Taste of Cherry

Writing in VL-5/99, reviewer Mike D’Angelo said: 'Yes, director Abbas Kiarostami is widely considered to be among the greatest contemporary filmmakers; and yes, Taste of Cherry, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 1997 (in a tie with Shohei Imamura’s The Eel) is generally agreed to be his masterpiece; and yes, as somebody who adored such previous Kiarostami films as Where Is the Friend’s House?, And Life Goes On and Close-Up, it pains me to admit that, in this case, I can see more of the emperor’s epidermis than is entirely seemly. I cannot tell a lie, however. The film involves a man named Mr. Badii (Homayoun Ershadi) who wants to commit suicide, and that minimal knowledge, in conjunction with the title, made me nervous. ‘Surely the great Kiarostami won’t found an entire movie upon a facile homily,’ I thought. ‘Please tell me this isn’t going to be a treatise asserting that life is worth living because, you know, it’s so goshdarn beautiful.’ Well, it is. Call me an incorrigible cynic, but this theme strikes me as rather simpleminded; its prominence would have bothered me less had the film been packed with the kind of quiet but enthralling incidents that characterize Kiarostami’s other films, but the forlorn protagonist’s conversations with various potential helpers, alas, are largely banal.' A film that divided critics, Taste of Cherry makes its Blu-ray debut with a handsome 4K digital transfer in this Criterion Collection edition that features extras including 1997’s 'Project' (Kiarostami’s sketch film for Taste of Cherry), a new interview with film scholar Hamid Naficy, a 1997 interview with Kiarostami, a 2017 program on Kiarostami’s use of landscape with film scholar Kristin Thompson, and a booklet with an essay by critic A.S. Hamrah. A strong optional purchase. (R. Pitman)