Close-Up Long Shot (1996) - full transcript

PLAY FILM PRESENTS

I've known Mr. Sabzian

for nearly ten years.

We exchange hellos.

He used to pass by here

on his way home.

He always carried movie magazines

and scripts and such .

I 'd ask him why, and he'd say,

"I love cinema."

Then he disappeared for three months.

"Where have you been?"

""I was acting in a film."

"What film?"

"Close-up."

"When will it be showing?"

"Soon ."

A while later we found out

it was showing .

We went to see it

and even rented the videotape.

My view is that

he adored the movies,

so he seized the first opportunity

to be a part of cinema.

I think his great interest

in film explains it.

The film was very instructive.

It showed that, if given a chance,

people can achieve a lot.

I think it was very instructive.

Written and Directed by

MOSLEM MANSOURl

and MAHMOUD CHOKROLLAHI

He'd had a keen interest in movies

since he was five or six.

He'd go to the movies a lot

and eventually thought

of making one himself,

but he had no means,

no money,

so he couldn't go any further.

Then he met this family

who provided

the chance to make a film.

He pretended to be

a famous Iranian film director,

in order to reach his goals,

to express himself.

But unfortunately,

since that wasn't legal ,

he got in trouble for a while.

After that...

another film director met Sabzian

for this film Close-up,

which to some extent reflects

the realities of Sabzian's life,

a person fascinated

since childhood by filmmaking.

Another important point is that

if you look closely,

I don't think any director

has ever attempted

to change the way a person is.

But Sabzian was a new man

by the end of this film.

He came out of his shell

and expressed what was inside him.

Do you know what

Close-up means ?

Not really.

From what I've heard,

it means ""dirty."

Or some kind of filthy water,

as far as I know.

Stagnant water.

That's what Close-up means.

CLOSE-UP

LONG SHOT

Sabzian has been our neighbor

for almost 15 years.

When we moved here,

he was living with his mother.

He had a wife and two kids.

I 'd bought this piece of land

and started building on it.

I asked him

what kind of work he did.

Repairing and binding books,

he said,

and also some activities

in the movie business.

He was always milling about.

I 'd ask why he wasn't working,

and he'd say he was.

Finally his life fell apart.

His wife divorced him

and went back to her folks,

taking one of the kids

and leaving the other with him.

Sabzian stayed

with his mother for a while,

but they couldn't afford

to raise the child.

After a while Sabzian left,

and the child went back

to live with the mother.

She has both of them now.

Hossein isn't around anymore.

He comes and goes.

So that's how it is.

His life fell apart.

The truth is

he can't support his family.

A man should work

and support his family.

If he can't provide

his wife with money,

she'll divorce him

and leave that life.

He's a nice guy,

but not really very normal .

He's a dreamer.

He lives in his fantasies.

He's told so many lies

that people don't listen anymore.

They don't really trust him.

Would you say that

in his presence ?

Yes.

Would you call Mr. Sabzian ?

Mr. Sabzian is a good guy,

but he's not quite normal .

He's a dreamer.

He's dreamed so much

that people often

don't believe him anymore.

If I continue to dream,

it's because my dreams

haven't yet materialized...

because I don't fit

into social norms.

I haven't stepped

out of my fantasies.

I confirm more or less

what he said.

THE CYCLIST

Excuse me,

where did you get that book?

where did you buy that book?

In a bookstore.

- Could you give me the address ?

- You can have it.

You're very kind, but I'd -

Please take it. I wrote it.

You wrote it?

Really?

- Yes.

- You're Mr. Makhmalbaf?

- Yes.

Pleased to meet you.

That's very kind of you.

lf you'd like, I'll autograph it.

- Thank you.

- You're welcome.

I let my love for cinema

destroy my life...

but I'm still always eager

to see a good film.

It's not important who made it.

Just seeing it

is the important thing.

The cinema lost me my job.

It robbed me of my life...

my social identity.

THE HOLY KORAN

MAKING FILMS IN SUPER 8

But even now, just one good film

and I eagerly turn back to cinema.

If I had the money,

I might, for example,

like Peter Falk,

buy kites so I wouldn't grow up.

The cinema -

Whenever I see a film,

I ""dissolve" myself in it...

to such an extent

that I reach the bottom.

I fade out and perhaps...

I get lost in it.

And this has played

an essential role in my life.

Cinema is important to me.

It's like a prism.

A good film...

is part of my life.

With every good film I see,

I feel reborn .

It feels as if I made it myself,

as if it were my creation .

I identify with the director.

I identify with the actors.

I feel attuned

and in harmony

with the atmosphere of the film.

I feel as if it's my story.

That's how films carry me away.

That's why they've become

my obsession .

If I didn't have to live in society,

I 'd seek shelter in the mountains

and live all by myself.

