45 Taste of Cherry

[swo17]

Interesting to note that this does not have an updated DVD coming alongside the Blu-ray.

And the original DVD is OOP

[domino harvey]

Very odd. I wonder if they renewed/gained titles for an eventual Blu-Ray box ala Bergman and that’s why they let the DVD rights lapse?

[movielocke]

I think it probably has to do with sales numbers and projected sales numbers, they don’t expect to ever break even on the cost of a dvd printing. Salesman also did not get a dvd upgrade.

[cdnchris]

I felt they should have at least kept the dual-format releases for cases like this.

[dwk]

I think it probably has to do with sales numbers and projected sales numbers, they don’t expect to ever break even on the cost of a dvd printing. Salesman also did not get a dvd upgrade.

Haxan didn't either, but I think in those cases the old DVDs remained in print.

[Close The Door, Raymond]

Criterion's re-release includes these special features from the original DVD release:

1. Rare 1997 interview with Abbas Kiarostami, conducted by Iranian film scholar Jamsheed Akrami
2. Trailer

Not included: 3-page folded insert with liner notes by Godfrey Cheshire and "Filmography"

[L.A.]

July 21

Beaver.

[tenia]

Interestingly, Projet is 43 minutes long on the recent French BD.
Also, the teal leaning wasn't bothering when watching the movie and is made more obvious by comparing to the past DVDs. However, it is detectable, especially during the shots in the car, where shadows tend to be blue-ish.

[TheKieslowskiHaze]

Got this as a blind buy, as I've loved every Kiarostami I've ever seen (especially the Koker trilogy). Held off seeing this until a good transfer existed. Should I be excited?

[dda1996a]

Very excited. For me it's his absolute best along with Where is the Friend's House?

[swo17]

It's one of my favorites as well but it's also just a guy driving around the whole time, and then an ending that doesn't make any sense. I wouldn't go in expecting to be "excited"

[knives]

To be fair that could describe half of his films.

[swo17]

True statement

[Michael Kerpan]

{correction}

...driving around ... and talking to people as he (or she) drives !!!!



(My copy arrived from B&N today).

[Tommaso]

It's one of my favorites as well but it's also just a guy driving around the whole time, and then an ending that doesn't make any sense. I wouldn't go in expecting to be "excited"

It was the first Kiarostami I ever saw, and it almost managed to turn me off from a director who I now consider to be one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. Having seen all his other films since then, getting more of a context, the ending now seems less awful to me than the first time around, but I still find it pretty much forced (and unlike in "Through the Olive Trees" or "Certified Copy" its reflection on the artificiality of the film-making process definitely hasn't been prepared in the plot of the film itself). I guess I'm pretty much in the minority, but I wouldn't rank "Taste of Cherry" anywhere near the top of his works, though it is probably one of the most accessible to general European 'arthouse' audiences/ festival circuits. But for me it simply lacks the very personal, deeply emotional touch of a film like "Where's the friend's home", or the radical experimental approach of something like "Shirin" or "24 Frames", all of which I find endlessly more rewarding and thought-provoking. As for "a guy driving around the whole time", "Ten" is the one to watch, of course.

[Finch]

Is this a good place to start for a Kiarostami newbie or should I go with the Koker set? I've never seen his films before, including The Wind Will Carry Us via Cohen. Should I maybe even go with the Cohen disc?

edit: I found The Wind Will Carry Us on Kanopy and added it to my watchlist.

[domino harvey]

I'd go with Close-Up

[John Cope]

It's one of my favorites as well but it's also just a guy driving around the whole time, and then an ending that doesn't make any sense. I wouldn't go in expecting to be "excited"

It was the first Kiarostami I ever saw, and it almost managed to turn me off from a director who I now consider to be one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. Having seen all his other films since then, getting more of a context, the ending now seems less awful to me than the first time around, but I still find it pretty much forced (and unlike in "Through the Olive Trees" or "Certified Copy" its reflection on the artificiality of the film-making process definitely hasn't been prepared in the plot of the film itself). I guess I'm pretty much in the minority, but I wouldn't rank "Taste of Cherry" anywhere near the top of his works, though it is probably one of the most accessible to general European 'arthouse' audiences/ festival circuits. But for me it simply lacks the very personal, deeply emotional touch of a film like "Where's the friend's home", or the radical experimental approach of something like "Shirin" or "24 Frames", all of which I find endlessly more rewarding and thought-provoking. As for "a guy driving around the whole time", "Ten" is the one to watch, of course.

This just goes to show how fluid our subjective responses can be. I would rank Taste of Cherry near the top of his work (along with Koker and Wind Will Carry Us). I love 24 Frames and Five but I can't stand Shirin or, for that matter, Certified Copy (except for the last five minutes). As to which one to start with, I would absolutely endorse Cherry or Koker or Wind. Close-Up is great but its formalism can be a bit daunting I think on a first pass, especially if that's your first exposure to his work. For me at least, the others I mentioned are more immediately entrancing and sumptuous works which give you a better sense of the full range of what he's going for. Hell, maybe even his wonderful short film contribution to the Tickets anthology is even the best overall way to go for a direct and clear simple summation of many of his themes and ideas, stylistic or otherwise. And actually, as much as I dislike it, Certified Copy would likely be a pretty good intro/primer to his work. That may be the best way to watch it and really appreciate it. Certainly what is good about it would come out well that way I think.

[nitin]

The Wind Will Carry Us is accessible enough and yet hits all his major themes, I would recommend that as an entry into Kiarostami.

[tenia]

I would also recommend The Wind Will Carry Us.

[ellipsis7]

Being with Cohen, I guess THE WIND WILL CARRY US can't come to Criterion... Although from the Beaver review I'm not sure I like the colour palette versus the MK2 DVD - the latter seems closer to what I remember seeing when I caught a Berlin Film Festival Market Screening in 2000...

BTW I have a lot of time for SHIRIN... It relates to this, which I wrote previously on another similar Kiarostami work...

His video installation based round the traditional Iranian drama TAZIYEH, which depicts the martyrdom of the Imam Hossain, is played out in mannered fashion (the bad guy dressed in red, the good in green, an actor appearing in lion costume, and copious rich red paint doubling for blood). This drama he places on a central plasma screen, but as it is played out, we simultaneously watch above on two large projected screens, images of the ordinary men and woman in the Iranian audience. Kiarostami has cited the influence of the TAZIYEH (rather than Brecht) on his use of distancing techniques in his cinema, but in the installation we also see a remarkable and pure manifestation of Aristotleian dramatic progression, as registered on the faces of the audience, through from initial engagement and mimesis, to emotional upset and catharsis. We see them chatter and drinking tea, then their growing interest and identification, fast followed by silence and rapt attention, developing finally into anguish and tears. It was simple but stunning.

[CSM126]

The Wind Will Carry Us is with Janus Films.

[knives]

I'd go with Close-Up

This does seem the safest bet.

[Michael Kerpan]

I love pretty much all of Kiarostami's films -- but Wind Will Carry Us is also my favorite by far.

[ellipsis7]

They're mostly all wonderful...

And there's some special rare delights among the early shorts...

Cinema, photography & poetry are the three main strands to his work, which often intermingle...