"Certified copy" - A meditative dialogue on Art, life and relationship

"Certified copy" - a movie about art and life..

The question of "What is art?" is very difficult to answer. And even more difficult is to explain art to others. When we look at a painting, what is it in the painting that draws our heart out to feel a strange empathy to subject painted. Is the clinical beauty of the painting, its colorful exuberance, realistic human forms, captivating landscapes - or is it just the confluence of a certain temperament in the beholder with what he beholds that generates a feeling of inner beatitude - Like a rainbow that adorns the sky when there is a symmetry between light and moisture. Also, is there anything called "original" art, or is every creative endeavor merely a pale reflection of the immense beauty and intricacy embodied in nature. Is art a reflection of nature or is nature a refraction of the observed in artistic terms. Difficult questions?

On my way to the health club, I pass through my office building which is beautifully laid out among green lawns, gentle water falls and multi layered walk ways. Towards the end there is stunning sculpture in stone of a young man and lady sitting together closely on a bench, with the girl's face laid upon the Man's shoulder in gentle repose and his arms wrapped around the girl in protective compassion and love. She is seen sitting with her legs curled under her dress and her eyes half closed in harmony; the young man's countenance exudes a benign confidence in his destiny to be present for his beloved always. I normally pass through this piece of art during the evening, and in that twilight zone, almost every day, I pause to admire the sheer felicity and vision of the artist who conceived this piece. A thousands stories rise in my mind , weaving itself around the spirit of this carving. Sometimes, I have involuntarily gasped in surprise when my eyes visualize actual flesh and blood instead on stone there.. So the question that I ask myself is : where is art here ? Is it in me that I see things in bland stone, or is it in the way the entire setting is placed before my eyes, or is my sensitivity to the artists vision of love that manufactures a deep empathy to his creation. I don't Know ;But I enjoy those timeless moments when I am lifted beyond myself to be arrested in an emotion that would never have risen in me otherwise.

These are questions that this brilliant film "Certified copy" addresses. It a French movie with English subtitles featuring the beautiful, mercurial and sensitive Juliette Binoche and William shimell.. Shimell visits the exotic town of Tuscany to promote a French translation of his book on art and there meets with an owner of an art Boutique (Played by Juliette). The entire two hours of this movie is just a dialogue, a meditation, a rumination on art and human relationships. It is the sheer brilliance of Binoche that she brings to this conversation a passion, an intellectual understanding, an emotional vulnerability that transforms mundane dialogues into profound pieces of insight into artistic appreciation and its reflection on life.. Shimmel holds the fort, that's all. Every frame in the movie is shot with a firm grip on its narration by the talented and highly decorated directed Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami, and the camera lingers at a close distance to Juliette Binoche face , capturing every single nuance, wrinkle and gesture of this wonderful actress. She just could not afford to make a single mistake. It is virtually a flawless piece of acting that I have seen in a long time. She won the Cannes award for this role in 2010.

Needless to say, this movie is not for all. To call it entertainment in the common sense of term may be misplaced here. This is an intellectual journey and it will need our complete involvement to be appreciate the beauty of this marvelous biopic. But , if you can stay with it , I am sure you will be a richer person in artistic currency.

God bless...