Abbas Kiarostami, a towering figure of world cinema
Born and raised in Iran during World War II, Abbas Kiarostami (1940-2016) was the product of a very lively period in Iranian artistic creativity. The rise of Iranian New Wave in the 1960s was rooted in the history of modernist Persian poetry and fiction of the previous three decades.
His first superb short film, The Bread and Alley (1970), announced the beginnings of a visionary filmmaker tapping into a different reading of reality. Kiarostami lived a professionally successful and productive life and received richly deserved global recognition. When he won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival for Taste of Cherry in 1997, he had almost three decades of masterpieces behind him.
Today, Iranian social media is overflowing with tributes to Kiarostami from officials and film fans alike;
- Iranian-American actor, screenwriter and director Peyman Maady quoted French director Jean-Luc Godard in saying that cinema begins with [Hollywood pioneer] D W Griffith and ends with Abbas Kiarostami.
- Iranian news agency ISNA has reported that cinemas across the country will hold a moment of silence this evening to pay tribute to Kiarostami.
- US director Martin Scorsese said Kiarostami represents the highest level of artistry in the cinema.
In 2005 Kiarostami teamed up with the British director and LFS Honorary Associate Ken Loach and the Italian filmmaker Ermanno Olmi to make a three-part film called Tickets.
Kiarostami has run filmmakers workshops in the past at LFS and was an LFS Honorary Associate. The course, encompassed the arts of direction and screenwriting and had an extraordinary impact on the participants. Kiarostami dealt with the most basic questions of screen form, with the filmmakers' relationship to the audience and the strry, with illuminating simplicity.
Taste of Cherry scene: https://youtu.be/LecoqFoxz5o
Interview with Kiarostami: https://youtu.be/neYgsuUC8pw
In his own words
'My highest aim presently is to give new information about myself, others, or the environment in which I exist.'
On fiction vs documentary: 'I believe there's only good cinema and bad cinema. Good cinema is what we can believe and bad cinema is what we can't believe.
His advice to young filmmakers: 'A suggestion that I often give is if you have a special taste or a special style you have to be independent of the capital and of industry and you have to keep your independence, otherwise industry will only produce more of itself.'