Abbas Kiarostami
- whaleallright
- Joined: Sun Sep 25, 2005 12:56 am
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- Location: Somewhere in England
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- Alyosha
- Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 8:50 am
- Location: Northern Sweden
I watched Kiarostami's "Close Up" for the first time today and after a search on the net I found out it's been released recently on R2 in what seems as a much better version than the R1
- Steven H
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 3:30 pm
- Location: NC
The Koker Trilogy (along with The White Baloon) were released in Spain a few years back (here's some information in spanish), but it now seems to be out of print, according to dvdgo.com. There are also a few Japanese releases that are also out of print. Its ridiculous that these films aren't available on DVD.
- whaleallright
- Joined: Sun Sep 25, 2005 12:56 am
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Good news:
Les Films du paradoxe of France have released, or are just about to release, a set of Kiarostami films to DVD (with only French subtitles):
Le Passager/ The Traveller (1974) + Le Pain et la rue/ Bread and Alley (1970)
Et la vie continue/ Life and Nothing More.. (1991) + Le Choeur/ The Chorus (1982)
Où est la maison de mon ami?/ Where Is the Friend's House? (1987) + La Récréation/ Breaktime (1972)
Devoirs du soir/ Homework (1989) + Deux solutions pour un problème/ Two Solutions for One Problem (1975)
Le Costume de mariage/ A Suit for Wedding (1976) + Expérience/ The Experience (1973)
See the link to the PDF catalog
Each DVD is about 20 euros.
Les Films du paradoxe of France have released, or are just about to release, a set of Kiarostami films to DVD (with only French subtitles):
Le Passager/ The Traveller (1974) + Le Pain et la rue/ Bread and Alley (1970)
Et la vie continue/ Life and Nothing More.. (1991) + Le Choeur/ The Chorus (1982)
Où est la maison de mon ami?/ Where Is the Friend's House? (1987) + La Récréation/ Breaktime (1972)
Devoirs du soir/ Homework (1989) + Deux solutions pour un problème/ Two Solutions for One Problem (1975)
Le Costume de mariage/ A Suit for Wedding (1976) + Expérience/ The Experience (1973)
See the link to the PDF catalog
Each DVD is about 20 euros.
- ellipsis7
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 1:56 pm
- Location: Dublin
That's doubly good - I can replace my DVD-R 's of these films transferred from VHS off air copies (although with Eng subs), and also see THE WEDDING SUIT & EXPERIENCE for the first time... Fantastic news!
There are still other AK films yet to be scheduled for release anywhere, which are well worth seeing, and hopefully will make DVD eventually...
My own impressions of several standout titles...
There are still other AK films yet to be scheduled for release anywhere, which are well worth seeing, and hopefully will make DVD eventually...
My own impressions of several standout titles...
In the wake of revolutionary chaos and turmoil, TOOTHACHE (1980) is a bizarre gem focussing on the subject of dental hygiene, while the probing masterwork ORDERLY AND DISORDERLY (1981), uses self-reflexivity and repetition to interrogate order and disorder and the ability to engineer both. While SOLUTION (1978) bursts unexpectedly into an unfettered celebration of freedom and nature, out of the story of a man seeking to return with his puncture repaired tyre to his abandoned car.
Longer pieces CASE NO 1 NO 2 (1979) features disruption in a school classroom and seven students suspended for a week by the teacher, because no one will own up. Adults, including parents, educational experts, tv pundits, mullahs and government ministers, wrangle over the nature of rebellion and resolution, issues of honesty, discipline, solidarity and betrayal. The prevailing thought is to recommend that the students should stick to their guns and stay silent, and even suggests a form of re-education for the teacher. The sore memory of the Shah's secret police is raw and recent. A wily Ayatollah judge from the revolutionary religious courts opines that the pupils may have held out for a greater good for the full seven days, but when they are readmitted to the classroom, they will have changed nothing, as the system and the teacher and they themselves remain just as before. Finally FELLOW CITIZEN (1983), with a foretaste of 10, intriguingly spends an hour focussing on the heated conversations of a harassed traffic warden and the motorists who are trying to gain access to a restricted traffic zone. In a theocracy that bans exposure of the human body, irate hospital bound drivers are shown waving chest x-rays under the nose of the put upon public official!
