Abbas Kiarostami Quotes - Page 5

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• The starting point and the ending point are nothing but two arbitrary choices. You make them as in soccer games, where they chose that it's 90 minutes, not less and not more. But the choices are the responsibility of the filmmaker. You have to choose to join the story at an arbitrary point, and you leave it at an arbitrary point.

  Abbas Kiarostami

  Soccer, Responsibility, Games

  "They Should Be Grateful: An Interview with Abbas Kiarostami". Interview with Zachary Wigon, filmmakermagazine.com. February 13, 2013.

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• The one-word cinema wasn't possible for me anymore. I'd hit a wall, a dead end. Therefore I thought I'd turn back.

  Abbas Kiarostami

  Wall, Cinema, Dead Ends

  Source: aaroncutler.tumblr.com

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• I had intended to make another film, called Pocket Money, which was to be about children at a school. I was very much intrigued by the story [of Close Up] - it came into my dreams and I was very much influenced by it. So I called my producer and asked that we put aside Pocket Money and start something else, and he agreed.

  Abbas Kiarostami

  Dream, Children, School

  Interview with Geoff Andrew, www.theguardian.com. April 28, 2005.

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• I am still very surprised that I managed to make that film [Close Up]. When I actually look back on that film, I really feel that I was not the director but instead just a member of the audience.

  Abbas Kiarostami

  Directors, Looks, Film

  Interview with Geoff Andrew, www.theguardian.com. April 28, 2005.

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• Close-Up has affected later films that I've made.

  Abbas Kiarostami

  Film, Made, Affected

  Interview with Geoff Andrew, www.theguardian.com. April 28, 2005.

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• The digital camera has given me total freedom and a different way of filming.

  Abbas Kiarostami

  Cameras, Different, Way

  Interview with Sam Adams, www.avclub.com. March 17, 2011.

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• This [the earthquake] was a very big influence on me, and the issue of life and death from then on does recur in my films.

  Abbas Kiarostami

  Earthquakes, Issues, Life And Death

  Interview with Geoff Andrew, www.theguardian.com. April 28, 2005.

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• It is a very important film, Life And Nothing More, in that what was filmed was inspired by a journey I had made just three days after an earthquake. And I speak not only of the film itself but also of the experience of being in that place, where only three days before 50,000 people had died.

  Abbas Kiarostami

  Journey, Earthquakes, People

  Interview with Geoff Andrew, www.theguardian.com. April 28, 2005.

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• The film [Close Up] made itself, to a large extent. The characters involved were very real, I wasn't directing the actors so much as being directed by them. So it was a very particular film.

  Abbas Kiarostami

  Real, Character, Actors

  Interview with Geoff Andrew, www.theguardian.com. April 28, 2005.

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• I think the contrast between these two in the professional world of cinema mattered to me. One who has reached the ultimate point of being a star, who knows how to do everything very well, facing another person who would throughout the making of the film transfer his anxiety to both of us, to me and to Juliette, as to whether or not he would be capable of fulfilling his role. This in itself created a challenge that was actually very good for me, since I hadn't ever counterposed two such performers before, creating that challenge between someone who knows their part and someone who doesn't.

  Abbas Kiarostami

  Stars, Thinking, Two

  Source: aaroncutler.tumblr.com

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• I do think that we are sometimes, as directors, guilty of portraying or asking our actors to behave in certain ways that are perhaps not very morally acceptable. I'm not the only one.

  Abbas Kiarostami

  Thinking, Directors, Asking

  Interview with Geoff Andrew, www.theguardian.com. April 28, 2005.

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• I don't generally derive my stories from novels. I try to turn into film things I have felt or experienced.

  Abbas Kiarostami

  Trying, Stories, Film

  Source: aaroncutler.tumblr.com

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• I saw this French woman, this English man in Italy. It was a film [Certified Copy] I knew well, but I had already seen it, and I was familiar with it, and I had no feeling of anxiety or responsibility toward it.

  Abbas Kiarostami

  Responsibility, Men, Anxiety

  Interview with Sam Adams, www.avclub.com. March 17, 2011.

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• We don't look at each other [in the car], but instead do so only when we want to. We're allowed to look around without appearing rude. We have a big screen in front of us and side views. Silence doesn't seem heavy or difficult.

  Abbas Kiarostami

  Views, Car, Silence

  Interview with Geoff Andrew, www.theguardian.com. April 28, 2005.

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• As film-makers, it is very important for us to find common ground between cultures, and maybe that's less the case for politicians who benefit more from finding the conflicts and differences between us.

  Abbas Kiarostami

  Differences, Important, Culture

  Interview with Geoff Andrew, www.theguardian.com. April 28, 2005.

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• Having an international voice is not really about whether we speak Persian or any other language.

  Abbas Kiarostami

  Voice, Language, Speak

  Interview with Geoff Andrew, www.theguardian.com. April 28, 2005.

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• The [Iranian] government grapples with more important issues and we can maybe say that these films don't really exist for them. It's not about whether they like it or don't; it's just not very important to them.

  Abbas Kiarostami

  Government, Issues, Important

  Interview with Geoff Andrew, www.theguardian.com. April 28, 2005.

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• My car is my best friend. My office. My home. My location. I have a very intimate sense when I am in a car with someone next to me. We're in the most comfortable seats because we're not facing each other, but sitting side by side.

  Abbas Kiarostami

  Home, Car, Office

  Interview with Geoff Andrew, www.theguardian.com. April 28, 2005.

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• In order to be able to cooperate with a child, you have to come down to below their level in order to communicate with them. Actors are also like children.

  Abbas Kiarostami

  Children, Order, Actors

  Interview with Geoff Andrew, www.theguardian.com. April 28, 2005.

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• I don't have very complete scripts for my films. I have a general outline and a character in my mind, and I make no notes until I find the character who's in my mind in reality.

  Abbas Kiarostami

  Character, Reality, Mind

  Interview with Geoff Andrew, www.theguardian.com. April 28, 2005.

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• When we start shooting I don't have rehearsals with characters at all. So, rather than pulling them towards myself, I travel closer to them; it's very much closer to the real person than anything I try to create. So I give them something but I also take from them.

  Abbas Kiarostami

  Real, Character, Giving

  Interview with Geoff Andrew, www.theguardian.com. April 28, 2005.

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• Therefore, when you see the end result, it's difficult to see who's the director, me or them. Ultimately, everything belongs to the actors - we just manage the situation.

  Abbas Kiarostami

  Directors, Actors, Ends

  Interview with Geoff Andrew, www.theguardian.com. April 28, 2005.

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• Using non-actors has its own rules and really requires that you allow them to do their own thing.

  Abbas Kiarostami

  Actors

  Interview with Geoff Andrew, www.theguardian.com. April 28, 2005.

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• When I met Akira Kurosawa in Japan, one question he asked me was, "How did you actually make the children act the way they do? I do have children in my films but I find that I reduce and reduce their presence until I have to get rid of them because there's no way that I can direct them." My own thought is that one is very grand, like an emperor on a horse, and it's very hard for a child to relate to that. In order to be able to cooperate with a child, you have to come down to below their level in order to communicate with them.

  Abbas Kiarostami

  Children, Japan, Way

  Interview with Geoff Andrew, www.theguardian.com. April 28, 2005.

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• Unfortunately, cinema critics are very few in America, 400-500 people, but there are more critics of Iran.

  Abbas Kiarostami

  Iran, America, People

  Interview with Geoff Andrew, www.theguardian.com. April 28, 2005.

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