Sightlines · how to watch
How to watch Certified Copy
2010 · Abbas Kiarostami · Certified Copy on Sightlines
5 things to watch and listen for on a first viewing, without spoilers, and 3 more once you have seen it. Each names something you can see or hear, the pattern it belongs to, and what noticing it gives you. How these keys work.
On a first viewing
Watch the village reflected in the windshield as they talk. (camera)
Bigazzi keeps the camera on their faces while Lucignano slides across the glass in front of them, stone and shopfronts laid right over their skin.
Payoff: Two images share one frame, and the film never tells you which one is the subject.
Notice characters speaking almost straight into the camera. (camera)
Kiarostami repeatedly places the lens where the listener would stand, so each of them addresses you nearly head on.
Payoff: You are put in the position of the person being spoken to, not just an observer.
Listen for footsteps, traffic, and bells instead of music. (sound)
The film has almost no score, relying on ambient sound, and moves between English, French, and Italian as the two talk and mistranslate each other.
Payoff: Without music to guide you, you have to listen to the words as closely as they do.
Notice how many other couples appear around them in town. (staging)
A bride and groom posing for photos, an older couple on the street, a café owner behind the counter: the town keeps offering versions of a couple to look at.
Payoff: Every other pair in the film becomes a kind of mirror held up to these two.
Notice the museum piece the woman calls a copy. (setting)
What looks like a prized original in the museum turns out, by her account, to be a celebrated reproduction, echoing James's own book about copies.
Payoff: The film raises its whole question about authenticity before it ever touches the two of them.
The 3 rewatch keys open on this page when you choose "Seen it?".
Carry this in: Watch the glass and the mirrors. The film never tells you which reflection is the real one.