Camera Buff

Camera Buff

1979 Polish, 7.5/10 IMDB, Directed by Krzysztof Kieslowski

 A drama of an individual's new found passion of motion camera that slowly consumes him, until it costs him his dear family and overrides his meaning of happiness. The film in turn consumes the viewers with its illustrative making as the character unearths his passion that he never knew existed in him before.

Filip, buys a camera to film his to-be born child. It slowly turns to a hobby when he films his friend driving his van while his friend's mom is watching from her window upstaris. Finally it turns to Filip's passion, when his friend's mom passes away, and his friend says to him that, his mom lives in the film Filip shot. These words sound simple on the face of it, but as the film progresses, you are rooting for Filip to scale heights, even makes us turn a blind eye to the toll it has on his personal life.

The wife wants to stick to the peace and quiet life, while Filip’s hunger to embrace the new found love grows in magnitude, as he discovers he has a flair for it. That’s the life of an artist and you are made to realize, what’s inside of an artist would inevitably erupt.  

The scenarios on producer chucking away the director from the editing room, as his boss who funds the films enforces his rights to mutilate Filip's artwork. The interview with the film maker Krzysztof Zanussi, reveals true wisdom there- ‘We are not alchemist of the soul, capable of changing lives’.

Film making parts his way from his wife and child’s. As she moves out, he says, ‘finally something is working for me’, which implies he wasn’t content with the peace and quiet that he presumed he had before his motion camera could take over his life. May be its an inner quest, a calling, that an artist experiences. His passion turning in to an obsession is well defined when he fixes the frame even when his wife walks away leaving him.

The young man who assists Filip in making films says, Filip had nothing few months ago and now that his wife and child had left him he has so much going on his professional life. Filip is mad at him for saying that, but he isn’t any sad. The family's burden is off his shoulders may be, for the creator in him to evolve, you are let to think.

Is it that the passion of art would never die, no matter who is with you and who is not? The final shot when he takes his 16mm camera standing next to the window, one is left to think he is going to throw the camera outside, but then that’s the conditioning of Indian entertainment industry that’s playing on me I thought. Filip's obsession makes him turn the camera to himself and self-captures the narrative of the opening shot of the film, where his wife is in labor.

The metaphoric shot of an eagle preying a chicken, is it him feasting over his new found passion? And its placement in the wife’s dream, is that she has some premonitions, that she is going to fall prey to her husband’s obsession? One can keep contemplating, I guess.

Close-Up

 Close-Up

1990 Persian, 8.3 /10 IMDB, YouTube, Directed by Abbas Kiarostami

‘Based on a true story or a true’- we are familiar with that title credit. Interestingly 'Close-up' features real people of a true story, playing their original parts and it stays close to your heart when Abbas Kiarostami distinctively captures the events in an investigative perspective and documents the original happenings of a trail with a 'close-up' camera fixed on the face of the accused.

The film opens with the news of a reporter going along with the cops to arrest the man who had impersonated the famous director of Iran, Mr. Mohsen Makhmalbaf. After the arrest, Director Abbas Kiarostami, visits the plaintiff and gathers their story and visits the accused in the prison. The crew gets permission to shoot inside the courtroom and the mystery unfolds as the plaintiff’s family explain the incidences. The maker gives us visuals of the narration where the accused plays himself. This hints you of a happy ending that the accused is pardoned eventually. But the director makes the narration ever so beautifully, that you are totally invested in the film.

The plaintiff Ahahkhah’ son talking about ‘unemployment’, surprisingly finds it way throughout the film, which gives us an insight into the economy. When the accused Mr. Sabzian, tells Kiarostami, that he is interested in cinema and requests to tell Director Makhmalbaf that his film ‘The cyclist’ is a depiction of his suffering, as a movie buff myself, I could relate to the thoughts on Kiarostami's on Sabzian.

To see a clap board in law court intrigues the viewers and when positioning of cameras are explained and the questions are asked by the director along with the Judge, it gives a whole new dimension to the court room scenario that we are used to. In the middle of the testimonies, Sabzian relates himself to the character of Kiarostami’s work explaining his obsession on films and the respect he has on art and directors. On the other hand, the plaintiff’s son whose passion for art and literature and his interest in acting, also shows the impact these 'New Wave' directors had on people of all classes of Iran.

The philosophies, the quotes on Tolstoy, the books that he had read, all this makes the suspicion on Sabzian grows many fold reminds the initial comment the plaintiff’s son, 'Sabzina was not credulous'. But somewhere the maker's belief transpires on the viewers and you start seeing through the eyes of Kiarostami.

The ‘close-up’ shot of Sabzian when the plaintiff son pronounces his forgiveness, quoting Sabzian's deed merely reflected the social malaise and unemployment, the emotions were meant to be dramatic, but it wasn’t. But during the secret filming from inside a van, of Director Makhmalbof 's meeting with Sabzian on a distant road, ironically, that long shot amongst busy traffic, where Sabzian hugs Makhmalbof and cries with his head down in shame- does the magic.

When the crew follows the two in a van, the vision is through a broken front glass. But after they buy flowers for the Ahankhah’s residence to apologize, the broken glass is blurred so you don’t see the cracks visibly, to represent, forgiveness, I believed. Makhmalbaf, introduces himself and asks Mr. Ahankhah to ‘see him in new light’ and that what we viewers do as well.