IFI FRENCH FILM CLUB
French Film Club screening of Certified Copy on September 13th at 19.00.

The presence of a radiant Juliette Binoche and much lovely Tuscan sunshine makes this teasing drama critically-lauded Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami’s most accessible outing to date. She’s an antiques shop owner spending the afternoon with visiting art expert William Shimell (an operatic baritone in his film debut), whose latest book has contentiously suggested a good copy’s every bit as worthwhile as an original old master. Soon however, the possibility emerges that these two are actually squabbling husband and wife, or possibly just playing at being a couple as an exercise in flirting. He’s pompous and defensive, she’s volatile and passionate: are these emotions real? Or are the performers just delivering clever facsimiles of actual feelings? Admittedly, Kiarostami’s translated dialogue doesn’t quite feel at home in its various languages, but the play of ideas and desires in this portrait of the warring sexes proves utterly beguiling, while its deft integration of naturalistic observation and considered artifice is masterly indeed. (Notes by Trevor Johnston).