- markhax
- Joined: Sat Oct 20, 2007 5:42 pm
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A few weeks ago I saw the exhibition "Correspondances" on Victor Erice and Kiarostami at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. The book shop was selling a "Coffret Kiarostami", put out by MK2, a 7-DVD set with ABC Africa, Through the Olive Trees, Taste of Cherry, Ten, The Wind will Carry Us. It's available at Amazon.fr for 73 Euros. I don't know whether there are English subtitles.
- ellipsis7
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 1:56 pm
- Location: Dublin
ABC AFRICA has an English soundtrack, TEN & THE WIND WILL CARRY US should have English subs if they are the same as MK2's single film releases of the films... While THROUGH THE OLIVE TREES and A TASTE OF CHERRY only have French subs on the MK2 single film releases...
Just received the first 3 AK discs released by Les Filmes du Paradoxe - LE PASSAGER/THE TRAVELLER, ET LA VIE CONTINUE/AND LIFE GOES ON & OU EST LA MAISON DE MON AMI?/WHERE IS THE FRIEND'S HOUSE? - very nicely packaged and decent superior transfers (non-anamorphic 14:9 for AND LIFE & FRIEND'S HOUSE) of what appears to be prints with some restoration work... CNC gets a credit, so maybe they were involved...
Just received the first 3 AK discs released by Les Filmes du Paradoxe - LE PASSAGER/THE TRAVELLER, ET LA VIE CONTINUE/AND LIFE GOES ON & OU EST LA MAISON DE MON AMI?/WHERE IS THE FRIEND'S HOUSE? - very nicely packaged and decent superior transfers (non-anamorphic 14:9 for AND LIFE & FRIEND'S HOUSE) of what appears to be prints with some restoration work... CNC gets a credit, so maybe they were involved...
- godardslave
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 4:44 pm
- Location: Confusing and open ended = high art.
do those releases have english subtitles or no?ellipsis7 wrote:Just received the first 3 AK discs released by Les Filmes du Paradoxe - LE PASSAGER/THE TRAVELLER, ET LA VIE CONTINUE/AND LIFE GOES ON & OU EST LA MAISON DE MON AMI?/WHERE IS THE FRIEND'S HOUSE? - very nicely packaged and decent superior transfers (non-anamorphic 14:9 for AND LIFE & FRIEND'S HOUSE) of what appears to be prints with some restoration work... CNC gets a credit, so maybe they were involved...
- foggy eyes
- Joined: Fri Sep 01, 2006 9:58 am
- Location: UK
- ellipsis7
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 1:56 pm
- Location: Dublin
I followed your advice, foggy, and can confirm that this is absolutely so... Out with my crappy Facets disc, now that I've obtained the really rather wonderful Soda version....foggy eyes wrote:I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned it yet, but the recent Soda Pictures R2 of Close-Up is about a hundred times better than the Facets release - vastly improved transfer, removable subs and Geoff Andrew interview. Essential.
- denti alligator
- Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 9:36 pm
- Location: "born in heaven, raised in hell"
I'm very tempted by these French discs, but who would have the rights or these in R1?
And can someone link to the Soda Pictures DVD of Close-Up, please.
Criterion putting these films out would be the greatest DVD even of the decade (next to a box of Yang films). What is stopping them or anyone from lavishly releasing AK's films in R1?? I sooo badly want these.
And can someone link to the Soda Pictures DVD of Close-Up, please.
Criterion putting these films out would be the greatest DVD even of the decade (next to a box of Yang films). What is stopping them or anyone from lavishly releasing AK's films in R1?? I sooo badly want these.
- denti alligator
- Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 9:36 pm
- Location: "born in heaven, raised in hell"
Will this be the same as this out of print set?
And would Artificial Eye get the UK rights to these? I'd like to have Through the Olive Trees with English subs.
And would Artificial Eye get the UK rights to these? I'd like to have Through the Olive Trees with English subs.
- ellipsis7
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 1:56 pm
- Location: Dublin
It appears to be the case, but do confirm - try checking directly with MK2... 2 more Kiarostami discs HOMEWORK/DEVOIRS DU SOIR & THE WEDDING DRESS/LE COSTUME DE MARRIAGE are due from Les Films du Paradoxe, but they inform me, not before March 2009....
