The
Wind Will Carry Us
(1999/Cohen Film Blu-ray)
Picture:
B+ Sound: B+ Extras: B Film: B+
Hailed
by many critics as a modern classic, Abbas Kiarostami's 1999 film The
Wind Will Carry Us
is an astonishing little piece of filmmaking that celebrates the
human spirit and is hard to not be moved by. The film centers around
a group of journalists pretending to be production engineers whom
arrive in a Kurdish village (named Siah Dareh) to document the
locals' mourning rituals that anticipate the death of an old woman,
but she remains alive. The main engineer is forced to slow down and
appreciate the lifestyle of the village. Though the star of the film
is Behzad Dorani, the real star is the location and rich visual
imagery that carries us to an exotic world that is much different
than the comfort zone that we and our protagonists are used to.
The
film takes its title from a poem by the Iranian artist Forugh
Farrokhzad, who was a controversial figure that preached progressive
political and feminist doctrine through a variety of written, verbal,
and visual mediums before dying in a car accident in 1967 at the
tender age of 32. In Kiarostami's film, the poem is recited in the
only one scene that is set indoors and perfectly sums up the film's
larger theme of death and the incremental accumulation of time, as
well the formal and nominal characteristics marking it as a
cumulative work for its creator (if not cinema itself as a medium) at
the turn of the millennium.
This
Fifteenth Anniversary Collectors Edition has been digitally
remastered on Blu-ray to the highest picture and sound possible.
Captured in 1080p high definition preserving the original theatrical
aspect ratio of 1.85:1 - the sound is delivered in a rich 2.0 LPCM
Mono soundtrack that is near perfection for such a mix. Total
running time of the film is 118 minutes.
Extras
include a Filmed
Conversation Between Director Abbas Kiarostami and Richard Peña,
Commentary by Critic Jonathan Rosenbaum and Scholar Mehranz
Saeed-Vafa, a New Essay by Critic Peter Tonguette in
a very collectible insert booklet,
and a
2014 Re-Release Trailer.
If
you haven't seen it yet, this is a film that is not to be missed
especially in this incredible Blu-ray edition by Cohen Media Group!
-
James Harland Lockhart V
https://www.facebook.com/jamesharlandlockhartv
