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.
― tender is the late-night daypart (schlump), Saturday, 4 April 2015 23:10 (eight years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoV6xfgCkcM
― clemenza, Saturday, 4 April 2015 23:15 (eight years ago) link
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.
― Frederik B, Saturday, 4 April 2015 23:29 (eight years ago) link
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.
― Eric H., Saturday, 4 April 2015 23:42 (eight years ago) link
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.
― tender is the late-night daypart (schlump), Sunday, 5 April 2015 00:00 (eight years ago) link
All the courthouse scenes are real, iirc.
― Frederik B, Sunday, 5 April 2015 00:04 (eight years ago) link
ha, wow. right.
― tender is the late-night daypart (schlump), Sunday, 5 April 2015 00:12 (eight years ago) link
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
― o. nate, Monday, 6 April 2015 01:58 (eight years ago) link
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.
― the late great, Monday, 6 April 2015 02:11 (eight years ago) link
i think that a new poll is in order, as long as we can get more than 4 people voting for these films.
― 뉴 메탈은 나머지 모든 보지 똥, 거기입니다 최고의 음악이다 (Eisbaer), Monday, 25 May 2015 08:11 (eight years ago) link
Dead :https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2016/jul/04/abbas-kiarostami-master-of-cinematic-poetry-peter-bradshaw
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 4 July 2016 19:49 (seven years ago) link
fuck!
― riverine (map), Monday, 4 July 2016 19:52 (seven years ago) link
what a shitty fucken year eh
― The Nickelbackean Ethics (jim in glasgow), Monday, 4 July 2016 20:14 (seven years ago) link
devastating
― schlump, Monday, 4 July 2016 20:15 (seven years ago) link
Ach. RIP
― My City Slang Was Gone (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 4 July 2016 20:16 (seven years ago) link
Fuck man, RIP.
The Academy invited him just days ago iirc. Should've done that decades earlier. Tragic loss.
― Le Bateau Ivre, Monday, 4 July 2016 20:21 (seven years ago) link
kiarostami is the academy
― schlump, Monday, 4 July 2016 20:23 (seven years ago) link
:-(
― xyzzzz__, Monday, 4 July 2016 20:35 (seven years ago) link
Great lost, we need his light more than ever.
― Van Horn Street, Monday, 4 July 2016 20:46 (seven years ago) link
I would be down for a re-poll. I'm going to watch a 5-6 of his films in the coming week.
― Van Horn Street, Monday, 4 July 2016 20:47 (seven years ago) link
^^ Me too. Fire up that poll imho.
― Le Bateau Ivre, Monday, 4 July 2016 20:49 (seven years ago) link
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
― woman in the dunes, Tuesday, 5 July 2016 02:34 (seven years ago) link
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.
― StillAdvance, Tuesday, 5 July 2016 07:04 (seven years ago) link
link roundup
https://www.fandor.com/keyframe/daily-abbas-kiarostami-1940-2016
― helpless before THRILLARY (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 5 July 2016 21:31 (seven years ago) link
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
― helpless before THRILLARY (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 12 July 2016 19:28 (seven years ago) link
good read.
― Ludo, Tuesday, 12 July 2016 19:49 (seven years ago) link
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
― Foster Twelvetrees (Ward Fowler), Thursday, 14 July 2016 21:31 (seven years ago) link
I just watched And Life Goes On for the first time this week, wonderful.
― calzino, Thursday, 14 July 2016 21:51 (seven years ago) link
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.
― StillAdvance, Friday, 15 July 2016 10:05 (seven years ago) link
That's more to do with the nature of funerals in the Middle East than with how much esteem a director is held in.
― Acting Crazy (Instrumental) (jed_), Friday, 15 July 2016 13:56 (seven years ago) link
perhaps
― StillAdvance, Friday, 15 July 2016 14:19 (seven years ago) link
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 20:20 (seven years ago) link
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.
― Frederik B, Friday, 12 August 2016 16:37 (seven years ago) link
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
― helpless before THRILLARY (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 20 July 2016 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
A++
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 12 August 2016 19:42 (seven years ago) link
https://www.ica.org.uk/whats-on/season/mohsen-makhmalbaf-focus
Makhmalbaf focus looks fab
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 12 August 2016 19:44 (seven years ago) link
:D
― schlump, Friday, 12 August 2016 23:19 (seven years ago) link
Hope I make it to something.
― xyzzzz__, Saturday, 13 August 2016 10:45 (seven years ago) link
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.
― Neptune Bingo (Michael B), Sunday, 25 September 2016 20:59 (seven years ago) link
Where Is the Friend's Home? is as tense and nail-biting a film as Rear Window.
― aaaaaaaauuuuuuuuu (melting robot) (WilliamC), Sunday, 25 September 2016 21:06 (seven years ago) link
Indeed
― Berberian Begins at Home (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 26 September 2016 00:07 (seven years ago) link
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
― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 8 February 2018 18:30 (six years ago) link
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
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 8 February 2018 20:40 (six years ago) link
S & D: Iranian film
― curmudgeon, Friday, 9 February 2018 16:58 (six years ago) link
RIP Hossein Rezai
RIP Hossein Rezai (1978-2018) the (non)actor of Kiarostami's Through the Olive Trees. He died after a lung problem but his bigger problem was that he couldn't afford paying the £130 hospital bill. pic.twitter.com/2ap5zjZlIh— Ehsan Khoshbakht (@EhsanKhoshbakht) February 21, 2018
― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 22 February 2018 18:06 (six years ago) link
That's so sad..
― Le Bateau Ivre, Thursday, 22 February 2018 18:12 (six years ago) link
Apparently Ahmad said that Criterion would release all of Kiarostami's films in 2019? Not sure how seriously to take that, but if they do ...
https://d3p157427w54jq.cloudfront.net/uploads/2016/12/veins.gif
― "Minneapolis" (barf) (Eric H.), Thursday, 22 February 2018 18:29 (six years ago) link
Same!
― Le Bateau Ivre, Thursday, 22 February 2018 18:33 (six years ago) link
I'd settle for even just a Taste of Cherry upgrade tbh.
― "Minneapolis" (barf) (Eric H.), Thursday, 22 February 2018 18:35 (six years ago) link
^ came here to post exactly that. watched it for the first time last night. so beautiful. Shocked that Ebert hated it so much.
― flappy bird, Monday, 30 April 2018 17:25 (five years ago) link
Dear Me Of 21 Years Ago Who Didn’t Much Like TASTE OF CHERRY: You’re a fucking idiot.— Mike D’Angelo (@gemko) April 27, 2018
― Uppercase (Eric H.), Monday, 30 April 2018 17:27 (five years ago) link