Just would like to say...


...this movie makes me want to PUKE!

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[deleted]

It didn't make me want to puke, but it is very boring. We're watching it in one of my classes so I haven't seen all of it, but is there EVER a plot?

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The plot is life.
Life is not that exciting. Or perhaps you all need to see the beauty of this film.

You watch the village in its daily culture and the city people with theirs.
I thought the movie was so funny and is much better is you see in itlian or persian.

Try to watch it again and see that there are different realities in this world.

There was a character. You should know who it is.

Look at the colors in the film the beauty of the village in all of its social depth.

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Well, yes, it is about life, but since we are all participating in life on a daily basis, why bother to watch a movie that captures monotany and boredom so well? I watch movies to see different perspectives and unique takes on simple things etc. but this movie provided nothing to interest me.
We're watching it in class to write a review on, and I am certainly not an amateur movie-watcher, and I love foreign films, but this one was on my Top 10 Most Boring and Pointless Movies Ever list. Much like Northfork.
The scenery was beautiful, but as said above, if that's what I want, I'll go the IMAX.

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Because it can be interesting, educational and beautiful to see ways of life that are very different from our own. If nothing in this film interests you, you have a very small mind.

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its a charming depiction of village life and at times startlingly beautiful. however, it would have helped to know exactly why the engineer was there and what the significance of the womans death was. its not just that it was "boring" - the plot just didn't develop. I really liked 2of his other films i've seen "Taste of Cherry" and "close-up" but I just didn't get the point of this one.

I did love the village though, and everything about it - the innocence simplicity etc etc particularly the little boy and his sincerity to the things he believes in but i didn't get the POINT.

between thought and expression lies a lifetime

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****May Contain Spoilers!****



Punch Drunk, from my understanding the film is about learning to respect life and death. I think the doctor on the moped came the closest to explaining what the movie's message was. The main character and his colleaugues apparently came to the town to document the death rituals of these peasant farmers. The main character had little respect for life and death. He rooted for an old woman's death and treated human remains as toys and ornaments. Technology seems to play a role in detaching him from life and death. In order for the character to gain respect for life and death he had to be removed from the big city and technology. In the final scene when he throws the leg bone into the river it lets us know that he has changed. Despite how important this message may be, I did find that the film was flawed. Kiarostami offered very little for the viewer to be interested in by way of characters and storyline..

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Dear Cellist: Why do you have to be so objective about art? Art is not objective as your cello scales also does not mean anything in particular, rather is the way you can feel the mood and the emotions, an to be clever enough to cath the simbolic meaning of the film, that is a true work of art.
If you play the cello, you know for shure that patience is the key to grasp the truth......

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Thank you, guys. No I am really determined to see it, as soon as possible.

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How can people be so ignorant?? I think this film is one of the gratest achievments of cinema...it´s in my top 5, the rythm, the humour, the poetry in it is exceptional...abbas kiarostami is this era´s tarkovsky and people donpt like him beacuse "who watches iranian films?" and of course, because noone is trying to understand the films...they are just to busy wanting to throw tomatoes at the screen.........


that is just sad....

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I agree. This film has stayed with me ever since I first saw it. Kiarostami is easily one of the best 2 or 3 people making films right now. His stuff affects me in a way that no one else has.

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It seems to be that many people have the mentality that if they don't 'get' a film, then it is a failure. How about looking at yourself as the failure for not 'getting' it!

But the real question is, does it matter? And the answer is no. Kiarostami is simply presenting life in a certain way and perhaps there is beauty in his portrayal, or a reality which is hard to face.

So if you find nothing here, move on - you will find it elsewhere, or come back without any ideas of what the film should be, just watch it and see what happens.

Just some ideas.

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About, and to, those who are bored with this film....
I'm afraid that so many Americans have had so much of their psyches carved out, or repressed, by the reigning Geist of corporate-dominated faux culture, and replaced by a substitute excuse of a psyche that is limited to seeing only the barest of literalities, that they cannot understand metaphor, allegory, or symbolism in any art form.
How pathetic. One of the once most dynamic of cultures has come to this.
We have met the blobs, and they is us.

Oh well, look what the Iranians have to put up with: Mad Mullahs, George W. Ahmadinejad, et al.

Throw off your yokes, Oh humanity, and, as Munchausen exhorted, "Open the Gates!"

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I don't know, maybe it's because I kinda understand what the characters were saying and didn't need to completely rely on subtitles, but I wasn't really bored during this flick. I could see why someone would be, but I personally wasn't. Sure it was slow, but I felt like I was learning more and more about Behzad with each scene. It really got under my skin I suppose. And the photography of course was incredible.

It's definitely not everyone's cup of tea, so I understand if you guys really didn't like this film at all. But personally, I'm a sucker for minimalist, meditative style when there is real substance behind it (which I thought there was in this case).

Just my two cents.

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No, there wasn't much of a plot. Welcome to film outside of Hollywood?

And thank God for it.

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This was a beautiful film.

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I think the key to appreciating this film is to enjoy it as a documentary. Are these villagers out of Central Casting or are they actually real? I prefer to believe that it is the latter. If you prefer CSI to Forensic Files (true stories, real victims, real criminals) then this work of art may be expected to make you puke.

All I want is to live long enuf to become a ward of the state.

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I think the key to appreciating this film is to enjoy it as a documentary. Are these villagers out of Central Casting or are they actually real? I prefer to believe that it is the latter. If you prefer CSI to Forensic Files (true stories, real victims, real criminals) then this work of art may be expected to make you puke.


No, I think he purposely makes it more complex then that by adding those little tinges of self reflexivity that awaken you out of your unquestioning belief. Part of his larger project seems to be to deconstruct the binary of 'reality'(or documentary) and fiction.

Especially in this film that simplistic view isnt good enough because some of what Kiarostami is dealing with is the ethics of the project in which he himself is engaged. That of going to poor rural communities like the protagonist in the film for purposes which have nothing to do with the people whos lives he is capturing and making his reputation on. This is a really autobiographical work I think (as most of his films are)

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