Screen Picks

Ten ($29.99 DVD) Despite sellout festival screenings, Philadelphia's exhibitors unfortunately passed on Abbas Kiarostami's 2002 feature. But given that it was shot on video, and that its immobile long takes effectively divide the movie into 10 chapters, Ten was a DVD waiting to happen. Like the aesthetic manifesto 10 on Ten (included on Zeitgeist's DVD) and the Ozu homage Five, Ten announces itself as a formal exercise from the outset, one whose nature quickly becomes apparent: Each chapter, introduced by graphics which resemble the beginning of a film reel, is shot from the same two angles, one of the driver (a divorced mother), one of the passenger (usually her young son). Visually speaking, it's as minimalist as a narrative film can get. (There are two deviations which only gain force by their distinctiveness.) In a sense, the interactions between its characters fall along the same lines: routine family arguments, gossip between friends. But gradually, Kiarostami allows the sense that profound changes are in store to seep into the story. The fact that his heroine is divorced, drives an SUV and exhibits a stereotypically masculine aggressiveness when jockeying for a parking space reflects the profound changes afoot within Iranian culture, as does the figure of her female friend, who late in the movie pulls back her chador to reveal she's cut her hair to the scalp.

The effect of Kiarostami's reduction is to wipe the slate clean: The titles count down, not up, as if Ten's end is only the beginning. It's hard not to feel a pang when considering the fact that Kiarostami, a master of composition, has foresworn film in favor of video, and not particularly good-looking video either. But of course that's the essence of his provocation. If cinema is to reinvent itself, we may have to learn to see beauty a new way, the way the driver's friend redefines her own beauty by shaving her head. It's the kind of lesson that may take years to assimilate; most video movies use the low-resolution as a plot point, while directors like Michael Mann and Jia Zhang-ke are expanding the limits of video's visual beauty. Whether Ten will seem like a harbinger of things to come or a gauntlet that was never picked up, only time will tell.

Miscellaneous Picks Phoenixville's Colonial hosts a Three Stooges six-pack, including Ants in the Pantry and A-Plumbing We Will Go (Sun., 2 p.m.). The Marriage of Maria Braun unspools at The Bridge (Tue., 5 p.m.).

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