The Palme d’Or-winning movie Roger Ebert called “excruciatingly boring”
In the complex world of journalistic film criticism, few names are heralded as the legendary Roger Ebert. A writer so significant that he practically wrote himself into the fabric of cinema’s history, he sits comfortably in the same pantheon as some of the best actors and directors that he wrote about so brilliantly and so often.
Writing for the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013, Ebert transcended the medium of film journalism. He didn’t just pen reviews that were entertaining and interesting to read but also imbued them with something of an educational and humanist charm and a deep understanding of the intricacies of filmmaking.
However, as a movie critic, Ebert naturally had to deliver justice on the films that he did not feel were up to scratch either culturally or aesthetically. He gave out several bad reviews of films, but few were as damning as his opinion of the 1997 Abbas Kiarostami film 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,” Ebert wrote. “Just as a bad novel can be made into a good movie, so can a boring movie be made into a fascinating movie review.”
Taste of Cherry actually won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, which makes Ebert’s words all the more surprising. The film unravels with an air of minimalism and simplicity, telling of Mr Badii (played by Homayoun Ershadi), who drives around the suburbs of Tehran looking for someone who will be willing to bury him after he commits suicide.
There’s an existential outlook on life, death and the need for connection, and Kiarostami uses slow pacing and even silence to prompt the audience to dive into the deep meanings of the narrative. The director clearly challenges the conventional methods of cinematic storytelling, and many figures consider Taste of Cherry a masterpiece. However, this approach to filmmaking was not well received by Ebert.
“Yes, there is a humanistic feeling underlying the action. Yes, an Iranian director making a film on the forbidden subject of suicide must have courage,” he wrote. “Yes, we applaud the stirrings of artistic independence in the strict Islamic republic. But is Taste of Cherry a worthwhile viewing experience? I say it is not.”
Check out the trailer for Taste of Cherry below.