AE did release THROUGH THE OLIVE TREES on VHs, but nothing stirring yet for a DVD - do they still have rights I wonder?...
AE did release THROUGH THE OLIVE TREES on VHs, but nothing stirring yet for a DVD - do they still have rights I wonder?...
- denti alligator
- Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 9:36 pm
- Location: "born in heaven, raised in hell"
These are both among his very best works, especially Homework.ellipsis7 wrote:2 more Kiarostami discs HOMEWORK/DEVOIRS DU SOIR & THE WEDDING DRESS/LE COSTUME DE MARRIAGE are due from Les Films du Paradoxe, but they inform me, not before March 2009....
When will these early Kiarostamis start appearing in region 1 land?
- chaddoli
- Joined: Thu Nov 04, 2004 11:41 pm
- Location: New York City
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- John Cope
- Joined: Thu Dec 15, 2005 5:40 pm
- Location: where the simulacrum is true
No. Someone was trying to suggest that this was the Binoche project but that's highly unlikely unless the title has been changed (among other factors). I don't think that's even been shot yet. Anyway, apparently it's not a short or a doc and is perhaps the Iran based feature he was supposed to make along with the Binoche picture. I just wonder where he'll go next with his narrative filmmaking. I'd love to see the awesome austerity of Five somehow infect his new work.
- The Fanciful Norwegian
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 2:24 pm
- Location: Teegeeack
I read around the time of Cannes (where Shirin was expected to premiere but didn't) that it's an experimental film about the audience at an all-female movie screening in Tehran -- apparently a heavily expanded and augmented version of his To Each His Cinema contribution. According to this, it's somehow connected to "a legendary Persian love story about an emperor’s wife who gave her heart to a humble lover."
- ellipsis7
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 1:56 pm
- Location: Dublin
Here's the rundown of current AK projects...
COSI FAN TUTTE on stage & CERTIFIED COPY on film...
Whereas SHIRIN, when it was slated for Cannes was billed as...
COSI FAN TUTTE on stage & CERTIFIED COPY on film...
Production of CERTIFIED COPY has since been pushed back to Summer 2009..Kiarostami takes on 'Cosi Fan Tutte'
Director to stage opera at Aix-en-Provence
By BRYAN PEARSON
Variety.com Feb 2008
BAGHDAD -- Iranian auteur Abbas Kiarostami is to try his adept hand at opera. The award-winning director plans to stage Mozart's "Cosi Fan Tutte" at July's prestigious Aix-en-Provence music festival in southern France.
"This is a new experience that moves me highly," says Kiarostami, who won the 1997 Palme d'Or at Cannes for his "Taste of Cherry."
Festival directors said the production would be staged eight times between July 4 and 19.
French baroque conductor Christophe Rousset will take charge of musical direction while London's English National Opera is co-producing.
"I have to say that the first time we discussed it I had decided not to accept, that this was not my work, that I would not be able to do it," the Iranian director told reporters.
Over time, however, he had come to realize that Mozart's 1790 opera about love had greater universal meaning.
"We all make music, we just change instruments," he adds. "Now that I've changed I've come to realize that it's not more difficult than film.
"There are many constraints in opera, but they keep you on the rails."
Kiarostami's next pic, "The Certified Copy," starring Juliette Binoche will be his first feature made outside his native country. Pic is set to start shooting in March in Tuscany.
Italian producer Angelo Barbagallo's Rome-based Bibi Film will co-produce the Iranian's first work toplining a Western star, which Gaul's MK2 is producing.
Binoche will play a French art gallery owner who falls for an older novelist, played by French thesp Sami Frey, as they travel around the Chianti countryside.
Binoche spent time in Iran with Kiarostami last month to prepare for her role, irritating local pols who are not pleased that the Iranian helmer cast Binoche, calling it "cultural destruction."
"Certified Copy" will be Kiarostami's first feature since "Ten," shot in 2002, which was about women in Tehran.
Whereas SHIRIN, when it was slated for Cannes was billed as...
Like his TA'AZIYEH (the installation filmed round a theatrical performance of the traditional Iranian play) SHIRIN presumably will concentrate on the audience's engagement with the movie much more than the movie itself...Abbas Kiarostami's experimental "Shirin," which consists of shots of women watching a movie