The Politics of Authenticity
Film Recommendation
Certified Copy (French, Italian, English)
9/10
Abbas Kiarostami's film about an intriguing relationship between a French antiques dealer and an English writer is set in Tuscany. It explores issues pertaining to authenticity through the strange, often surprising camaraderie between the two protagonists. In a way, this film engages with Walter Benjamin's The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction by asking us what it even means for something to be truly authentic: to an extent, isn't everything original merely a copy of something else, and isn't every "copy" an "original" in its own way? The most important question this film asks from the tussle between what apparently constitutes authenticity and what does not is: does it even matter?
Juliette Binoche is splendid as usual (sometimes overwhelmingly so), but William Shimell mesmerizes with his restraint.
