Manoel de Oliveira's
The Strange Case of Angelica was a hauntingly (in every sense) beautiful film from the ageless Portuguese master, a supernatural ghost story grounded in everyday reality. Its classic formal elegance and defiantly old-fashioned nature are qualities which are quickly vanishing from cinema, so this is a film to be treasured.
There was a lot of skepticism about Abbas Kiarostami making a traditional Euro-art film after a decade of experimental work in Iran. However,
Certified Copy is unmistakably a Kiarostami film. With the help of two superb performances, by Juliette Binoche and William Shimell, Kiarostami explores how our perceptions of art and marriage alter the nature of those institutions. When a woman observing Binoche and Shimell mistakes them for a married couple, they begin to act out those roles, but are they just pretending or are they really in a turbulent 15-year marriage? The ambiguity contributes to the richness of detail in this great film.
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