Taste of Cherry (1997)

Sick Product of a Sick System

It is a performances centric movie

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

Taste of Cherry (Iranian: Ta'm e guilass) (1997) Understated film, Searching for his Doctor Death, Questions our morals, The philosophies of life. Quotable, much to ponder. Better as a book, Endless car conversations, More bored than impressed. Never get to know Badii. Maybe if he told us why. Somonka is a form of poetry that is essentially two tanka poems (the 5-7-5-7-7 syllable format), the second stanza a response to the first. Traditionally, each is a love letter and it requires two authors, but sometimes a poet takes on two personas. My somonka will be a love/hate letter to this film? #Somonka #PoemReview

I love the kind of movies that instead of just telling a story make you think and preferably pose some questions too.. movies that make you feel the experience of some other world, not just in the sense of the world outside the characters but the world inside their minds too.. I find 'Taste of Cherry' one of those and that's why I loved it.. but if slow paced movies bore you and somewhat boneless plots irritate you then definitely its not your cup of tea.. From cinematic point of view, the landscapes of desert are worth watching.. the mood of the movie perfectly harmonizes with the mental condition of the protagonist.. some of the scenes and dialogs vividly express his thinking process but then there are some scenes that are apparently seems simple or dialogs that are said in a very casual way but after looking back and rethinking make you doubt if it was as simple and casual as it seems to be or if I overlooked what was trying to convey in a subtle way.. as I'm still thinking about the professions of all the men he met in reference to symbolism.. and last but not the least, its ending is an enough premise to start an endless debate that will lead to nowhere I guess.. but reading this quote by Abbas Kiarostami solves many puzzles.. When we tell a story, we tell but one story, and each member of the audience, with a peculiar capacity to imagine things, hears but one story. But when we say nothing, it's as if we said a great number of things. ... It's necessary to envision an unfinished and incomplete cinema so that the spectator can intervene and fill the void, the lacks. ~ Abbas Kiarostami

Is there even such a thing as a bad Iranian movie? Seriously, I have seen a whole variety of movies from Iran by now, each from different decades as well but I have never seen one that I could call being anything beyond really good.And this movie is being a great one as well. It's great in all of its simplicity. It's a movie that is taking a humble and honest approach to its subject and doesn't ever goes overboard with anything. The story remains small and simplistic at all times and none of the emotions or story developments feel forced.It's also being a small and humble movie with all of its settings and characters. Most of the movie is set at the same location and it only features a handful of characters in it.The movie is being also especially great with its cinematography and storytelling. It rather not shows or tells you certain things, so that the movie almost constantly forces you to use you our mind to make things up and put certain things together. Sometimes the camera isn't even focusing on the person talking, or the person is off screen entirely. It's a special sort of approach that worked out just great for this particular movie.It's also being a quite interesting one with its themes. The movie focuses on a man that wants to commit suicide and is searching for a man to bury him, once the deed is done. This is however a movie set in an Islamic country, in which suicide is considered to be a mortal sin. This, amongst other things, provides the movie with some provocative moments and exchanges of dialog between the man and the different characters he meets on his search. And it luckily is not a movie that tries to have a moral in it or tries to teach you anything about life. It's instead being one that really allows you to make up your own mind about its subject and the themes it handles.Truly one great and provoking movie, that doesn't ever gets pretentious or overdoes certain things.8/10 http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

I admire the style and goal of this film. It's not an easy job to make a good movie with such a small budget and with such a tight focus. There are no gimmicks or flashy tricks here. It really is just a man driving through town and its surroundings, talking to people and trying to fulfill his final mission. That's ambitious. And at some points it really works. The early scenes especially, where we're only beginning to know this strange, slightly uncomfortable, but also very charismatic man, are really good and I enjoyed the mystery.Unfortunately the narrative isn't that great. The movie has a tendency to jump from one important scene to another with no bridges, no explanations. I'm sure there are people who would say that the movie doesn't need those bridges. I disagree. A true master of his craft may be able to tell a story without them, but for most of us, those bridges and story-telling techniques are there for a reason. They are needed to make the story flow more smoothly. To leave them out altogether makes the movie seem jumpy and jarring, as if there wasn't enough time to film certain scenes. On the other hand, the ending scene feels completely unnecessary and stylistically broken.Still, the movie has its upsides. The dialogue, for the most parts, is really good and captivating, as are the actors. The movie has its own unique style, the lack of music fits the mood and I actually enjoyed the story, unevenly told as it might have been. So yeah, just slightly below average, but worth a watch, in my opinion.