black
grey
blue
red
brown
white

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

I’m not sure that my films show the reality of life in Iran; we show different aspects of life. Iran is a very extensive and expansive place, and sometimes, even for us who live there, some of the realities are very hard to comprehend.
ABBAS KIAROSTAMI

Aspect Different Expansive Extensive Iran Place Reality Show
A digital camera does have many advantages and I was a believer that digital video would be a big influence on film-making.
ABBAS KIAROSTAMI

Advantage Camera Digital Doe Film Influence Making Video
I think it was [Jean-Luc] Godard who said that life is nothing but a bad copy of film, but then our ambition must be to make better films and better shapes of forms that are given in life.
ABBAS KIAROSTAMI

Ambition Bad Copy Film Life Nothing Shape Thinking
You’ve noticed that same joke told by two different people, once works, and the other time doesn’t, simply because how the person edits it. The silences, the pauses, what they neglect, what they emphasize – all of this matters.
ABBAS KIAROSTAMI

Different Edit Joke Notice People Person Silence Time
I do believe in [Robert] Bresson’s method of creation through omission, not through addition.
ABBAS KIAROSTAMI

Addition Believe Creation Omission Robert
In the total darkness, poetry is still there, and it is there for you.
ABBAS KIAROSTAMI

Darkness Desire Hope Poetry Still Total You
I have somewhat lost my enthusiasm in the last years. Mainly because film students using digital video these days have not really produced anything which is more than superficial or simplistic; so I have my doubts.
ABBAS KIAROSTAMI

Action Camera Digital Doubt Light Produces Proud Video Year
Religion works on some people but not on everyone, because it says, ‘Stop thinking and accept what I tell you.’ That’s not valid for people who want to think and reflect.
ABBAS KIAROSTAMI

Accept People Religion Thinking Valid Want
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 Film General Mind Outline Reality Script
I prefer the films that put their audience to sleep in the theater. Some films have made me doze off in the theater, but the same films have made me stay up at night, wake up thinking about them in the morning, and keep on thinking about them for weeks.
ABBAS KIAROSTAMI

Audience Film Morning Night Sleep Theatre
My way of expression is full of complications and mystery because that’s my perception of life.
ABBAS KIAROSTAMI

Complication Expression Life Mystery Perception Way
Despite the great advantages of digital video and the great ease of using the medium, still those who use it have first to understand the sensitivities of how to best use the medium.
ABBAS KIAROSTAMI

Despite Ease Great Understand Use Video
When I’m in the process of making a movie I’m not thinking about the finished result, and whether people have to see it once or more than once, and what the reaction to it will be. I just make it, and then I live with the consequences.
ABBAS KIAROSTAMI

Finish Making More Movie People Process Talking Thinking
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

Benefit Common Culture Difference Film Ground Important Politician
I prefer the countryside to cities. This is also true of my films: I have made more films in rural societies, and villages, than in towns.
ABBAS KIAROSTAMI

City Village Film Prefer Society Town True
Close-Up has affected later films that I’ve made.
ABBAS KIAROSTAMI

Affected Close up Film Made

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.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More Abbas Kiarostami Quotes