Still Life

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Audience Member When a movie takes a deep dive at simplicity, for some reason, the whole thing seems more realistic, more human, more tangible. When the viewer, however, raises a rejection wall stating that film's are supposed to "entertain" and to be an escapist medium that resembles reality as little as possible, that viewer is missing a tremendous number of cinematic wonders, because the most wonderful things in our existence are in life itself, and not in cinema. To be the tangible protagonist of these wonderful simplicities is what makes this thing called life all the more personally meaningful. Cinema can reach the scope of life, I am convinced, but not the experience. The experience can be emulated. In this way, therefore, <i>Still Life</i> emulates the stillness of life and faithfully replicates its little details. The more a film can resemble life, the more I am simultaneously surprised and interested, because it is like if the medium was capable of reading my thoughts. The medium understands me. My reality materializes in front of the screen, and yet I have never lived it exactly like the characters do. Like Tárr said, it is important to find the proper shooting locations, which in this film become iconic. I bring up Tárr because of the multiple reviews referencing <i>The Turin Horse</i> (2011), but the connection is weak. Beyond the isolated landscapes untouched by modernity and the slow pace, <i>Still Life</i> and Tárr's films are entirely different universes. Both are serious films, given that all of Tárr's films are comedies, but the focus here is the deprivation of the life support of an old man that he lived for so many years, perhaps with a criticism nod to the indifference of Iranian laws and a nostalgic subtext of family separation, and not an examination of the human frailty with the story of Genesis told backwards to give a hint on the important aspects of the existentialist, semi-Nietzschian analysis. Potentially, this is the best Iranian film ever made. 99/100 Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/22/23 Full Review Audience Member A most appropriate title. For people who think Kiarostami is just way too hectic, man. Saless seems to be playing a game of low expectations -- load the film with so much inactivity that it makes the slightest occurrence take on added dramatic weight. But fuck it, it kinda works. I can't explain why, but I was really fascinated by this. You end up getting rather invested in this old couple. I'm on the fence about this one, the same way I am about a lot of Kiarostami, but I pretty much liked it. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/17/23 Full Review pasha a My Best Persian Movie of all time! Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member may i say the greatest iranian film? Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 02/02/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Still Life

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