7 ms·

With every good film I see, I feel reborn (1996)

101 points by pizza 5y ago

pizza 5y ago
Context: this is Hossein Sabzian. > Internationally revered Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami has created some of the most inventive and transcendent cinema of the past thirty years, and Close-up is his most radical, brilliant work. This fiction-documentary hybrid uses a sensational real-life event—the arrest of a young man on charges that he fraudulently impersonated the well-known filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf—as the basis for a stunning, multilayered investigation into movies, identity, artistic creation, and existence, in which the real people from the case play themselves. With its universal themes and fascinating narrative knots, Close-up has resonated with viewers around the world. https://www.criterion.com/films/1092-close-up https://www.criterion.com/films/1092-close-up
- telesilla 5y ago
  I simply love this film and so many of Kiarostami. Close-up wins out in my top 3 because of just how brilliantly he and his found-actor make use of each other. To perfect ends. (Where is the friend's house, and Through the olive trees are my other favourites, though truly all are fantastic)
- srcreigh 5y ago
  This is on my list now. Sounds similar to one of my favs, Charlie Kaufman's Adaptation, a movie about himself and his alter ego struggling to write an adaptation of a book.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- dang 5y ago
  https://www.bidoun.org/articles/kiarostami-s-close-up-revisited https://www.bidoun.org/articles/kiarostami-s-close-up-revisi... is interesting too.
- PyWoody 5y ago
  If anyone is looking for a streaming service to support, the Criterion Channel is phenomenal. They do historical, current, American, gay, black, Latino, female, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, etc. films without any pretense other than a film in its honest self. I've been introduced to so many films and ideas without pretext from the CC that I consider the fee worth it even as I return to the high seas.
  - somberi 5y ago
    +1. If I am forced to choose just one "TV subscription" it will be Criterion. A close second will be Mubi. I see Mubi as the millennial's Criterion.
    - PyWoody 5y ago
      I had never heard of Mubi before but, ```The Auteurs was founded in 2007 by Efe Çakarel, who began work on the business model for MUBI after being unable to watch In the Mood for Love online while in a café in Tokyo.```[0] speaks to me on a spiritual level. I'll have to check it out. Thanks! [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mubi_(streaming_service) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mubi_(streaming_service)
vmoore 5y ago
I have mild ADD and can't read books very well. I read a book like I read Twitter, extracting little soundbites and quotes out of it to mull over later. With movies, I get the basic gist of a story and I'm happy with that. A movie is a watered down book that I don't have to wade through. Some key movies that I always loved: Limitless, The Matrix, Fight Club, all of the LOTR movies. Those movies moved me in ways a book simply couldn't. And I've tried reading Tolkien, and just couldn't pay attention. A little hack I do (since I will never read all the books in the world), is read the last line of a book I randomly picked up in the library or a book shop, and commit that line to memory. I've memorized ~100 'last sentences' of books now!
- hirundo 5y ago
  Audiobook publisher GraphicAudio has cheesy tagline: "A Movie In Your Mind.". Well yeah, that's where all movies play. But there is a sense in which an audiobook is more movie than book. Especially with light reading while doing something else, like driving or gardening. Maybe that loophole will work for your ADD.
- tonguez 5y ago
  - smegsicle 5y ago
    it's the most active thread on the page yadingus
- srcreigh 5y ago
  Out of curiosity, how's your visual imaginative abilities? The aphantasia test: imagine a person rolling a ball across the table. What color was the person's hair? If it didn't occur to you, you may have aphantasia. (This ability, I assume, is key in reading books. It's like an ongoing movie in your head if you can do it. I can't.)
  - trentgreene 5y ago
    That’s not a good test for aphantasia, and will way over diagnose. Try googling test for aphantasia for much better examples
davesque 5y ago
Very relatable quotes from that piece. Here are some others that follow the quote from the title: It feels as if I made it myself, as if it were my creation. I identify with the director. I identify with the actors. Well told stories have incredible power in the human mind.
everybodyknows 5y ago
Title needs "2013".
- js2 5y ago
  1996 actually. Hossein Sabzian died in 2006 from a heart attack.
  - dang 5y ago
    Ok, we'll take your word for it and put 1996 up there. Thanks!
    - caslon 5y ago
      (It also says 1996 on the page.)
      - dang 5y ago
        Ah, so it does.
bodhi_mind 5y ago
Reminds me of Camus’ Myth of Sisyphus. If you haven’t read it, basically one of his recommendations of how to live life knowing that the human condition is absurd, is to be an artist. If you’re an actor, you become the role. If you truly become the role, you’ve lived a whole new life. PS - if you’ve read it, I’d love to hear your thoughts. I’m sure people have different interpretations.
- westoncb 5y ago
  I read the first few pages but it so dense with references to other works/philosophers it felt unreadable to me (and I've read a decent bit of philosophy but not a ton).
  - jawarner 5y ago
    If you can get to Chapter 2 it's a lot more approachable.
  - yesenadam 5y ago
    I just checked it out, on your recommendation :-) Uh, there's only about one philosopher/fictional character mentioned per page in the first 10 pages, and not unnecessary mentions. Very disappointed. /s It's very readable too. (Well, it would be but I don't read bleak writers these days. From everything I've heard, Camus was vastly superior as man and writer to Sartre. I read a lot of Sartre decades ago and don't recommend it.)
- xaleb 5y ago
  I didn't read the actual Myth of Sisyphus, but I've listened to some lectures about it and read some descriptions of it. I can't quite convince myself that studying it is worth it, and I'd like to hear why exactly it is worthwhile. From my perspective, absurdism seems like Greek stoicism, but created by a deeply depressed person. The stoic perspective is that we're capable of persevering through the worst possible situations in life and that our intelligences, minds are able to handle such problems, that if we just listen to ourselves we can see how to navigate the most difficult scenarios and to thrive despite them. What is also appealing to me about stoicism is that it's not only a perspective on life, it's a set of practices which can help you adopt the perspective (sort of like Zen koans are supposed to help you adopt the Zen mindset). On the other hand, what I've heard of absurdism seems to tell me that its overall outlook is very similar, but it sounds far, far more depressive, which is quite impressive if I'm comparing it with a philosophy that tries to convince you it's good to think about your child's death when you're telling them goodnight. Sorry if the take seems too hot.
meken 5y ago
> If I had the courage to protest... I would use filmmaking as a tool to fight all injustice. Love the honesty

