Abbas Kiarostami

Cinema lost a leading voice when Abbas Kiarostami passed away in 2016. Mr. Kiarostami was one of the genuine greats of cinema. Anyone who started exploring global cinema was bound to come across one of his films at some point in their film paths. The one difference would be that each person would have discovered Mr. Kiarostami via a different film. Many in the west likely first came across his work with the 1990 film CLOSE-UP and others likely found his work after his brilliant film TASTE OF CHERRY won the Palme D’Or at the Cannes film festival in 1997.

However, Abbas Kiarostami was making films long before that. He started off by directing short films and documentaries from the 1970’s onwards. While these earlier works may have been unknown for most of the 1990’s, they started surfacing in the mid 2000’s. These earlier works are extremely valuable in showing he approached his cinema. Early in his career, he worked at the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Adults. This is probably why he is one of those rare directors whose films showed children with genuine warmth, compassion and honesty. In his early short films, children and animals played a big part. In fact, his first ever short film THE BREAD AND ALLEY, a 12 minute short made in 1970 features a boy and a dog.

Right from his first short film, he showed an ability to re-imagine a different way of shooting a scene. He wanted events to flow naturally and the camera to capture reality as it unfolded. The 12 minute short film shows traces of a neo-realist cinema but also an aspect that would come to define his film making style in the 1990’s, a style where the line between fiction and documentary is blurred.

He often used non-actors in his films and at times, it was hard to distinguish real life from fiction in his films. He often had audience guessing on what is real and what is manufactured. The placement of the camera played a big part in this technique and even then, Kiarostami didn’t follow conventional ways. He would mount his camera inside a car such as he did in TEN or have a camera facing an audience watching a film in a movie theatre like in SHIRIN. Except, things were not as what they seem. In SHIRIN, the audience is watching a movie that does not exist and the film is not shot inside a real movie theatre.

In Cinema Scope Issue No. 68, Quintín has noted that Abbas Kiarostami "was trained as a painter and a photographer". This training clearly played a big part in the beautiful landscape and visuals found in many of his films which take place outside the city in stunning Iranian countryside.

Mr. Kiarostami was able to realize his vision while living and working in his home country of Iran. As a result, in a way, he helped put Iranian cinema on the map and was a key part of the new wave of Iranian directors that emerged from the 1990’s onwards.

What is remarkable is that he continued making films in Iran despite the changing political landscape. He was born in 1940 and lived through many of the different political forces that have shaped Iran. Yet, despite the government changes, he was able to continue pushing the boundaries of cinema and art. His films often got to the core of meaning of art and life in general.

Like a true artist, he continued exploring new ways to expand his filmmaking. In 2010, he directed CERTIFIED COPY, shot entirely in Italy, his first film shot outside of Iran. In 2012, he made LIKE SOMEONE IN LOVE shot in Japan and in once again in a different language. These two films marked a new and exciting point in his career. In an interview, Mr. Kiarostami said that many people around the world understood his films via subtitles. So he wanted to understand his own films via subtitles and that explains why these 2 films were shot in a different language.

He was next supposed to work in film set in China. Sadly, that was not to be. It is clear that he had a lot to offer to cinema.

The 2016 short film TAKE ME HOME, shot in Southern Italy, playfully manages to incorporate elements from his cinema. Like his earlier films, there is a little boy and there are some animals. The artistic beauty he found in landscapes are to be found in this film. And the concept of fiction vs reality is also seen. The short appear to be following a soccer ball in a natural manner. However, there is a very clear visual indicator in the film which lets us know what he is really up to. This short was released along with the documentary 76 MINUTES and 15 SECONDS WITH ABBAS KIAROSTAMI, directed by Mr. Kiarostami’s long time collaborator Seifollah Samadian. In this documentary, we get a true sense of how Mr. Kiarostami conceived his shots, how his training as a painter and photographer played a big part in his films. For those who are familiar with his films, it brings a new perspective to view his films. For those who are not familiar with his work, it provides an excellent starting point to see an artist at work.

As it turns out, TAKE ME HOME won’t be the last film of Mr. Kiarostami. Later this year, we will see his final film project getting a release. That film will be the movie event of the year!

Note: both TAKE ME HOME and the documentary 76 MINUTES AND 15 SECONDS were shown by the Calgary Cinematheque as part of a special tribute to Mr. Kiarostami.

