Updates, Live: I'm in the Mood for Kiarostami

addressing the camera as he begins the first filming lesson
Abbās Kiyārostamī in 10 on Ten
(source: Firouzan Films)
no copyright infringement intended

I'm in the mood for Kiarostami. I watched his The Wind Will Carry US about five times and I still need to do it more. I ordered on the Amazon his Five Dedicated to Ozu, I'm waiting for it to arrive.

The Wind Will Carry Us is very hard to grasp at the beginning: it is extremely simple while extremely subtle. It's like the poems of Forough Farrokhzad.

Okay, if modern Iranian culture is unknown to you, let's not start defining Abbas Kiarostami by making a reference to Forough Farrokhzad. We'll come later to her, it's absolutely necessary.

Let's try some references:

Number one: Tarkovsky. Well, let be no doubt about it, Tarkovsky is Tarkovsky and Kiarostami is Kiarostami. There are many differences between them. Both of them are great artists. I said Tarkovsky: it was only to have a point of departure in understanding Kiarostami. Anyway, the movie of Kiarostami gave me a fresh idea to analyze Stalker.

Number two: Parajanov. His Tini Zabutykh Predkiv is amazing, to say nothing about Sayat Nova and the others that followed. But, the same note, Kiarostami is Kiarostami and Parajanov is Parajanov. It's just another point of departure. While watching The Wind Will Carry Us I was thinking at Tini Zabutykd Predkiv and I was noticing the differences; I will talk about this in a future post.

Number three: Satyajit Ray. Actually comparing Kiarostami and Ray leads you to striking discoveries. The same poignancy, the same profundity. Said Kurosawa, words cannot describe my feelings about them ... when Satyajit Ray passed on, I was very depressed. But after seeing Kiarostami’s films, I thanked God for giving us just the right person to take his place. Well, I watched the Apu Trilogy more than one time; you can consider it the best ever and you'll make no mistake. What does it mean the best ever? It means that if you can see only one movie for all your life, then you can choose Apu Trilogy (which means three movies, okay) and you'll make no mistake. Of course, you could choose some other movie from Ozu, or Eisenstein, or Griffith, or maybe Wong Kar-Wai: you'll make no mistake either, but you've got the idea. Now, what I can say is, if you consider Kiarostami at the level of Ray you're probably right.

Number four: said Jean-Luc Godard, cinema starts with Griffith and ends with Kiarostami. I would say, however, take it easy. Today there is Kiarostami, there is Wong Kar-Wai, there is Hou Hsiao-Hsien; Hou made Café Lumière, as a homage to Ozu; Kiarostami made Five Dedicated to Ozu: all roads lead to Ozu. (and thanks God, there was also Satyajit Ray).

The thing is that Kiarostami cannot be compared easily with any other great filmmaker because, like for any of them, his style is unique. I would let this for another post.