Jornal da Mostra
Nº 347 > 28ª Mostra > 08/08/2005
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Geoff Andrew analisa carreira de Kiarostami em novo livro
Film critic Geoff Andrew was only a young student when he first saw Cries and Whispers by Ingmar Bergman, in Cambridge, England. By the end of the film session, he had fallen for both Bergman's masterpiece and for cinema in its entirety.At the age of only 20, Andrew began to write for the renowned UK Time Out magazine, to which he still contributes. Today he is regarded as one of the most respected critics worldwide. Over the last years, he has also devoted himself to programming for the National Film Theater, the most important film center in London.
Andrew is the author of several books on cinema, with emphasis on the studies on Nicholas Ray, the trilogy of colors by Kielowski, and independent US film makers of the eighties and nineties. He is a great admirer of films by Jean Vigo, Yasujiro Ozu, Howard Hawks, Eric Rohmer, and Abbas Kiarostami. He has recently published a volume of the BFI Modern Classics on Kiarostami entitled 10, as a reference to the film Ten (2002), shown at the 26th Mostra.
In the book, Andrew researches and contextualizes Kiarostami's career within the recent rebirth of Iranian cinema and the culture of international film making. By means of detailed interviews with the film maker and with actress Mania Akbari, the author outlines a picture of the director of A Taste of Cherry (21st. Mostra) with the political relevance of his film making.
Mostra Internacional de Cinema, in partnership with Cosac Naify and Faap, also published a book on master film maker Abbas Kiarostami, conincidental with several of his activities during the time of his visit to São Paulo, concomitant with the 28th Mostra BR de Cinema International Film Festival. The compendium of 328 pages includes photographs, texts, and poems by the director, in addition to the essay " The Real, Heads or Tails ", authored by the important Franco-Iranian critic Youssef Ishagpour. The first part of the book includes 52 photographs in black and white centering on paths in the north of Iran. Also included are a further six photographs of the landscape from the series "Without a Title 1978-2003" and scores of images from his films. Three texts by the film director himself complete the publication. In Fotografia e Natureza, Kiarostami dwells on his photography as art and raises issues such as discipline and the veritable passion he has for nature. "At Work" is an autobiographical text that includes aspects of the director's masterpiece, from the time he directed advertising for Iranian TV all the way to conceiving his latest features as a director. The book also includes the chronicle " A Good, Good Citizen" on a street child, a girl Kiarostami came across one day during the 18th Mostra, ransacking the garbage containers on Avenida Paulista. The text provided the inspiration for the episode "Waiting Abbas", part of the film Welcome to São Paulo (2004) by Leon Cakoff.
Translation into English: Clare Elizabeth Charity (clarecharity@uol.com.br)
