My guest for this month is Neven Mrgan, and he’s joined me to discuss the film he chose for me, the 1997 drama film Taste of Cherry. You can follow the show on Twitter @cinemagadfly.
Abbas Kiarostami, who directed this film, is probably the most celebrated living Iranian directorWe are both huge fans of films with an existentialist bent, like this oneSeriously, Criterion, upgrade your crappy DVD of this film already. It’s not even anamorphic for crying out loud!If you want to read someone really get it wrong, read Roger Ebert’s thoughts on this filmA film that won the Palme d'Or in 1997, and was named to the 2012 Sight & Sound greatest films of all time listMartin Scorsese is also a huge fan of KiarostamiI assume we’re the only podcast to ever compare this film to Disney’s Wall-E, but I suppose you never knowThis film reminds me of Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Three Colors trilogy, especially Three Colors: RedWhen we said Apéritif we clearly meant Digestif. ClearlySome of Kiarostami’s other well-known films include Close-Up, Certified Copy, and Like Someone in Love. The last two were made in Italy and Japan respectivelyI seriously can’t recommend Tony Zhou’s Every Frame a Painting highly enough. Especially his episode on Ensemble Staging, as it relates indirectly to our conversation about what an American remake might do to ruin this filmBuy the film from Amazon
Watch the film on Hulu