Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Like Someone In Love (2012)

WHO: Abbas Kiarostami wrote and directed this.

WHAT: I saw this with my friend Ryland last Friday, a kind of make-up date for a screening we'd tried to attend at the Mill Valley Film Festival last fall that was cancelled 5 minutes into the movie when it was discovered the fest's DCP drive lacked an English subtitle file. If I'd seen more than 5 unsubtitled minutes of it in 2012  it'd have been one of my favorites of the year. Now it's in pole position to be my best of 2013. I'd write more about it but I'd rather see it again first, so let me direct you to an excellent (essentially spoiler-free) review by the perceptive Steven Boone.

WHERE/WHEN: Screens three times daily at the Opera Plaza and four times daily at the Shattuck in Berkeley. It will continue for another week starting this Friday at the Opera Plaza, but is being edged off the Shattuck screen after Thursday, to make room for A Fierce Green Fire, Beyond The Hills, etc.

WHY: CAAMFest, Frisco Bay's biggest annual showcase of contemporary independent cinema by filmmakers from Asia and from the Asian Diaspora, is just around the corner and I'll be posting recommendations for films in its program starting this Friday. Like Someone In Love could easily be placed among the selections; like CAAMFest selection Inheritance it's made by an Iranian-born filmmaker working outside Iran. In this case, in Japan with a Japanese cast and crew; CAAMfest has a relatively small number of Japanese films in its program this year, with just one feature (Sion Sono's Land of Hope) and one short (No Longer There) in the festival. Like Someone In Love is a terrific example of a filmmaker working on a low budget in a foreign country, and I suspect anyone interested in the kinds of films CAAM programs would get a lot out of squeezing this into their screening schedule over the next couple weeks, whether in the next couple days or in a free slot after CAAMFest begins.

HOW: Like Someone In Love screens as a digital projection at both theatres.

2 comments:

  1. Whomever distributed this film seems to have done their homework about when to release it in SF. The same can't be said for those behind Park Chan-Wook's STOKER, which is getting released the weekend CAAMFest begins, likely causing a lower box office for STOKER as a result.

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  2. It does seem a shame, Adam. Hopefully Stoker stays in theatres long enough for CAAM Fest fans to see it.

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