Anything I’ve not experienced I do not look to for a subject. I have to feel it.
ABBAS KIAROSTAMIIt’s very true that non-actors feel more comfortable in front of a digital camera, without the lights and the large crowd around them, and we arrive at much more intimate moments with them.
More Abbas Kiarostami Quotes
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I’m still very grateful to digital cameras in general, but I didn’t have this feeling with the RED one.
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I thought that I had been asked every kind of question possible.
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Everybody knows that I am not usually patient enough to actually sit down and watch one of my own films from the beginning to the end – I never do.
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Children are very strong and independent characters and can come up with more interesting things than Marlon Brando, and it’s sometimes very difficult to direct or order them to do something.
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I remember when I came out of an exam thinking I had done well and then I had a clue that maybe one answer was wrong, I remembered that I rather stop knowing, stop thinking about it, appreciating life instead.
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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.
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The digital camera has given me total freedom and a different way of filming.
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My car’s 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.
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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.
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The experience of life teaches us that being like someone in love is more real, because everything is uncertain.
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Whether you consider me a master filmmaker or not, I do it with my intuition and my vision, my experience as a storyteller.
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I do believe that a film like Ten could never have been made with a 35mm camera. The first part of the film lasts 17 minutes, and by the end of that part, the kid has totally forgotten the camera.
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Using non-actors has its own rules and really requires that you allow them to do their own thing.
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I only make notes, I don’t write dialogues in full. And the notes are very much based on my knowledge of person.
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I think that if you’re a digital thinker, you can use a digital camera.
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I think Woody Allen is Woody Allen, and no matter where he goes he still makes his Woody Allen films.
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It seems that film-makers are being divided between those working in digital and those who are not. I think it’s not something predetermined – it all depends on what project we have in mind, and on that basis we choose the medium.
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I would be too selfish if I said everyone should see my movies more than once. To say that would mean I’m just marketing my work!
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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.
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In real life, when someone’s partner calls them, they can tell from the first word their partner says what their mood is.
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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.
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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.
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Close-Up has affected later films that I’ve made.
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The Iranian government as a whole has no relationship with my films. They’re not particularly interested, perhaps this kind of cinema is not very interesting to them.
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Having an international voice is not really about whether we speak Persian or any other language.
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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