Il giorno della prima di Close Up

Nanni Moretti is a popular Italian director, often compared to Woody Allen, who makes deceptively simple essay-films which blur the line between 'documentary' and 'fiction'. 'Close-Up', by Abbas Kiarostami, is another film without a clear-cut line between these two modes. The enduring image of Moretti, from his film 'Dear Diary', is of the helmeted director riding his scooter. The most famous image from 'Close-Up' is of two men on a motorcycle, the passenger carrying a pot of flowers.

According to this short, Moretti is also the proprietor of what is often quaintly called an arthouse cinema; and he is about to exhibit Kiarostami's film. The short begins with him reaming off a load of figures, the individual grosses of 'The Lion King', which seem phenomenal, but, being in lire, you'd never know. One might expect the film to be a kind of David and Goliath story, the humble, low-budget Iranian docudrama versus the might of Disney's greatest earner.

Moretti's persona in this film is irritable and nervous to the point of obnoxiousness. He checks the sandwiches his staff have prepared for the spectators; he berates his receptionist for calling 'Close-Up' merely 'an Iranian film'; he lambasts customers more concerned with parking than cinema. He truly loves this movie, and invokes Kurosawa in its defence. In the film's most moving moment, he takes a peek at the film behind the door, his 'reframing' of the frame perhaps showing how such a humanist work from an alien, private culture, becomes universal, transcends culture.

Whether the fact that less than a hundred people actually go to see it on the day is a cause for depression is up to you - they all enjoyed it, and maybe that, and sandwiches, are all we can hope for in the face of the roaring mouse.

The owner of a small cinema in Italy is going through the figures for the most recent blockbusters in his town and is irritated to see that the advertising space for the new Iranian film showing at his cinema (Close-Up) is significantly smaller than that of American films. He tries to promote the smaller works at every chance he gets but will it ever be able to compete with the Lion king?

I wasn't sure what this film was about as I listen to the words 'The Lion King' followed by a number said over and over again but gradually I got the point and, while it was hardly a good film, it certainly makes a very simple point in a very simple way. The point is how can cinema generally compete with the advertising campaigns and popularity of American blockbusters. It is a very European point to make but it is one that I, if I drop the 'American', can agree with. How many times have we all said 'I wish more people would see this' but accept that it is a small film (or my bugbear – a short film) that few other will ever come across far yet be bothered by. We can see it on this site – people will post about a blockbuster and everyone will have seen it, but make a post about an award winning foreign film or even some classics and you'll get few replies.

Of course this is the way of the world and it is unfair to complain that people watch what they want to watch but it is still a point worth making. Wisely Moretti avoids having a rant but merely lets the numbers speak for themselves over the fade to black; his only weakness is that he overeggs how good this film is where really he could have accepted in his film that Close-Up is as good as the blockbusters and deserves the same chance, rather than making it out to be better than those films. As a director I must say that the film was given a very TV feel by Moretti and it looked a bit cheap; I'm not sure if his films have this look as well but it didn't impress me one bit.

Overall this is an interesting short that makes a good point without overdoing it too much. It is a very European film and I'm sure many will miss the point or just disagree with it altogether (so what if I like action movies over an Iranian art movie?) but it is a fair point. Not a great short film but OK – the simple point and the cheap look of the short put me off a bit, but it was worth me seeing it once.

It is rather ironical that the world of cinema did not manage to reduce the commercial cinema versus art cinema divide ! A lot of good films could have been made if there were no such divide in the minds of technicians as well as general public. If one looks at it from a realistic perspective, it can be said that nobody can really be blamed for such a sorry state of affairs. This dilemma has been presented in a very honest manner in Nanni Moretti's documentary "Il Giorno Della Prima Di Close Up".It is a film about Iranian film "Close Up" which was released in one Roman cinema owned by Nanni Moretti. His efforts need to be emulated as is he is one of the few directors who would like more patrons to watch art films. Nanni Moretti involves himself too much in order to make a film about an art house film's release in Italy. He learns that some viewers in Europe prefer dubbed films. He asks his cinema's staff to dissuade viewers from this unhealthy practice. One question which would surely cross many minds might be related to Nanni Moretti : Why is Nanni Moretti bothered ? The answer to this question is simple as Nanni Moretti is a true artist who doesn't hesitate in enabling other people to progress in life with their minor works.

This film was part of a DVD set of short European films, though this is the only one among them that is actually a documentary. The film follows a man who is responsible for a chain of theaters. His meticulous attention to all the details is astounding--from the way the theater workers talk to the customers to receiving phone calls in the middle of the night to learn about the latest box office receipts. Much of it is rather ordinary, but all together it paints a picture of a supremely dedicated man who takes his job as seriously as anyone you'll ever meet. Fascinating but also a style film I wouldn't want to see all that often.

By the way, set I mentioned is CINEMA 16: European Shorts. On these DVDs are 16 shorts. Most aren't great, though because it contains THE MAN WITHOUT A HEAD, COPY SHOP, RABBIT and WASP, it's an amazing DVD for lovers of short films and well worth buying.