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Cinema seats make people lazy. They expect to be given all the information. But for me, question marks are the punctuation of life.

Abbas Kiarostami

Film is very much a universal and common voice, and we can’t limit it to one particular culture.
ABBAS KIAROSTAMI

Common Culture Film Limit Universal Voice
Close-Up is a very particular film in my oeuvre. It’s a film that was made in a very particular way; mainly because I didn’t really have the time to think about how to go about making the film.
ABBAS KIAROSTAMI

Close up Director Film Oeuvre Thinking Time Way
A work of art doesn’t exist outside the perception of the audience.
ABBAS KIAROSTAMI

Art Audience Exist Outside Perception Work
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
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
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.
ABBAS KIAROSTAMI

Actors End Belong Difficult Director Film Ultimately
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
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

Audience Back Director Film Looks Film Managed Surprised
The day we run out of petrol is the day Iran will be free.
ABBAS KIAROSTAMI

Day Free Iran Petrol Run Running
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
I think that if you’re a digital thinker, you can use a digital camera.
ABBAS KIAROSTAMI

Camera Digital Thinker Thinking Use
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 think, just as footballers play better at home, maybe film-makers, too, create better at home, even though the rules of football are the same wherever you go.
ABBAS KIAROSTAMI

Better Football Footballer Home Rule Thinking
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
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
The experience of life teaches us that being like someone in love is more real, because everything is uncertain.
ABBAS KIAROSTAMI

Experience Life Love More Real Teach Uncertain

Cinema seats make people lazy. They expect to be given all the information. But for me, question marks are the punctuation of life.

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Cinema seats make people lazy. They expect to be given all the information. But for me, question marks are the punctuation of life.

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Popular Authors

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