101 points by pizza 5y ago

Context: this is Hossein Sabzian. > Internationally revered Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami has created some of the most inventive and transcendent cinema of the past thirty years, and Close-up is his most radical, brilliant work. This fiction-documentary hybrid uses a sensational real-life event—the arrest of a young man on charges that he fraudulently impersonated the well-known filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf—as the basis for a stunning, multilayered investigation into movies, identity, artistic creation, and existence, in which the real people from the case play themselves. With its universal themes and fascinating narrative knots, Close-up has resonated with viewers around the world. https://www.criterion.com/films/1092-close-up https://www.criterion.com/films/1092-close-up

telesilla 5y ago
I simply love this film and so many of Kiarostami. Close-up wins out in my top 3 because of just how brilliantly he and his found-actor make use of each other. To perfect ends. (Where is the friend's house, and Through the olive trees are my other favourites, though truly all are fantastic)
srcreigh 5y ago
This is on my list now. Sounds similar to one of my favs, Charlie Kaufman's Adaptation, a movie about himself and his alter ego struggling to write an adaptation of a book.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
dang 5y ago
https://www.bidoun.org/articles/kiarostami-s-close-up-revisited https://www.bidoun.org/articles/kiarostami-s-close-up-revisi... is interesting too.
PyWoody 5y ago
If anyone is looking for a streaming service to support, the Criterion Channel is phenomenal. They do historical, current, American, gay, black, Latino, female, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, etc. films without any pretense other than a film in its honest self. I've been introduced to so many films and ideas without pretext from the CC that I consider the fee worth it even as I return to the high seas.
- somberi 5y ago
  +1. If I am forced to choose just one "TV subscription" it will be Criterion. A close second will be Mubi. I see Mubi as the millennial's Criterion.
  - PyWoody 5y ago
    I had never heard of Mubi before but, ```The Auteurs was founded in 2007 by Efe Çakarel, who began work on the business model for MUBI after being unable to watch In the Mood for Love online while in a café in Tokyo.```[0] speaks to me on a spiritual level. I'll have to check it out. Thanks! [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mubi_(streaming_service) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mubi_(streaming_service)

