Kiarostami's world

Last night I left the cinema after having seen an American film. Had I not been in the jury of Mostra in Venice, I would have left sooner. While leaving, I thought my head was going to explode. In the two hours of the film I didn’t see a human shot. It was a sort of provocation of the viewer with over intensified colours and sounds. After having returned to the hotel, I turned on the television and caught sight of scenes from an old Italian film; of which the director and the title are unknown to me. A child being taken to the barber’s to have his hair cut of. With this imagery the painful feelings I got earlier from watching the American film where washed away in some sort of catharsis. It is not because I am in Italy that I am telling this but if film is a French invention, the credit for its artistic development goes to Italian directors, whereas the American directors are more interested in the profitability of the invention.

The integral version of this article can be found in the printed KINO!