THE HUMAN SURGE

THE HUMAN SURGE (2016, Eduardo Williams, Argentina/Brazil/Portugal)

Eduardo Williams’ stunning debut feature takes us on a remarkable journey around the globe, spanning three continents. THE HUMAN SURGE is structured in three parts starting off in Argentina (Buenos Aires) before moving to Mozambique (Maputo) and finishing its whirlwind global tour in the Philippine province of Bohol. In each of its three segments, the film depicts young people who are either trying to make ends meet by taking on different jobs or those who are in between jobs. Technology plays a key part in these different jobs and that also nicely ties in with the film's theme of exploring the impact of the internet and computers in our modern world. The film depicts an entire global cycle of jobs from manufacturing of computer parts all the way to how people use computers and the internet to earn money.

The internet and its wired/wireless network allows people to easily communicate around the world, thereby shrinking our planet. Williams has smartly used this network connectivity and shrinking of the world to depict jaw-dropping original cinematic transitions between the three parts. He has even managed to plug nature and its picturesque landscapes into our wired world. The end result is a film that is never short on movement, as it follows its characters through a network of paths, ranging from almost invisible paths to rugged larger-than-life trails.

Each path and subsequent journey is crafted with its own unique visual technique. The Argentine segment is filmed using 16 mm, while the images in Mozambique are filmed with an inventive mix of a Blackmagic pocket camera and 16mm, and a RED camera captures the tiniest details of the lovely Philippine environment. As a result, each segment has its own distinguishing colour palette and texture which matches the rhythm of the story. In keeping pace with its characters and the story, the camera is never static but hovers and wanders around its characters. In some sequences, the camera is freed from the confines of space and time thereby achieving movements that defy belief.

The end result is a film that takes us on a breathtaking journey of our non-stop, constantly shifting world. Winner of the Golden Leopard award in the Filmmakers of the present category at the Locarno Film Festival, THE HUMAN SURGE signals the arrival of a talented new director.

Note: Cross-published here.

Essential reading about the film:

1. Leo Goldsmith in Cinema Scope

2. Max Nelson in Film Comment

Around the World in 5 Films

Around the World in 5 Films

THE TREASURE will complete Calgary Cinematheque’s cinematic journey across 5 continents in just 5 films. All 5 films are part of the Cinematheque’s Contemporary World Cinema series which kicked off with the Brazilian film SHE COMES BACK ON THURSDAY before traveling to North America with Alex Ross Perry’s QUEEN OF EARTH. Africa was the next stop as British director Ben Rivers’ THE SKY TREMBLES AND THE EARTH IS AFRAID AND THE TWO EYES ARE NOT BROTHERS focused on the beautiful and rugged Moroccan landscape. Asia was next as Hong Sang-soo’s RIGHT NOW, WRONG THEN touched down in South Korea. Finally, the 2015/16 season will conclude with a European stop as Corneliu Porumboiu’s THE TREASURE takes us on an incredible hunt to uncover some precious Romanian treasure.

The 5 films in the 2015/16 Contemporary World Cinema series contain a mix of films from rising masters and established auteurs. The first film in the series, SHE COMES BACK ON THURSDAY, marked the feature film debut of André Novais Oliveira who has already established a signature style with just three short films and one feature. This style features a remarkable blending of documentary and fiction. In SHE COMES BACK ON THURSDAY, André Novais Oliveira acts in the film along with his parents and brother and all four use their real names in the film. However, the four of them are not playing themselves but instead are acting within the framework of fiction. Still, SHE COMES BACK ON THURSDAY is constructed like a documentary, giving attention to tiny details about life and relationships. The close bond between the family members results in scenes which flow effortlessly allowing audience an intimate look at the characters. The everyday sounds that are allowed to flow in the frames recalls Kleber Mendonça Filho’s NEIGHBORING SOUNDS but André Novais Oliveira has crafted his own unique path by opting to show a different side of Brazil from other Brazilian films. The setting of the film in the suburbs of Belo Horizonte showcases a Brazil that is not seen in cinema along with characters that don’t make an appearance in Brazilian films. Finally, the selection of the lovely music makes SHE COMES BACK ON THURSDAY a beautiful poetic film about life, love, death and everything in between.

