Art House (Every Other) Tuesday #73

Taste of Cherry (1997)

Hey all,

I hope some of you got to enjoy Taste of Cherry. Some things can't be put into words. Here we learn almost nothing about our main character, Mr. Badii's, not even the reason he wants to die. By withholding the specifics, Kiarostami turns him into a container for our own pain. Ironically, the less we know the more encompassing an allegory the film becomes. The three people Badii meets, almost like the ghosts in A Muppet Christmas Carol, each reflect an aspect of his own life. It feels like the film reaches through its hollow character, straight to the audience, hoping to sway any hurting souls it finds from a destructive path.

It would be so easy for this film to feel didactic, to see the hand of the director moving behind the script, pushing his thoughts about death and suicide onto the viewer. But every conversation feels impossibly natural. As much as the film is structured like a fable, Kiarostami never budges from the sort of grounded, disarming realism his previous films utilize. At the heart of this movie is a man driving around the outskirts of town searching. Maybe the film simply wants to push us to search for ourselves. So if you're into mulberries this one's for you.

              "What's the difference between killing someone and killing yourself?"

This week we're jumping into the wide world of Indian cinema. This week we're watching Satyajit Ray's '55 offering: Pather Panchali

You can see the trailer here:

Indian cinema, in general, is a huge blind spot for me. For some reason, it felt intimidating. Murmurs of different cultural expectations from Indian audiences (as opposed to American audiences) convinced me I wouldn't relate. I've heard big dance numbers are often important at the end of Indian films. Will they make sense to me? Will there be symbols or cultural references that will go over my head? Maybe but that's also the fun of exploring! If you're ignorant like me, come along!

As always, if you want to join me to chat Tuesday after watching the film let me know. This is book club style so anyone who has seen this flick can join the conversation.

You can find the list of all our Art House Films watched so far here.

Sincerely,
Jesse Sperling
jessesperling.com
@sperlingsilver