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Shop by Category Top 10 Records - Shahram Kashani
- Sattar
- Arash
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Close-Up,English Subtitle (DVD) | 
| | List Price: | $29.95 | | Sale Price: | $16.95 | | You Save | $13 (43%) | | Item #: | IRM128 | | |
| In this brilliant meditation on the power of movies, master Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami turns the medium upside-down and back again, blurring the lines between documentary and narrative film. Inspired by the true story of a lonely film buff who impersonated Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Kiarostami reenacts some of the man's trial and incorporates some footage from the actual event, using the real people involved as "actors." By making the filmmaking process as central as the story, Kiarostami avoids the pitfalls of the so-called "docudrama," creating something far more meaningful. His masterstroke comes when the real Makhmalbaf meets his impersonator. "...we are ultimately left defenseless against the extraordinary power of its final scenes, which are as transcendent--and as shrewd--as anything in cinema" (Godfrey Cheshire, New York Press). Farsi with English subtitles. DVD.
About Abbas Kiarostami:
One of the most visionary figures in international cinema, Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami makes films that both challenge viewers' expectations of modern filmmaking and expound a deeply humanist philosophy. Using a deceptive simplicity to explore very complex issues, Kiarostami stresses the importance of material over technique. Taking his inspiration and story ideas from the people around him and the observations of everyday life, and stressing a natural, improvisational approach from his actors, he has said, "I think that technique for technique's sake is a big lie, as it doesn't answer real feelings and real needs."
Born in Tehran on June 22, 1940, Kiarostami made his directing and screenwriting debut in 1970 with Nan va Koutcheh/The Bread and Alley. He first earned international acclaim and recognition in 1987 with Where is the Friend's Home?, the story of a child's self-imposed journey to find his friend's house so he can give him a lost notebook full of important homework. Stressing a natural approach to his material and building his film on endless repetition, Kiarostami succeeded in making a film from a child's point of view that refused to adopt the condescending, cutesy tone of most films made about children, and he earned kudos for his work.
Kiarostami next won acclaim for Through the Olive Trees, which was screened in competition at the 1994 Cannes Festival. A blend of documentary and fictional drama, it was set in a Northern Iranian town that had recently been hit by an earthquake and was the third in the director's cycle of films, following Where is the Friend's House and And Life Goes On. In keeping with the style of his previous films, Kiarostami used a straightforward approach without frills or flourishes, encouraging an interactive reaction from his audience by leaving the end of his story — which in part revolved around a man's pursuit of a woman who keeps rejecting him — without resolution, and therefore open to interpretation.
Kiarostami's next major project was more of a lighthearted affair: he produced the script for Jafar Panahi's The White Balloon (1995), a children's film told from the point of view of a young girl searching a marketplace to buy a goldfish in time for New Year's Eve. With A Taste of Cherry two years later, however, he was back to a more serious meditation on life, death, and all that falls in between. The film, with its lack of resolution or reasons for the decision of the protagonist to attempt suicide, invited the same kind of interaction from the audience as Through the Olive Trees. It was embraced enthusiastically by an international audience, co-winning the Cannes Festival's Palme d'Or. Further acclaim greeted Kiarostami's next effort, The Wind Will Carry Us (1999). Another unconventional meditation on everyday life rooted in a humanist philosophy, it won the Golden Lion at that year's Venice Film Festival. — Rebecca Flint
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