The second and third films in the series contained works from Alex Ross Perry and Ben Rivers, two exciting and talented filmmakers who have carved their own place in world cinema with just a handful of features.

Alex Ross Perry has not settled for an easy path in his filmmaking journey and has tried to push the boundaries with his films while staying true to independent filmmaking roots. His previous films don’t prepare one for QUEEN OF EARTH which is far darker than his other works. However, there is a very smart progression compared to his previous two films, in terms of the depiction of relationships and also usage of dialogue. In THE COLOR WHEEL, Perry examined relationships between two siblings, neither of whom appear to have any friends. In LISTEN UP PHILLIP, Perry showed the relationship between two people who are dating. With QUEEN OF EARTH, he looks at a relationship between two friends, something he has not examined before. Also, this film has much less dialogue than his previous movies. THE COLOR WHEEL is a dialogue-driven film while LISTEN UP PHILLIP has plenty of voice over narration which lets viewers listen in to the character’s internal thoughts. However, in QUEEN OF EARTH, the dialogue is limited and audience don’t get to listen to the voices in the characters’ heads. Instead, audience have to understand their state of mind by their expressions and body language. This combined with the film’s score and the cinematography gives the film an intense horror/psychological drama feel.

Ben Rivers’ THE SKY TREMBLES AND THE EARTH IS AFRAID AND THE TWO EYES ARE NOT BROTHERS is a fascinating multi-layered structure that draws inspiration from Paul Bowles’ writing. The structure of the film is a nod to what Bowles managed in A Hundred Camels in the Courtyard where Bowles found a common thread to link 4 completely different stories together. In the SKY TREMBLES, Ben Rivers has constructed a film which links together multiple works including a short story, a short film, some documentary footage and an art installation. All these works are seamlessly stitched together in a linear manner. Rivers has managed this by alternating one aspect of Paul Bowles’ short story A Distant Episode. In the short story, the main character is a professor. In the film, the main character is a film director. This change allows Ben Rivers to find a common thread to link the different elements. This is because at the start of THE SKY TREMBLES, we see the filmmaker Oliver Laxe, scouting for locations in Morocco and attempting to complete a gruelling film shoot. Laxe is a real filmmaker and the scenes we see are actual footage from his upcoming second feature. And then at some point in THE SKY TREMBLES, Oliver Laxe stops shooting his film and steps into Paul Bowles’ story, resulting in a series of remarkable events.

The final two films in the Contemporary World Cinema series are by Hong Sang-soo and Corneliu Porumboiu, two established auteurs who are among the best Contemporary world film directors working right now.

Love and relationships are two common elements found in Hong Sang-soo’s films with food and alcohol being vital to his film’s flow. Characters often gather at a social gathering where lots of food and alcohol is to be found. Alcohol is a key ingredient in his films, particularly the drink of soju which serves as lubricant in allowing the character’s true feelings to be revealed in a natural manner. In his last few films, Hong Sang-soo has used repetition as a powerful device. He has either shown the same event from different perspectives or repeated the same segment with slight variations. All these elements are found in RIGHT NOW, WRONG THEN which is divided into 2 films, shown from different perspectives and with slight variations. Each film has its own title with the first film called ‘RIGHT THEN, WRONG NOW’ while the second film is ‘RIGHT NOW, WRONG THEN’. The alternate titles and the unfolding of events allow audience to select which film they prefer, and in a way, the audience selection also shows the manner in which they prefer to live their own lives.

Corneliu Porumboiu has directed five feature films, one of them being a documentary, yet all are stellar films that have garnered critical acclaim and multiple awards. Porumboiu announced his arrival on the world stage a decade ago when his feature film debut 12:08 EAST OF BUCHAREST won 2 awards at Cannes 2006. That debut contained two elements that have become part of his signature usage, history and humour. Porumboiu has found a unique way to examine Romania’s history with a brilliant usage of humour. In Porumboiu’s hands, scenes which contain characters reading from a dictionary, filling forms at a police station or watching TV become riveting scenes which are infused with humour and provide valuable insight into human nature. Porumboiu has been adding layers to his films since his debut and is constantly looking for new ways to expand the frame of cinema. This is highlighted by THE TREASURE which contains his signature elements of humour and examination of Romanian history but is also a twist on a fable, while providing a key commentary on the modern financial crisis. In just a single effortless sequence, Porumboiu shows some individual decisions that were at the core of the financial crisis. However, Corneliu Porumboiu uses that scene to kick-start a sequence of events resulting in an entertaining cinematic experience.

