Abbas Kiarostami's "Taste of Cherry" tied for the Palme d'Or at Cannes, so there is no doubt that many find it deeply affecting.
Due to be released commercially by Zeitgeist Films, it will surely find a greater audience than the Iranian director's previous, barely released film, "Through the Olive Trees". Still, this tale of a despondent man's attempt to find someone to help him commit suicide never really hits the emotional heights it should; it may be that the film's proponents are confusing simplicity with profundity. The film was recently showcased at the New York Film Festival.
"Taste of Cherry" presents the daylong odyssey of a middle-age man (Homayoun Ershadi) as he drives through the barren hills above Tehran, encountering various strangers to whom he makes a curious offer. He plans to attempt to kill himself with sleeping pills, and he wants someone to stop by the next day and, depending on whether he is alive or dead, either rescue him or bury him. Among those he meets are a young soldier, who runs away in horror; a Muslim seminary student who argues with him about the religious implications of the act; and an elderly museum employee, who urges him to "change your outlook." The museum worker's chief argument is that the man would miss the simple pleasures in life -- the taste of cherries, for example.
Such banal ideas are stretched out over 95 minutes, with a good deal of the running time spent in a continuous shot of the would-be suicide behind the wheel of his car. The most dramatic incident in the film is a brief interlude where the car's wheels get stuck in a ditch and he is assisted by a group of laborers.
We never learn any details about the man's situation or why he wants to kill himself; Kiarostami, no doubt, did not want to detract from the universality of his theme. That might have been effective approach if the film was more stylistically compelling. It is at times undeniably moving in its starkness, and there is a certain dignified quietude to the proceedings, but ultimately the supposedly deep meanings of "Taste of Cherry" seem more in the minds of its viewers than in the film itself.
TASTE OF CHERRY
Zeitgeist Films
Director-producer-writer-editor Abbas Kiarostami
Director of photography Homayon Payvar
Color/stereo
Cast:
Mr. Badii Homayon Ershadi
Museum Guard Abdolhossein Bagheri
Worker Afshin Khorshidbakhtair
Soldier Safar Ali Moradi
Seminarian Mir Hossein Noori
Running time -- 95 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Due to be released commercially by Zeitgeist Films, it will surely find a greater audience than the Iranian director's previous, barely released film, "Through the Olive Trees". Still, this tale of a despondent man's attempt to find someone to help him commit suicide never really hits the emotional heights it should; it may be that the film's proponents are confusing simplicity with profundity. The film was recently showcased at the New York Film Festival.
"Taste of Cherry" presents the daylong odyssey of a middle-age man (Homayoun Ershadi) as he drives through the barren hills above Tehran, encountering various strangers to whom he makes a curious offer. He plans to attempt to kill himself with sleeping pills, and he wants someone to stop by the next day and, depending on whether he is alive or dead, either rescue him or bury him. Among those he meets are a young soldier, who runs away in horror; a Muslim seminary student who argues with him about the religious implications of the act; and an elderly museum employee, who urges him to "change your outlook." The museum worker's chief argument is that the man would miss the simple pleasures in life -- the taste of cherries, for example.
Such banal ideas are stretched out over 95 minutes, with a good deal of the running time spent in a continuous shot of the would-be suicide behind the wheel of his car. The most dramatic incident in the film is a brief interlude where the car's wheels get stuck in a ditch and he is assisted by a group of laborers.
We never learn any details about the man's situation or why he wants to kill himself; Kiarostami, no doubt, did not want to detract from the universality of his theme. That might have been effective approach if the film was more stylistically compelling. It is at times undeniably moving in its starkness, and there is a certain dignified quietude to the proceedings, but ultimately the supposedly deep meanings of "Taste of Cherry" seem more in the minds of its viewers than in the film itself.
TASTE OF CHERRY
Zeitgeist Films
Director-producer-writer-editor Abbas Kiarostami
Director of photography Homayon Payvar
Color/stereo
Cast:
Mr. Badii Homayon Ershadi
Museum Guard Abdolhossein Bagheri
Worker Afshin Khorshidbakhtair
Soldier Safar Ali Moradi
Seminarian Mir Hossein Noori
Running time -- 95 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 9/30/1997
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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