Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by tinear (A) on November 19, 2005 at 03:57:25

Abbas Kiarostami (A Taste of Cherry, 10).
A middle-aged filmaker visits a very isolated, undeveloped farming village in the Iranian "outback."
This film is full of dramatic tension but, in a curious example of film jiu-jitsu, the director manages to create it in the viewer seemingly without the characters' involvement. What I'm trying to say is this is a non-film in that not much happens on screen which easily could be seen as causing the profound feelings created in the viewer.
Please pardon my vagueness but this is a film so subtle in its design and realization that I must be careful lest I break its "wings."
Kiarostomi is one of the few directors who make me feel like I know him as one does a very good friend. I sit on the couch, click "play," and settle back with absolute trust in his vision.
Listen carefully to the words of the young boy or the doctor: does anyone else dare entrust a film to figures such as these?
After a Kiarostami film (as with the stories of Borges) one returns with difficulty to other artists's works: they seem bloated. Acting, "action" storytelling, sets... the usual "props" to transport the viewer all are eschewed by his pared down yet exceedingly complex art.