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 KIAROSTAMIThe day we run out of petrol is the day Iran will be free.
More Abbas Kiarostami Quotes
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I can only display what I’ve been nurtured with, which is this worldview which has become my view. If I displayed anything different from it in my work, I wouldn’t deserve this heritage.
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In my films, I try to give people as little information as possible, which is still much more than what they get in real life. I feel that they should be grateful for the little bit of information I give them.
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If I do continue to have the opportunity to work in Iran, that’s very much what I’d prefer to do.
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Film is very much a universal and common voice, and we can’t limit it to one particular culture.
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I thought that choosing a non-professional was a condition for me, because it would allow Juliette to have a less-professional way of acting. It would challenge her performance as a professional actress.
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Close-Up has affected later films that I’ve made.
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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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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.
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I’ve often noticed that we are not able to look at what we have in front of us, unless it’s inside a frame.
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I do believe in [Robert] Bresson’s method of creation through omission, not through addition.
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We are nothing but a link between our culture and what we can actually produce.
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I never really learned photography.
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All the different nations in the world, despite their differences of appearance and religion and language and way of life, still have one thing in common, and that is what’s inside of all of us.
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In my mind, there isn’t as much of a distinction between documentary and fiction as there is between a good movie and a bad one.
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I think violence can never be justified. At the same time, nobody’s culture or beliefs should be insulted, that’s not something I can accept either. But I cannot justify or accept any violence at all.
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In the total darkness, poetry is still there, and it is there for you.
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I prefer the films that put their audience to sleep in the theater. Some films have made me doze off in the theater, but the same films have made me stay up at night, wake up thinking about them in the morning, and keep on thinking about them for weeks.
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The digital camera has given me total freedom and a different way of filming.
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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.
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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.
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I spend a lot of time doing carpentry. Sometimes there is nothing that gives me the contentment that sawing a piece of wood does.
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I don’t like reverse-angle shots – I find them very fake and very untruthful to the viewer.
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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.
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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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Anything I’ve not experienced I do not look to for a subject. I have to feel it.
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In my opinion the man looks at the relationship in a more bitter fashion and the woman still holds great hopes.
ABBAS KIAROSTAMI