OK, this is my first review here. I am pretty much writing it, because this was the best movie I saw at the 2005 Rio's Film Festival and since then I have only seen people trash it. This is simply a beautiful poetic film about the definition of love and what it means for much of today's relationships. I have to say that I disagreed with some of it's conclusions, but that didn't at all damaged my enjoyment. What more can I say? Everything is beautifully constructed in the screen: the car with the 40 candles, the empty plane, the stopwatch, the hands touching, the singing with the glasses, the city in the winter with the umbrella, ... All followed by great music and some dancing (witch some critics thought should have been more meaningful, instead of just plan fun). Since I never saw a Makhmalbaf's film before, I can only compare saying that its much like a Godard's, but without his recent bitterness and with actually something to say (or at least with something I care about listening). Finishing, it's about the search for the moments of happiness in life. Definitely a must for people tired of those boring narrative movies that cant seen to stop telling those same old dramatic stories with no originality in the scenes' enrichment.

Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf trekked across the border to post-Soviet Tajikistan to make "Sex & Philosophy", reportedly because Iranian social restrictions did not allow him the freedom to make the movie he wanted to make.

"Sex & Philosophy" brings us an original story. Upon reaching his 40th birthday, John, a Russian-Tajik poet/dance instructor, invites his four girlfriends to meet at his dance studio at 2pm sharp, where they learn of each other's existence. What follows is a beautifully filmed treatise on love, examining John's relationships with the four women- including a flight attendant, a lonely prostitute and a doctor. The filmmaker has a talent for highlighting colors (reds everywhere) and incorporating the choreographed chorus of beautiful, silent dancers of John's studio with the action and flashbacks of the story. The beautiful local music, especially that of the blind man and his wife, is also a real treat.

Weak points? Well, the film is very "talky" and you definitely have to be in the mood for some of the semi-philosophical conversations about love, and some of the slow (one might say choreographed...) silent scenes between John and each of the young ladies. I must admit, these scenes were handled rather well. I also thought the film spends too much time on the first story, and rushes through the other three (more interesting) characters.

I'd have to agree with one of the previous reviewers- I'm not sure I agree with the director's jaded and ultimately pessimistic view on modern love, but the story is presented well, and it's always fascinating to see what people look like, how they talk and how they live in one of the world's remotest regions. A good effort. 73/100.

one of the most original movies I've seen, its a really peaceful movie with a lot of silences, poetic silences i would call it. But its very different and nothing like I've seen before, romantic, and a lot of philosophy in it. Its a well thought of and well directed movie but if you cant appreciate art movies maybe you wont enjoy it, but you should give it a try anyway otherwise how would you know, i didn't. Anyway the best would be to watch it on DVD rather than on TV because the breaks really spoils the pace of it and would make the movie seem slower and you might not enjoy it then because with this movie there could be a very fine line between liking it and getting bored(i watched it on TV, maybe thats where it loses one point, but it could be very different with other viewers). Its a beautiful movie!

Sex is not a politically correct subject to discuss in present day Iran. Kissing in cinema is frowned upon. Even modern dance with women showing naked arms and uncovered hair is not approved. More so, if the dance director is of the opposite sex. It is therefore not surprising that the Iranian director went to nearby Tajikistan to make the film in Russian, Farsi and Tajik languages.

The film has neither sex nor nudity—the subject of sex is merely suggested by a male hand and a female hand caressing each other, in lyrical synchrony to the violin of Vanessa Mae. The director states on his website that the four women shown are his vision of the development of the adult women. The story is constructed on a series of intellectual debates of a cynical male philosopher and his women friends, eventually retracting from the world of a lover to one of self imposed loneliness (shades of the Iranian Mehrjui's "The Pear Tree" and Allan Sillitoe's short story "The loneliness of the long-distance runner" hover, as the subject balances social concerns and politics without making either one obvious) while paying tribute to Russian literary geniuses Chekov and Tolstoy (whose names are thrown by the shopkeeper who sell three antique watches). Do not miss out the hidden, mischievous comment that the third watch on sale, indirectly connected to Stalin, is picked up by the protagonist's third lover who likes to erase the protagonist from her memory, preferring the watch to the ones related to literary figures! The film tries to imitate the color coding of the late Polish genius Kieslowski. In this Makhmalbaf film, the four women wear black, red, blue and white and the color coding is accomplished quite well. Evidently the second lover had shades of the last of the four characters as she wears one red shoe and one white one. The switch from one color to the other is gradual.

The film is very well made with touches of the absurd (talking to each other within the same car using mobile phones, "a cold coffee with a cold smile", a poodle in a woman's bed preferred to the human lover) and the surreal (a big passenger plane with just one passenger, autumn leaves covering a dance hall, the lighted candles on the dashboard of a moving car, etc).

The finest attribute of the director is his casting--ever film of his has the most evocative performers that breathe endearing reality in each frame.

This is the second Mohsen Makhmalbaf that I have seen—the first being "Gabbeh" and I continue to be reminded of the works of a genius of cinema Sergei Paradjanov in the Sixties--"Color of Pomegranates" and "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors." For those who have not seen these masterpieces of the late Armenian/Ukranian genius, Makhmalbaf's cinema would seem truly unique and groundbreaking. For those fortunate to have seen Paradjanov's works, "Gabbeh" and "Sex and Philosophy" walk along a path well trodden by a little known giant of world cinema..

While this film is an important film from the Iranian director, this is arguably not representative of the finest Iranian new wave cinema. Surprisingly, this film was shown on an Indian TV channel.