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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.

Abbas Kiarostami

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
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
As soon as people enter a theater they must become moron consumers who must be fed information.
ABBAS KIAROSTAMI

Consumer Fed Information Moron People Theater
I spend a lot of time doing carpentry. Sometimes there is nothing that gives me the contentment that sawing a piece of wood does.
ABBAS KIAROSTAMI

Carpentry Contentment Doe Giving Spend Wood
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.
ABBAS KIAROSTAMI

Cinema Film Government Interesting Iranian Perhaps Relationship
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
People have curiosity, they have intelligence, they have interest in understanding their peers. But producers and directors of cinema have decided that the seats in the theaters have been made to transform people’s minds to lazy minds.
ABBAS KIAROSTAMI

Cinema Curiosity Director Intelligence Interest Peer People Producer Understanding
I only make notes, I don’t write dialogues in full. And the notes are very much based on my knowledge of person.
ABBAS KIAROSTAMI

Based Dialogue Knowledge Note Person Writing
This was pointed out to me by somebody who referred to the paintings of Rembrandt and his use of light: some elements are highlighted while others are obscured or even pushed back into the dark.
ABBAS KIAROSTAMI

Dark Element Light Painting Pointed Referred Use
Close-Up has affected later films that I’ve made.
ABBAS KIAROSTAMI

Affected Close up Film Made
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
Silence doesn’t seem heavy or difficult.
ABBAS KIAROSTAMI

Difficult heavy Option Silence
When I find the character, I try to spend time with them and get to know them very well. Therefore my notes are not from the character that I had in my mind before, but are instead based on the people I’ve met in real life.
ABBAS KIAROSTAMI

Character Know Not People Real Well
Anything I’ve not experienced I do not look to for a subject. I have to feel it.
ABBAS KIAROSTAMI

Experienced Feel Look Looks Subject
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

Accept Audience Digital Important Question Real Shot Video

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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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.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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