Rating: 
Summary: Beautiful scenery, slow pace, like life used to be.........
Review: I knew nothing about this film, other than what I read on the back of the case, when I rented it this past weekend. I was in the mood for something other than a mainstream "Hollywood" film, and boy did I get my wish! After I "got it" that I was watching something that would not meet my "Americanized expectations" I sat back and truly enjoyed it! Becoming immersed in the pace, my whole day slowed right down and I began to notice small details that I wouldn't ordinarily get from mainstream movies and it was these small details that became immensely interesting and important. I agree with one person's suggestion that each person watching it will take away their own unique "understanding" of it. I feel that there is a reason for every act or decision we make in our life, and that we are personally motivated from within, from a core part of us that "connects" with the great "out there" to get us what we need to grow and move forward. The movie ended in no way that I expected it to, but I loved every moment that I didn't expect....in other words I was still extremely entertained and moved and educated and I would recommend this film highly. It's got a certain something that we find we need only by watching it.Terri
Rating: 
Summary: Cold and Disappointing
Review: I really looked forward to this film, hoping that it would deliver the warmth and emotional wallop of the Iranian "Children of Heaven", but I could hardly keep my eyes open. This is perhaps the dreariest, most uncommunicative film I have ever forced myself to watch. The movie is largely a monologue - and a repetitive, repetitive, repetitive monologue at that. There is a boy that pops into the film now and then, but he is not convincing as a character. He seems to be stifling a smile, so aware that there is a camera pointing at him. Nothing is believable in this movie. I feel that I utterly wasted 2 hours of my life.
Rating: 
Summary: Different ...
Review: I rented 'The Wind Will Carry Us' along with 'The Matrix'. They're strikingly similar. Just kidding. I did enjoy it, by the way.
Rating: 
Summary: Where is this film supposed to carry me?
Review: I, in the manner of this film, am also going to be unconventional in writing this review. This film is about the appreciation of life at its simplest. The cinematography is breathtakingly beautiful; great job capturing a civilization uncluttered and spiritual. The protagonist is a bore, and we follow him exclusively throughout the film. The symbolic juxtapostion of the cell phone against the spiritual and uncluttered civilization doesn't strike the chord Kiarostami intends. There is little story here. In a nutshell: very good cinematography, beautiful setting, extrememely boring protagonist, contrived symbolism, little story. Your choice. I personally liked the Iranian films "Children of Heaven" and "The Color of Paradise" much more.
Rating:
Summary: From apes to civilization
Review: In 2001-A space odyssey, the thigh bone from a downed animal is used by a primate tool to kill one of the opposition gang and run the rest away. The first use of a tool, the first use of tool as weapon, a joyous cry for start of "civilization". The primate twirls his discovery, the bone, skyward in rejoice. The tumbling bone morphs into a "pan am" space shuttle, and you probably know the rest. The antagonist in the Wind finds a similar bone at the bottom of a well that a menial worker is digging. The well is for, what we learn, would be the foundation of a new cellular phone tower, or communication. Our antagonist hero carries the bone around on the dashboard of his jeep, which he uses to rush to the top of the same hill day after day to better reception. He needs to talk to his boss about his journalistic mission of documenting a ritual common in kurdish communities upon a loved one's death. The suggestion is that primitive is something that modern society want to gawk at, at any
cost. We are left to our own devices to guess why this is so, but cheap shows on every television screen across the globe attests to this. From travel "documentaries" to game shows, zero in on primitive instincts. It is an education of the senses that takes shape in this movie. From innate principals of human values, educated or not, taught by a young student to everyone in the film, to the pleasures of life for life's sake. The taste of cherries if you are lucky to be able to taste them any longer. Although,
here the cherries have also morphed into strawberries being harvested by young and beautiful people who don't gawk at nature as a primitive show, but as the temporary setting of their lives. At the end, it is clear that to save a life is to save yourself. Our hero goes through the intense trauma of getting help for his unseen well digger friend buried under rubble, and mirrored in the life of a free spirited doctor who has given up a city practice to be carried by the wind to those who can help him save himself. In The Wind Will Carry Us, the hero twirls his discovery, the bone, onto a clear, fresh, gurgling stream, that is, there is no such a thing as primitive. Life is life, and he manages to capture a couple of instances of it on a couple of frames on his Nikon, after the old woman he was on a death watch of passes away. But his frames show the humanity, not primitiveness of the procession. Kiarostami captures thousands of distinct instances frames of life being carried away on the frames of this amazing visual poem in traditional of great persian poets.
Rating:
Summary: I'm not satisfied and It Doesn't Register...
Review: It's too much a puzzle. Not much of poetry, in fact rather prosaic. Sorry I am not very satisfied and it doesn't really register save and except that it's quite a puzzle and, it's long. Perhaps it has the wrong cast, the hero did not impress at all, nor was the countryside nor village scenes... I tried to but haven't finished the second viewing, it's quite an effort. I have high esteem for Iranian films, and I enjoy "The White Balloon" so much and also another film about broken shoes where children don't have shoes for school... They are so wonderful, but I'm afraid, no, not this one.
Rating:
Summary: Space
Review: Kiarostami constructs and uses space better than any living filmmaker. It is extrordinary, and subtle, in this film.
