THE 34th PORTLAND INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL, DAY 5

"certified copy," france, dir. abbas kiarostami

juliette binoche is beautiful and can act in three languages (that's as many as she uses in "certified copy" anyway, though i wouldn't put it past her to know more). and, she's almost all this film has going for it. binoche plays a single mother living in tuscany who attends a presentation by an english author on his book "certified copy," a treatise on authenticity, reproduction and the perception of art and its intrinsic (versus market/historical/socio-geographical) value. binoche slips her phone number to the author's translator before being dragged away early from the presentation by her hungry adolescent son. she and the author agree to meet. most of "certified copy" is spent following the two on a day trip to livorno. binoche takes the author there to show him a famous forgery -- an 18th century painting officially considered to have been a roman original until after world war ii. the author isn't especially intrigued. the couple enters a cafe after the museum, and after the proprietress takes the author for binoche's husband the couple becomes a couple, the two of them taking each other's cues as they assume their roles in a fifteen year marriage. certain bits of dialogue, however, seem to indicate that the two do in fact have a shared past. it's a movie, with actors acting characters who are acting characters themselves, all the while discussing art and originality. i wasn't especially impressed. i'd hoped for something much more intellectually stimulating than the self-consciously fake authenticity that kiarostami is selling in "certified copy." what i got was an invitation to self-congratulation: two hours of "getting it" in the dark. supposedly this is the director's most accessible film. i'd like to take a look at another for comparison. in the end, i appreciated "certified copy" more for its ruminations on the quality of aging love than for any investigation of the ideas suggested by its clever title. yes, juliette, i noticed that you removed your lipstick. and you still look as good as the day we first met.