black
grey
blue
red
brown
white

It’s not so much a question of whether we’ve shot it through 35mm or digital video; what is important is whether the audience accepts it as real.

Abbas Kiarostami

Maybe more than a teller, I am a story listener. I really enjoy listening to stories. I remember them and keep them in my mind. All of my films are a collection of small stories that have been told to me.
ABBAS KIAROSTAMI

Enjoy Listener Listening Mind More Remember Story Teller
I wasn’t searching for a common denominator – I started wondering about the challenge of working in other cultures. What I reached was the sudden acknowledgment of the universal aspect of filmmaking.
ABBAS KIAROSTAMI

Challenges Common Other Cultures
I didn’t just see myself as a film director here [in Life And Nothing More], but also as an observer of people who had been condemned to death.
ABBAS KIAROSTAMI

Condemned Death Director Film People
I’m still very grateful to digital cameras in general, but I didn’t have this feeling with the RED one.
ABBAS KIAROSTAMI

Camera Digital Feelings General Grateful Red
The only thing that I can do is hold a mirror in front of men and women, in front of the viewer in the theater, to reflect. There is nothing but reflection that I could intend to offer the viewer of the film.
ABBAS KIAROSTAMI

Front Hold Men Mirror Nothing Reflection Viewer
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
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
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
I believe there’s only good cinema and bad cinema.
ABBAS KIAROSTAMI

Bad Believe Cinema Good Only
With the RED, I didn’t have this impression at all. I felt that it was as heavy as a film camera. Having this great crew, with the DP and his assistants, I found it making as much of an impression as a very big film camera.
ABBAS KIAROSTAMI

Assistant Attention Camera DP Film heavy Impression Red Shooting
Whether you consider me a master filmmaker or not, I do it with my intuition and my vision, my experience as a storyteller.
ABBAS KIAROSTAMI

Consider Filmmaker Intuition Master Storyteller Vision
I really think that I don’t mind people sleeping during my films, because I know that some very good films might prepare you for sleeping or falling asleep or snoozing. It’s not to be taken badly at all.
ABBAS KIAROSTAMI

Digital Fall Film Good Prepare Sleep Taken
I do believe in [Robert] Bresson’s method of creation through omission, not through addition.
ABBAS KIAROSTAMI

Addition Believe Creation Omission Robert
Close-Up has affected later films that I’ve made.
ABBAS KIAROSTAMI

Affected Close up Film Made
In order to be universal, you have to be rooted in your own culture.
ABBAS KIAROSTAMI

Culture Order Own Rooted Universal
My films have been progressing towards a certain kind of minimalism, even though it was never intended. Elements which can be eliminated have been eliminated.
ABBAS KIAROSTAMI

Element Eliminated Film Kind Minimalism Progress Progressive

It’s not so much a question of whether we’ve shot it through 35mm or digital video; what is important is whether the audience accepts it as real.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

It’s not so much a question of whether we’ve shot it through 35mm or digital video; what is important is whether the audience accepts it as real.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More Abbas Kiarostami Quotes