I was mentioning with the digital camera, maybe this new fashion of filmmaking gives a closer look of what life may be like. But it’s still nothing but a copy.
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.
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.
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.
I’m not sure that my films show the reality of life in Iran; we show different aspects of life. Iran is a very extensive and expansive place, and sometimes, even for us who live there, some of the realities are very hard to comprehend.
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.
I do think that we are sometimes, as directors, guilty of portraying or asking our actors to behave in certain ways that are perhaps not very morally acceptable. I’m not the only one.
I think that in life, being is nothing but an illusion. If we acknowledge that and accept the fact that we are in between states, that we are moving, and this movement is the nature of our lives
As film-makers, it is very important for us to find common ground between cultures, and maybe that’s less the case for politicians who benefit more from finding the conflicts and differences between us.
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.
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 Quote - 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.](https://minimalistquotes.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/i-didnt-just-see-myself-as-a-film-director-here-in-683x1024.jpg)
![Abbas Kiarostami Quote - 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.](https://minimalistquotes.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/i-think-it-was-jean-luc-godard-who-said-that-life--683x1024.jpg)
![Abbas Kiarostami Quote - I do believe in [Robert] Bresson’s method of creation through omission, not through addition.](https://minimalistquotes.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/i-do-believe-in-robert-bressons-method-of-creation-683x1024.jpg)
![Abbas Kiarostami Quote - 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.](https://minimalistquotes.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/this-the-earthquake-was-a-very-big-influence-on-me-683x1024.jpg)
