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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

I don’t generally derive my stories from novels. I try to turn into film things I have felt or experienced.
ABBAS KIAROSTAMI

Derive Experienced Film Novel Story Trying
I did not have a script [of Close Up]. I made notes in the evenings and we filmed during the day over 40 days.I didn’t sleep a wink for those 40 nights.
ABBAS KIAROSTAMI

Evening Hair Night Sleep Wink
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
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.
ABBAS KIAROSTAMI

Character Children Independent Interesting Marlon Brando Strong
Good cinema is what we can believe and bad cinema is what we can’t believe. What you see and believe in is very much what I’m interested in.
ABBAS KIAROSTAMI

Believe Cinema Good Interested
I think life is so difficult to catch, it’s so furtive, that a copy, a film, can in no way catch it and represent it.
ABBAS KIAROSTAMI

Difficult Furtive Life Represent Thinking Way
This [the earthquake] was a very big influence on me, and the issue of life and death from then on does recur in my films.
ABBAS KIAROSTAMI

Death Earthquake Film Influence Issue Issues Life Recur
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
I really haven’t seen The Report in a long time. I don’t have a copy, but I’ll have to see it again. I think it would be good to put both these men next to each other.
ABBAS KIAROSTAMI

Copy Long Men Report Thinking Time
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
In order to be universal, you have to be rooted in your own culture.
ABBAS KIAROSTAMI

Culture Order Own Rooted Universal
Using non-actors has its own rules and really requires that you allow them to do their own thing.
ABBAS KIAROSTAMI

Actor Non Actor Own REquired Thing
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
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
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.
ABBAS KIAROSTAMI

Digital Film Maker Mind Predetermined Something Thinking Working

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.

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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.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More Abbas Kiarostami Quotes