Los Angeles to Have A Taste of Kiarostami This Weekend Thanks to The American Cinematheque
Entertainment and Culture Blog, Kodoom.com Editorial
Starting today and for four days only, the American Cinematheque at the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica will host "A Taste of Kiarostami" paying tribute to the directorial works of the revered Abbas Kiarostami. Ahmad Kiarostami will open the event with an introduction on his late father's beloved work "Like Someone in Love."
The American Cinematheque is renowned for showing the best Hollywood movies on the big screen. Master showman Sid Grauman built the Egyptian Theatre in 1922, owing its connection to the discovery of the tomb of King Tut in 1922. It was the home of the first Hollywood Movie Premiere. In 1998 the American Cinematheque completed a restoration/rehabilitation of the theater and carries on Sid's tradition of showing movies on the big screen as they were meant to be seen, at both the Egyptian in Hollywood and the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica. A Taste of Kiarostami will be hosted in Aero Theatre in Santa Monica which celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2015.
Abbas Kiarostami (1940-2016) was among the most revered filmmakers of the Iranian New Wave who took a circuitous route into cinema! He studied graphic design at the University of Tehran College of Fine Arts, which led him to creating posters, TV advertising and art for children’s books.
This weekend retrospective of the writer-director's work includes rare shorts and such acclaimed dramas as CLOSE-UP, Palme d'Or winner TASTE OF CHERRY (TA'M E GUILASS) and his “Kocher trilogy” of films set in that northern Iranian village. You can find a link to the entire schedule of events this weekend HERE.
Kiarostami’s oeuvre is also frequently self-referential, and his “Koker trilogy” demonstrates his ability to find new meanings as he revisits themes and situations. All set in the northern Iranian village of Koker, WHERE IS THE FRIEND’S HOUSE? (KHANE-YE DOUST KODJAST?) traces a boy’s attempt to return a classmate’s notebook, AND LIFE GOES ON checks in on the first film’s cast after a devastating earthquake and THROUGH THE OLIVE TREES (ZIRE DARAKHATAN ZEYTON) expands upon a relationship glimpsed in the second film.
The 1990s brought Kiarostami to international attention. CLOSE-UP (NEMA-YE NAZDIK), which re-creates a real-life case in which a film fan impersonates an Iranian director and is tried for fraud, was released throughout Europe and earned acclaim among both critics and fellow filmmakers (the latest Sight & Sound poll ranks it among the 50 greatest films of all time). His profile of a man bent on suicide, TASTE OF CHERRY, won the Palme d'Or at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival. THE WIND WILL CARRY US (BAD MA RA KHAHAD BORD) received the Grand Special Jury Prize at the 1999 Venice Film Festival.
Though his Iranian roots and love of Persian culture remained strong, Kiarostami never felt confined by them. Both CERTIFIED COPY and LIKE SOMEONE IN LOVE were international productions, shot in Italy and Japan, respectively. He embraced digital cinema, which made the dashboard-cam sequences of TEN possible. Kiarostami’s final feature, 24 FRAMES, applies digital animation techniques to bring 24 still photos to life. It offers another taste of the enigmatic blend of poetry and reality seen in so much of this master filmmaker’s work.
More About The American Cinematheque
The American Cinematheque has recently announced that the 33rd American Cinematheque Award will be presented to Academy Award-winner Charlize Theron at the Cinematheque’s annual benefit gala. The presentation will take place Friday, November 8, 2019 at The Beverly Hilton (9876 Wilshire Blvd.)
For more information on American Cinematheque's Egyptian Theatre including a tour of master showman Sid Grauman’s legendary 1922 Egyptian Theatre, click HERE for an “Old Hollywood” experience.
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