the couple, getting them to explain, the wife and her interpretation of the statue? The feeling? The man being immortalised because of his protection of the woman? The husband and his giving advice to James, to put his hand on the woman’s shoulder and reassure her?
11. The restaurant, James’s demands, instant? The waiter delaying? The wine and the tasting and his not liking it? The woman and putting on lipstick, her earrings? James not noticing? Her anger? Seeing the wedding couple outside for their fiesta?
12. James and his apologies, the discussions about sleeping and dozing, blaming each other?
13. Going to room nine, she and the memories of the wedding night? He playing along?
14. The tone of realism, his having to get back to the station – but his looking in the mirror, staying?
15. Theories of art, technical art, subjective responses giving life to the work of art?
16. Theories of life, subjective aspects, objective aspects? Emotion? Identity? The nature of marriage? Love?
17. A visual and verbal exploration of these themes?
