Good cinema is what we can believe and bad cinema is what we can't believe. What you see and believe in is very much what I'm interested in.
Interpretation
Good cinema resonates with our beliefs, while bad cinema fails to engage our trust.
In this quote, Abbas Kiarostami emphasizes the importance of authenticity and resonance in filmmaking. He suggests that for cinema to be considered good, it must portray narratives and emotions that viewers can relate to and believe in, while films that lack this quality become unconvincing and disengaging. His interest lies in exploring how cinema can reflect and shape beliefs and perceptions, thus highlighting the profound connection between storytelling and audience experience.
In practice
Using this quote in a film studies class to discuss the elements of storytelling.
Digital photography is, by definition, unfinished. You don't feel that after every 24 or 36 shots you have to change your film - you know you can go on for ever if you want. You can see the result immediately, and find out if your original idea is worth going on with or not, whether it can be corrected, whether it can be improved.
When I talk to some of the younger filmmakers, they are so worried about their films that, eventually, this state of being worried reflects itself in and helps the final work. Whereas, with projects that are meticulously planned, you look at the end result and it is full of emptiness.
From my very first movie, what was my concentration, my inspiration, was I didn't want to narrate something, I didn't want to tell a story. I wanted to show something, I wanted for them to make their own story from what they were seeing.
Good cinema is what we can believe, and bad cinema is what we can't believe.
As film-makers, it is very important for us to find common ground between cultures, and maybe that's less the case for politicians who benefit more from finding the conflicts and differences between us.
Cinema gives you the opportunity to be both a grandparent and a grandchild whereas in life you cannot be both at the same time.
It’s such a fun job, and it can be silly and light and about making people laugh. I think I was doing it a disservice by thinking it’s not something ultimately important. I always was saying, ‘I’m not saving lives; I’m not a brain surgeon.’ And that’s true—I’m not saving anyone from any life-threatening illnesses. But I get to tell stories, and that’s a pretty important task.
It's so fine and yet so terrible to stand in front of a blank canvas.
I think the mystery of art lies in this, that artists’ relationship is essentially with their work — not with power, not with profit, not with themselves, not even with their audience.
It's kind of a subversive act to tell a story of a woman past a certain age, to develop a four-hour movie based on a marriage and a story of two people past middle age.
I think my work has to do with a sense that we are attempting, all the time, to create a logical, rational path through the day. To the left and right there are an amazing set of distractions that we usually can't afford to follow. But the poet is willing to stop anywhere.
One of the most important pieces of equipment, for the photographer who really wants to improve, is a great big wastepaper basket.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.