The 5 films of the Cinematheque’s Contemporary World Cinema series made their international debut at various film festivals in 2015. All are among some of the best films of 2015 but these films are competing in an ever-decreasing cinematic space. The regular theatrical release schedule in most North American cities continues to be dominated by commercial studio films while independent Canadian and foreign cinema struggles to get screen time. If a city does not have a Film Festival, a Cinematheque or an Arthouse cinema, there will be few chances to see independent and foreign films in a cinema. This is where the Calgary Cinematheque’s Contemporary World Cinema series is vital as it showcases some of the best films from around the world, works that would normally be never seen in this city. After just two seasons, the Calgary Cinematheque’s Contemporary World Cinema series has depicted smart works by directors from Brazil, Canada, Iran, Mexico, Philippines, Romania, South Korea, Taiwan, UK and USA. There are many more talented auteurs from around the world to be discovered, some of whom will be featured in next season’s Contemporary World series.

Note: Cross-published on the Calgary Cinematheque's website.

She Comes Back on Thursday

She Comes Back on Thursday (2014, Brazil, André Novais Oliveira)

After 38 years of marriage, Maria José and Norberto are on the verge of separation. Norberto is having an affair while Maria José is questioning her life. Their sons André and Nato get caught up in all of this and are unsure how to react. The two sons can’t believe that after all these years their parents are going through a major life changing event. André and Nato have their own problems and are waiting for the next phase of their lives to start. However, instead of thinking about the start of their lives, the brothers are forced to think about the end of life and the end of relationships. As a result, the two brothers re-examine their own lives and start looking at things in a different light.

André Novais Oliveira makes his feature film debut in a remarkable manner by blending documentary with fiction. He acts in the film along with his parents and brother and all four use their real names in the film. However, the four of them are not playing themselves but instead are acting within the framework of fiction. Still, She Comes back on Thursday is constructed like a documentary, giving attention to tiny details about life and relationships. The close bond between the family members results in scenes which flow effortlessly allowing audience an intimate look at the characters. The everyday sounds that are allowed to flow in the frames recalls Kleber Mendonça Filho’s Neighboring Sounds but André Novais Oliveira has crafted his own unique path by opting to show a different side of Brazil from other Brazilian films. The setting of the film in the suburbs of Belo Horizonte showcases a Brazil that is not seen in cinema along with characters that don’t make an appearance in Brazilian films. Finally, the selection of the lovely music makes She Comes back on Thursday a beautiful poetic film about life, love, death and everything in between.

The Calgary Cinematheque is screening this film on Oct 22 at the Globe.

Healthy Cinematic Nourishment

David Bordwell has written a perfect response in defense of slow & nourishing cinema. Bordwell's entire article is an essential read but the final line in this paragraph is a fact that most film critics and film magazines regularly ignore:

Still, Kois’ complaint touches on something important about film history. We have a polarized film culture: fast, aggressive cinema for the mass market and slow, more austere cinema for festivals and arthouses. That’s not to say that every foreign film is the seven-and-a-half hour Sátántangó, only that demanding works like Tarr’s find their homes in museums, cinematheques, and other specialized venues. Interestingly for Kois’ case, many of the most valuable movies in this vein don’t get any commercial distribution. The major works of Hou, Tarr, and others didn’t play the US theatre market. Sátántangó is just coming out on DVD here, nearly twenty years after its original appearance. Most of us can’t get access to the most vitamin-rich cultural vegetables, and they’re in no danger of overrunning our diet.

In New York on any given night a film lover has atleast half a dozen worthy healthy cinematic options but the average cinephile living outside of New York has limited access to seeing rich cinema in theaters. So it is not a surprize that a put down of slow cinema would originate in a New York publication. The rest of North America, including Canada, has mostly cinematic junk food options.