Rating:
Summary: The Wind Carries This
Review: Once again Abbas Kiarostami shows the world how simple it is to make a great film if you are a great filmmaker. This film is a typical Kiarostami film, slow paced but at the same time deeply rich and complex through well exectuted symbolism. It is a film that explores the relationship between contemporary and traditional societies in Iran realized through the placement of a small film crew from Tehran into a small countryside village. They wait for the death of a village elder to begin their work on the film. As the film progresses it becomes less clear whether this elder will pass on and they begin to question their own place. It is possibly the most beautiful film I have ever experienced and I recommend it highly.
Rating:
Summary: The New World and the Old
Review: Plot summary: Film crew travels to remote village to document a death ritual. Once in the village, however, they find the deathly ill woman has not perished yet and so they settle in and wait. Each day they enquire about the old womans health and each day the news is different. The focus is on one member of the crew and how he slowly acclimates himself to the villagers, to nature, and to time as he waits for an event that may or may not occur. This is my second Abbas Kiorastami film. I recently saw Close Up and after seeing this one I want to see all of his films. Kiorastami is a film maker for people who want something unique. Hollywood is all about stating the obvious and Kiorastami is all about subtlety. Most films work by speeding things up and meeting expectations but Kiorastami works by slowing things down and subverting expectations. In CLOSE UP an out-of-work man with a family to support pretends to be a famous director and befriends a wealthy family who believes he truly is the director. As time passes the family begins to suspect that he may not be who he says he is. It is an intimate study of human relationships and how relationships develop to fulfill a mutual need. When the family finds out the man is merely an imposter they are angry at first and they take him to court but then as they listen to his reasons for pretending they forgive him and at films end we see that the friendship will resume. It is an examination of how relationships form and also an examination of society and how society shapes the way we relate to and see each other. THE WIND WILL CARRY US is another version of this story but instead of the poor man befriending the rich it is about a city dweller befriending village folk. The city dweller finds himself treating the villagers like an object for study because that is his training as a film maker but the villagers just quietly go about their business allowing the city dweller to do his thing. The villagers are a community who all rely on each other and the city dweller is facinated by how the villagers take care of each other. He relies on them for all his practical needs like food and lodging but also for his social needs as well. As he tries to communicate with various villagers we can see that he is trying to make a connection with life that has so far been denied him in the city. The city dweller is the kind of man who quotes poetry freely but for him life is abstract whereas for the villagers life is real. Thus his fascination with them. For the first time in his life he finds himself looking at nature, at life, and at people up close. Its a very long film with lots of quiet stretches but that is Kiorastami's style--instead of hurrying you along from one scene to the next he allows you to occupy each scene and feel life not in film time but in real time. Once you surrender to the style you begin to feel its magisterial effect. CLOSE UP was kind of grainy and low budget (though still a great film) but this film is state of the art. Truly pristine cinematography. I highly recommend both films.
Rating:
Summary: The New World and the Old
Review: Plot summary: Film crew travels to remote village to document a death ritual. Once in the village, however, they find the deathly ill woman has not perished yet and so they settle in and wait. Each day they enquire about the old womans health and each day the news is different. The focus is on one member of the crew and how he slowly acclimates himself to the villagers, to nature, and to time as he waits for an event that may or may not occur. This is my second Abbas Kiorastami film. I recently saw Close Up and after seeing this one I want to see all of his films. Kiorastami is a film maker for people who want something unique. Hollywood is all about stating the obvious and Kiorastami is all about subtlety. Most films work by speeding things up and meeting expectations but Kiorastami works by slowing things down and subverting expectations. In CLOSE UP an out-of-work man with a family to support pretends to be a famous director and befriends a wealthy family who believes he truly is the director. As time passes the family begins to suspect that he may not be who he says he is. It is an intimate study of human relationships and how relationships develop to fulfill a mutual need. When the family finds out the man is merely an imposter they are angry at first and they take him to court but then as they listen to his reasons for pretending they forgive him and at films end we see that the friendship will resume. It is an examination of how relationships form and also an examination of society and how society shapes the way we relate to and see each other. THE WIND WILL CARRY US is another version of this story but instead of the poor man befriending the rich it is about a city dweller befriending village folk. The city dweller finds himself treating the villagers like an object for study because that is his training as a film maker but the villagers just quietly go about their business allowing the city dweller to do his thing. The villagers are a community who all rely on each other and the city dweller is facinated by how the villagers take care of each other. He relies on them for all his practical needs like food and lodging but also for his social needs as well. As he tries to communicate with various villagers we can see that he is trying to make a connection with life that has so far been denied him in the city. The city dweller is the kind of man who quotes poetry freely but for him life is abstract whereas for the villagers life is real. Thus his fascination with them. For the first time in his life he finds himself looking at nature, at life, and at people up close. Its a very long film with lots of quiet stretches but that is Kiorastami's style--instead of hurrying you along from one scene to the next he allows you to occupy each scene and feel life not in film time but in real time. Once you surrender to the style you begin to feel its magisterial effect. CLOSE UP was kind of grainy and low budget (though still a great film) but this film is state of the art. Truly pristine cinematography. I highly recommend both films.
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