Close-Up is a 1990 film from Iran directed by Abbas Kiarostami.
It is a documentary—sort of, see below—about an incident that was briefly news in Iran in the late 1980s. The protagonist is Hossain Sabzian, a poor, underemployed resident of Teheran. One day he happens to be taking a bus ride while reading a screenplay by Iranian film director Mohsen Makhmalbaf
. When the old lady sitting next to him asks him about it, he impulsively claims that he is Mohsen Makhmalbaf. The old lady, one Mahrokh Ahankhah, invites him to her home. Soon the faux Makhmalbaf is living with the upper-class Ahankhah family (husband, wife, two grown sons), drinking in their respect and esteem, and claiming that he will put them in his movie. Eventually, of course, he is exposed.
What makes this film unique is that Kiarostami, who read the story in the paper, recruited everyone involved in the real-life incident to play themselves. Everyone from Hossain Sabzian to the Ahankhah family to the soldiers who made the arrest to Abbas Kiarostami play themselves, recreating events that they actually participated in, in a film that blurs the distinction between fiction and reality.
Tropes:
- Anachronic Order: The scenes bounce back and forth, with the arrest and trial of Sabzian interspersed with flashbacks showing his meeting the Ahankhah family, as well as interviews that take place later in the narrative. One scene that initially appears to be an after-the-fact interview eventually turns out to be immediately before Sabizan's arrest.
- Art Shift: The courtroom scenes were shot with a 16mm camera and look considerably grainier and more low-resolution than the rest of the movie.
- Autobiographical Role: Everyone in the whole movie, appearing as themselves.
- The Cameo: Mohsen Makhmalbaf, the real one, is there to greet Sabzian when he gets out of jail. They go back to the Ahankhah family together.
- The Con: Strangely, one that doesn't seem to have any goal in mind. Instead, Sabzian doesn't appear to want anything more than respect from the Ahankhahs, who are pretty fancy folks.
- Freeze-Frame Ending: A freeze-frame on Sabzian, standing outside the gate to the Ahankhah mansion, looking forlorn.
- Info Dump: The opening scene has Farazmand, the reporter, giving a long spiel to the cabbie on the way to the Ahankhah mansion, telling him all about Sabzian and his hoax.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Mehrdad Ahankhah is reluctant to forgive Sabzian, saying that he feels like Sabzian is playing a role. Later, the judge examines Sabzian, saying "Aren't you playing a role right now?" The judge soon follows this up by saying "What part would you like to play?" Sabzian answers "My own." Of course, he actually is playing himself in a movie.
- Leave the Camera Running: Kiarostami likes to let his camera run in long takes, sometimes showing nothing in particular. One shot early on has the cabbie plucking some flowers that are growing atop a trash dump in the street. This action knocks an aerosol can onto the street. Since the street is on an incline the can rolls...and rolls...and rolls...and rolls, until it finally clatters into the gutter, with the camera staying still.
- Mockumentary: To the extent that sources differ on what is reality and what is scripted. Some sources report that Kiarostami got his cameras into Sabzian's actual fraud trial, while others report that the courtroom scenes were recreated. Sources also disagree on whether or not the scene at the end where the audio cuts out as Sabzian and Makhmalbaf are talking was the result of an actual equipment failure, or whether it was done in post-production after Sabzian got too excited when talking to his hero and forgot his scripted lines.
- Perspective Flip: The Prolonged Prologue (see below) has the soldiers come to the Ahankhah mansion to arrest Sabzian, but doesn't go inside, instead staying with the cabbie. Much later in the film, however, the camera does go inside and show the tension-filled moment where Sabzian, who has already figured out that the game is up, sits alone and waits for the police.
- Prolonged Prologue: 18 minutes before the opening titles. This prologue allows for an Info Dump but otherwise nothing happens. The cab arrives at the mansion but the camera, oddly, does not follow the action into the mansion, instead staying outside as the cabbie and the soldiers have an idle conversation, followed by the cabbie kicking a can down the street, followed by the frantic reporter going door-to-door begging for a tape recorder after realizing he forgot his own.
- Spinning Paper: Sort of. Actually, it's a sequence of a printing press printing out a newspaper, ending with the front page and the story of Sabzian's arrest.
- Title Drop: Kiarostami, explaining his equipment to Sabzian, demonstrates one camera and says "This one has a close-up lens."