vmoore 5y ago

I have mild ADD and can't read books very well. I read a book like I read Twitter, extracting little soundbites and quotes out of it to mull over later. With movies, I get the basic gist of a story and I'm happy with that. A movie is a watered down book that I don't have to wade through. Some key movies that I always loved: Limitless, The Matrix, Fight Club, all of the LOTR movies. Those movies moved me in ways a book simply couldn't. And I've tried reading Tolkien, and just couldn't pay attention. A little hack I do (since I will never read all the books in the world), is read the last line of a book I randomly picked up in the library or a book shop, and commit that line to memory. I've memorized ~100 'last sentences' of books now!

hirundo 5y ago
Audiobook publisher GraphicAudio has cheesy tagline: "A Movie In Your Mind.". Well yeah, that's where all movies play. But there is a sense in which an audiobook is more movie than book. Especially with light reading while doing something else, like driving or gardening. Maybe that loophole will work for your ADD.
tonguez 5y ago
- smegsicle 5y ago
  it's the most active thread on the page yadingus
srcreigh 5y ago
Out of curiosity, how's your visual imaginative abilities? The aphantasia test: imagine a person rolling a ball across the table. What color was the person's hair? If it didn't occur to you, you may have aphantasia. (This ability, I assume, is key in reading books. It's like an ongoing movie in your head if you can do it. I can't.)
- trentgreene 5y ago
  That’s not a good test for aphantasia, and will way over diagnose. Try googling test for aphantasia for much better examples

davesque 5y ago

Very relatable quotes from that piece. Here are some others that follow the quote from the title: It feels as if I made it myself, as if it were my creation. I identify with the director. I identify with the actors. Well told stories have incredible power in the human mind.

everybodyknows 5y ago

Title needs "2013".

js2 5y ago
1996 actually. Hossein Sabzian died in 2006 from a heart attack.
- dang 5y ago
  Ok, we'll take your word for it and put 1996 up there. Thanks!
  - caslon 5y ago
    (It also says 1996 on the page.)
    - dang 5y ago
      Ah, so it does.

bodhi_mind 5y ago

Reminds me of Camus’ Myth of Sisyphus. If you haven’t read it, basically one of his recommendations of how to live life knowing that the human condition is absurd, is to be an artist. If you’re an actor, you become the role. If you truly become the role, you’ve lived a whole new life. PS - if you’ve read it, I’d love to hear your thoughts. I’m sure people have different interpretations.

westoncb 5y ago
I read the first few pages but it so dense with references to other works/philosophers it felt unreadable to me (and I've read a decent bit of philosophy but not a ton).
- jawarner 5y ago
  If you can get to Chapter 2 it's a lot more approachable.
- yesenadam 5y ago
  I just checked it out, on your recommendation :-) Uh, there's only about one philosopher/fictional character mentioned per page in the first 10 pages, and not unnecessary mentions. Very disappointed. /s It's very readable too. (Well, it would be but I don't read bleak writers these days. From everything I've heard, Camus was vastly superior as man and writer to Sartre. I read a lot of Sartre decades ago and don't recommend it.)
xaleb 5y ago
I didn't read the actual Myth of Sisyphus, but I've listened to some lectures about it and read some descriptions of it. I can't quite convince myself that studying it is worth it, and I'd like to hear why exactly it is worthwhile. From my perspective, absurdism seems like Greek stoicism, but created by a deeply depressed person. The stoic perspective is that we're capable of persevering through the worst possible situations in life and that our intelligences, minds are able to handle such problems, that if we just listen to ourselves we can see how to navigate the most difficult scenarios and to thrive despite them. What is also appealing to me about stoicism is that it's not only a perspective on life, it's a set of practices which can help you adopt the perspective (sort of like Zen koans are supposed to help you adopt the Zen mindset). On the other hand, what I've heard of absurdism seems to tell me that its overall outlook is very similar, but it sounds far, far more depressive, which is quite impressive if I'm comparing it with a philosophy that tries to convince you it's good to think about your child's death when you're telling them goodnight. Sorry if the take seems too hot.

meken 5y ago

> If I had the courage to protest... I would use filmmaking as a tool to fight all injustice. Love the honesty