taste of cherry (abbas kiarostami, 1997)

Roger Ebert famously hated Taste of Cherry:

A case can be made for the movie, but it would involve transforming the experience of viewing the film (which is excruciatingly boring) into something more interesting, a fable about life and death. Just as a bad novel can be made into a good movie, so can a boring movie be made into a fascinating movie review.

This is my fifth Kiarostami film. I have liked the others I have seen, most particularly Close-Up, which I thought was remarkable. I didn't connect with Taste of Cherry. I'm not sure I cared enough to work up the bile that infected Ebert. The film is repetitive, and the cast is comprised of non-professionals mostly improvising (in fairness, the lead actor, Homayoun Ershadi, went on to a long career).

Taste of Cherry is highly regarded, turning up on many lists of the best films of all time (it tied for #243 in the recent Sight and Sound poll). I'm disappointed that I didn't love it ... I'm disappointed that I didn't hate it the way Roger Ebert did. I suspect it deserves a second viewing at some point, at least to see if I would feel more inspired a second time around.