Certified Copy

Certified Copy is a 2010 art film written and directed by Abbas Kiarostami. Set in Tuscany, the film focuses on a British writer (William Shimell) and a French antiques dealer (Juliette Binoche), whose relationship undergoes an odd transformation over the course of a day. The film was a French-majority production, with co-producers in Italy and Belgium. The dialogue is in English, French and Italian. Certified Copy premiered at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival, where Binoche won the Best Actress Award for her performance. Critically acclaimed, the film is considered to be among the best of the year and the decade. Plot British writer James Miller (Shimell) is in Tuscany to give a talk to a group about his new book, titled Certified Copy, which argues that, in art, issues of authenticity are irrelevant because every reproduction is itself an original, and even the original is a copy of another form. A French antiques dealer, whose name is never given (Binoche), attends the event with her 11-year-old son in order to have Miller sign several copies of the book she has purchased, but has to leave early because her son is hungry and becomes a distraction. She leaves her phone number with Miller's book's translator. Her relationship with her son is strained; he teases her about giving her phone number to Miller's interpreter and suggests she is romantically interested in Miller, which she denies.