The foreign film theatrical & DVD rental options in Calgary have gotten worse in 2011 when compared to 2007-08. The city still has three art house cinemas but the selections are not as diverse as a few years ago. The three cinemas have to regularly program Hollywood fare as the foreign distribution of films in Canada appears to have slowed down, especially outside of Toronto. On top of that, Calgary now only has one DVD store (Casablanca Video) where one can rent foreign/indie films. A few years ago, there were 3 excellent DVD stores (Video & Sound, Bird Dog Video and Casablanca) which carried the newest foreign films from around the world. Also, VHQ (owned by Movie Gallery) carried some foreign films titles as did Blockbuster & Rogers Video. However, all VHQ stores shut down as of last year and a handful of Blockbuster & Rogers Video stores have closed as well. Elsewhere in Canada, things are not that optimistic for DVD rentals either. In Edmonton, Sneak Preview closed up shop after nearly 30 years in business and Vancouver's Videomatica also announced plans to close up at the end of summer. Videomatica is still one of the best DVD stores in Canada and their DVD mail rental service is exceptional (majority of my film spotlights from my 2007-08 were possibly only because of Videomatica). Plus, zip.ca's foreign DVD rental selection has drastically gone down in the last few months leading one to question how long they will be able to hold on.

However, there is no shortage of Hollywood films in any Canadian or American city. If one wanted to gorge on the latest robot transformation exercise, then one can stumble into a multiplex near one's residence. If the off chance that someone missed the theatrical release of this Hollywood film, then the DVD, special edition Blu-Ray, special special director's cut with more noise edition DVD/Blu-Ray combo of the film will be available in every big chain grocery story in every city. Basically, one can never be short of junk food. And one cannot go too long before someone defends the virtues of cinematic junk, both here in North America and in India as well. Last week's tragic news of Mani Kaul's passing brought out plenty of remarks from a few Indians who said Kaul's films were difficult to follow. In fact, the late Manmohan Desai, famous for his Bollywood action/revenge films with Amitabh Bachchan, once remarked that it was harder to make "masala films" (popular commercial films) but anyone cold make an art film like Mani Kaul's debut feature Uski Roti. A variation of those words were repeated online last week when some people defended the junk of Bollywood over Indian art cinema.

Too much junk food is not good for the human body. Neither is too much cinematic junk. But of course, the argument is that one person's junk is another person's sophisticated taste.

Slow cinema in two takes in everyday life

1) Man Shaving his face

No matter how many blades get added to a razor, shaving is an activity that cannot be done in an instant. Certain portions of a man's face (especially around the chin) require one to slow down and carefully shave lest one cut oneself. Shaving is also a boring task. I am sure no man wakes up every morning and looks forward to shaving his face. Yet, it is also an essential task. Some people do get tired of shaving and grow a beard or variations of a beard to avoid cutting their facial hair. However, the men that shave everyday are heroes in their own slow cinema.

2) Ultrasound

Every parent will talk of the thrill in watching their baby's ultrasound video. The images are not the clearest nor is there any sound but the black and white grainy video is one of the most riveting set of images that a parent can see. In fact, parents will be patient and watch carefully for the slightest movement of the baby. Sometimes, the baby moves and sometimes he/she does not. An ultrasound video might offer much slower images than any of Hou Hsiao-Hsien's or Béla Tarr's films but no parent will ever describe their baby's ultrasound in the following manner:

"It was boring. Too slow. There was not enough action. The baby just sat there not doing anything."

Emotional interest --> visual cues

So why are ultrasound videos so enchanting for parents? Because the parents have an emotional stake in the ultrasound video. They are emotionally hooked and they will automatically adjust their eyes to look only at the baby and nowhere else. They do not need any cues to help them through the video. The same can apply for cinema as well. If cinema viewers have an emotional interest in the film, they will be able to adjust their eyes automatically to pick up objects of interest. By default, most audience have no emotional interest in robots or ogres but Hollywood assists film viewers by tacking on an emotional layer to their stories. Hollywood wants audience to care for a CGI generated image so dialogues are carefully written to incite support and even some humor is added to give personality to non-humans. Bollywood is another example of cinema overloaded with emotional manipulation. On the other hand, art cinema does not generate artificial emotion so that can leave some viewers lost and they would have no idea where to look.

When tourists walk out on a foreign street for the first time, some have a map and check for directions while some just follow any path in front of them. Cinema can be tackled in the same manner, either with a map or a complete dive into the unknown. Some effort is required on behalf of the cinematic tourist but the rewards are worth it. The problem is access to foreign cinematic roads is getting limited each year and maybe in the future (say next year), the only way to access rich foreign cinematic paths might be through hidden underground portals, lurking underneath some treasure bay.