10 on Ten (2004)

It seems to me that Kiarostami has always the impulse to follow up his movies. Once the work is done he feels some irrepressible need to come back to the place, to look at the people there, to meditate on the verisimilitude of what he has done; to compare the reality with his image; and to understand how people there feel about the way they came into picture.Actually his movies are meditations about the extent to which cinematic art expresses reality, also meditations about how reality reacts to its cinematic representation: movies meditating on themselves.It is natural for Kiarostami to follow up this process through a new cinematic story about the movie and the reality it tried to represent. And the process goes on: 'Where is the Friend's Home' was followed by 'And Life Goes On', which in turn was followed by 'Through the Olive Trees'. As his movies always blur fiction and documentary, I would say that to a certain extent a new work of Kiarostami is also a documentary about a previous one. Sometimes the documentary is obvious, some other times it is much more discreet, but always a new movie of Kiarostami echoes a previous one.And so, after 'Ten' came (not immediately) '10 on Ten', which is the Mother of all Kiarostami's Documentaries: the master takes his whole world of cinema, decomposes this world in its primary components and puts each component before us. Imagine the Master of the Space teaching us about Length, about Width, about Height, and about Time!

This is simply a very detailed set of lessons and ideas from kiarostami on the unique formula he has struck for making films. kiarostami lovers will find it definitely fulfils their thirst for thoughts on his genius. if you're not a huge fan, this, like his movies, will seem slow and too detailed for some. you will learn about: why he loves cars as settings so much. how he thinks digital video cameras are the most important new thing ever. plus thoughts on music, actors, [lack of] screenplay, etc. etc. etc. Fun -- he gives the lesson from a car's drivers seat as he drives around. Just like his movies! clever.

This isn't so much a documentary as it is an 80 minute class with Iranian auteur Abbas Kiarstomi. Using his movie "Ten" as an example, he breaks down his theory of filmaking in 10 chapters, ranging from his preference of camera, to his take on character and directing.Don't expect a doc with include scenery and talking heads. There is only one talking head, Kiarstomi's, as it drives cross countryside alone. But that's the beauty of this. It was just him and a camera and some free time.He's talking directly at us. Giving us a very personal talk that would otherwise take place in his head.Kiarstomi is an ego-centric who says something profound and knows it. Sometimes he says something hilarious and doesn't. But he is honest and proud, with a confidence worthy of envy. At the end of the film he promises us some scenery. He gets out of the car, living the window open to a blurry tree. And then you hear him, peeing, somewhere off camera.

In this movie, Abbas Kiarostami gives the spectator an outstanding personal view of what is Cinema, how it can be simple and what it isn't or shouldn't be. This is a lesson for those who study cinema and for those who see cinema. An must see if One wants to understand more about movies, and more about the Abbas Kiarostami career. The movie is divided in a series of small episodes, small lessons if you prefer, that cover all the aspects of movie making, from the actors, to the accessories, going through sound and image, and ending with the role of the director and a vision of what is the actual state of cinema. Abbas Kiarostami, reflects, as he drives is four wheel drive, in the scenery of one of is movies, on the condition of cinema, and tryst to give young students material for a profound reflection on each one's work.