Kiarostami

Just finished Certified Copy. Not sure I can recommend it for anyone who's been in a long relationship; I feel like I've just been dissected, found to be malignant, and (rightly) discarded with all the other medical waste. What an amazing film.

I was down to see Close-Up a week ago. Friday night, so, as per usual, I lasted about 20 minutes before I started drifting. I rented it a few days later, also Certified Copy.

I admired the skill and the performances (especially Binoche) in both, and, as you can guess from such wording, I say that in the most dispassionate way. (I was also relieved to read that the thing I was confused about in Close-Up--"Um, were they married?"--was supposed to confuse me.) I'm surprised that Close-Up is so high in greatest-ever lists, or that it's there at all. I can think of a few huckster/ruse films--I know admirers would hate that description, but that's essentially what it is--that treated the subject with a little more verve.

Confused about in Certified Copy, I meant.

Certified Copy is overrated. Close-Up is one of the best movies ever. I don't care if you want to judge it's quality on how much verve it treats it's huckster with, but that final sequence with them on the motorcycle, and that final freeze-frame, that is some of the most amazing imagery of all time.

of all time

but yeah that's a sensible redress
unbearable contrarianism here but, for real, close up is like my fifth-fav kiarostami, & i think there's a slight bout-de-souffle dimension to its prominence, representing a whole era or school of thought in lieu of alternate films that have more specific rewards. but it's great, too, is so funny, has a lot of heart, &c, so i don't think it needs denuding.

The freeze-frame was nice. Overall, I didn't find it all that visually interesting. Apparently there was a music video that paid tribute to the motorcycle ride.

a lot of the visual satisfaction of kiarostami's how tight it is, i think; something always incredibly judicious & economical, this sorta treasures of sierra madre academy ratio choppiness, really defined sense of space.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoV6xfgCkcM

Close-Up is as mentioned my favorite, but I was still surprised to see that it was the only Kiarostami on the Sight and Sound top 250. I thought pretty much everything else he made in the nineties was better regarded. He was on top for a loooong time.

All those courthouse scenes aren't that visually arresting, but I'm still on board. It's the mood, the themes, and that perfect final sequence that does it for me. If we talked only visuals, something like Through the Olive Trees or The Wind Will Carry Us are probably more consistently masterful. They don't quite hit me the same way, though.

Mystified that Taste of Cherry fell off so sharply as I thought it was the consensus favorite for a little while there. But maybe I just thought that way because I saw that one first, and it knocked me flat.

i feel like the aesthetics of the courthouse scene - the variation in lenses, cameras & the vantage point of kiarostami aside them - are Doing A Lot in close-up. the attention of the onlookers is so rapturous, too. i always think of the sister, her glasses.

All the courthouse scenes are real, iirc.

ha, wow. right.

A fan's guide to Kiarostami by econ-blogger Tyler Cowen:

http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2015/04/what-is-the-best-introduction-to-abbas-kiarostami-films.html

close up is one of my all-time favorite movies, and imo pretty incredible as a gesture of forgiveness from one human being to another.

i think that a new poll is in order, as long as we can get more than 4 people voting for these films.

Dead :https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2016/jul/04/abbas-kiarostami-master-of-cinematic-poetry-peter-bradshaw

fuck!

what a shitty fucken year eh

devastating

Ach. RIP

Fuck man, RIP.

The Academy invited him just days ago iirc. Should've done that decades earlier. Tragic loss.

kiarostami is the academy

:-(

Great lost, we need his light more than ever.

I would be down for a re-poll. I'm going to watch a 5-6 of his films in the coming week.

^^ Me too. Fire up that poll imho.

man what horrible news to come home to. usually when someone i admire dies in their 70s i'm okay with it, but Kiarostami was still relevant and making great films. a huge loss.

gonna fire up my Close-Up bluray now

thats very sad. wish i was able to see the full season that the BFI did on him but his films meant a lot to me.

link roundup

https://www.fandor.com/keyframe/daily-abbas-kiarostami-1940-2016

Godfrey Cheshire on knowing A.K. and his films:

http://www.rogerebert.com/balder-and-dash/godfrey-cheshire-on-knowing-abbas-kiarostami-through-his-films-and-friendship

good read.

This is sad:

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/jul/14/abbas-kiarostami-film-maker-death-sparks-debate-patient-right-be-informed-iran?CMP=share_btn_tw

I just watched And Life Goes On for the first time this week, wonderful.

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/bf62d7777b4d9ffda443907cb517bad2c539a442/0_78_4096_2457/master/4096.jpg?w=620&q=55&auto=format&usm=12&fit=max&s=52e9c6ebb9cafc559335f04e0281e026

what an incredible image.

can anyone think of other directors who might inspire (or have inspired) the same sort of reaction?

when ken loach dies, would anyone do this? im not even sure spielberg, a crowd pleaser, would get that.

spike lee might. but im struggling to think (though just cos im struggling, doesnt mean im right) of anyone else who had that connection to an audience.

That's more to do with the nature of funerals in the Middle East than with how much esteem a director is held in.

perhaps

Glenn Kenny on AK's last film and the van Heusen/Burke song (introduced by Dinah Shore in a forgotten 1944 flick) for which it's titled:

http://somecamerunning.typepad.com/some_came_running/2016/07/hollywood-to-tehran-to-tokyo-the-journey-of-like-someone-in-love.html

Interview with his son: http://www.pardolive.ch/it/pardo/pardo-live/today-at-festival/2016/day-10/interview-ahmad-kiarostami.html Sounds like some of the forgotten stuff might be released more properly.

Glenn Kenny on AK's last film and the van Heusen/Burke song (introduced by Dinah Shore in a forgotten 1944 flick) for which it's titled:

http://somecamerunning.typepad.com/some_came_running/2016/07/hollywood-to-tehran-to-tokyo-the-journey-of-like-someone-in-love.html

― helpless before THRILLARY (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 20 July 2016 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

A++

https://www.ica.org.uk/whats-on/season/mohsen-makhmalbaf-focus

Makhmalbaf focus looks fab

:D

Hope I make it to something.

I'm really getting into this guys work. For me his films are never boring, always compelling even if its grainy shots of a guy talking in close-up or someone just driving around. There's a lot of humanity, not in the sense of anything sentimental or "heart-warming". Although hes Godardian in some senses, he manages to keep a distance at the same time rather than push away the viewer

So many great scenes that linger in the memory - the main protagonist in "taste of cherry" being subsumed by the dust thrown up from the diggers, the motorbike ride at the end of "close-up", the repeated shots of the winding drive in "taste of cherry".

I didnt even mind the severe Brechtian ending of "Taste of Cherry". Usually, I detest those pomo turns but it was a lovely way to end the film imo.

Where Is the Friend's Home? is as tense and nail-biting a film as Rear Window.

Indeed

His last film 24 Frames (finished by others) has opened in NY. Godfrey Cheshire discusses with AK's son Ahmad:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZIsVjDGjHY

It's getting a one-time free screening on Feb. 18th in Washington DC as part of the Freer/Sackler's Iranian Film Fest. It's very experimental, occasionally repetitive but worth seeing. The film is composed of an image of a 1565 Pieter Bruegel painting followed by 23 of Kiarostami’s own still photographs, to which he added subtle actions using computer technology

S & D: Iranian film