If I didn't have to go on living,

and were courageous enough ,

I 'd have liked to be hanged

from the beams of cinema.

If I had the courage to protest...

I would use filmmaking

as a tool to fight all injustice.

I saw Close-up several times.

They showed it on TV too.

But that was a kind of fraud.

You can't say he was acting.

It was like some kind of con .

It was of course

quite instructive for young people,

but it wasn't the film

Sabzian had wanted to make

when he impersonated

someone else.

What we saw on TV

seemed like some kind of con .

Personally, I don't think he meant

to cheat those people.

He's a poor, helpless man .

I've seen him around here

for several years.

He's miserable.

The reasons are cultural

and also personal weakness.

There are plenty of others

like him in this country.

There are so many crooks in this world,

and nobody gives a damn .

But when I take 1,900 tomans,

the whole world finds out,

even the late Mitterrand.

When I got on that bus,

I just wanted to publicize the film

by showing the screenplay.

When that lady sat next to me,

I thought I 'd create a little publicity.

I showed her the script,

and she got interested .

She wanted to know more about it,

as the film shows.

Then she suddenly asked

who'd written it, and I said I had,

and she asked

if I was Makhmalbaf.

At that point I could feel

that the clothes I was

about to put on were too tight.

Too tight for me.

But the pleasure that that role

gave me made me continue.

The clothes burst apart

at the very moment I was arrested.

The buttons popped off,

and I emerged.

I wore it in every scene

when I was playing

the part of Makhmalbaf.

But after that,

when I was exposed,

I was uncovered.

And when that happened,

I didn't like myself.

There were no more clothes,

none that fit me.

And then ...

when it was all over,

and I reentered society,

I felt people's eyes on me.

Narrow-minded people

who talked about everything

but my enthusiasm

for the movies.

What I did wasn't minor -

tell the whole world about it -

but that irrational act

proved my love for film.

I'm satisfied...

because I made

one of my dreams come true.

I was Makhmalbaf for four days.

I remember Orson Welles's

advice to his students

who wondered how to find

the money for their films.

"Steal it", he said.

"At least you'll fulfill your hopes."

Who's to blame?

I may be one of cinema's victims.

I intended to devour cinema,

and it ended up devouring me.

It didn't appreciate me.

I still advise all cinema lovers...

that if they can't achieve their dreams,

the way I see it,

do as Orson Welles said:

""Steal the money."

Just steal it.

- Mr. Sabzian ?

- Yes.

- Detained for?

- Attempted fraud.

Attempted fraud.

You have a visitor.

Hello.

- How are you?

- Fine, thanks.

- You know who I am?

- Sure.

I read an article about you

and decided to come see you.

I see.

In what newspaper?

- It was a magazine.

I read that

you're interested in film,

so since I'm a filmmaker,

I wanted to talk to you.

- And you are. . . ?

- Kiarostami.

Ah, right.

I'm surprised.

I've seen your films.

- You have ?

ls there anything

I can do for you?

You could make a film

about my suffering.

We worked in the same shop

15 or 18 years ago.

Hossein was crazy about movies.

He spent all his time on them.

His heart wasn't in his work.

Night and day,

from dawn to dusk,

his goal was to go

to the studios

and get actors' autographs.

He had no interest in the work.

I did and , thank God ,

the business is doing well .

As for Hossein ,

his situation needs no comment.

He sacrificed everything

for the movies:

his wife, his children ,

his whole life.

His heart isn't in his work.

He works here sometimes.

Since we worked together before...

I just want to help him out a little.

He works occasionally.

Whenever you ask,

he says he was at the movies.

At work he talks

about movies the whole time,

and he distracts the others.

He wastes his time,

and their time too.

I can't fire him.

I 'd feel bad .

After all , we were coworkers.

He's older than me.

His life is just what you see.

He owns only the clothes

on his back.

I don't think he has a steady job.

How about his love

for the movies ?

I wouldn't call it love.

It's insanity.

Someone who sacrifices

his family, his life,

everything for the movies -

that's not love, that's insanity.

This bookbindery I work in

belongs to Mr. Nemat.

He used to work for me.

He was under me.

Well , he worked hard,

and now he owns the business.

But I stuck to the movies.

I continued to pursue my interest,

and now I work for him.

The only thing

the movies did for me

was to portray me

as a con artist.

If that's the case,

everyone's a con artist.

That family wanted

to use Mohsen Makhmalbaf

to gain prestige.

That's a kind of con .

Maybe I toyed with their feelings,

but their actions

speak for themselves.

Or that reporter

who wanted to break the story

so he could become

another Oriana Fallaci ,

using me as his bridge,

his stepladder to success -

that's another kind of con .

Even Kiarostami himself, who heard

of my case through that reporter...

found an interesting subject,

and won international acclaim for it.

When you think of it, he conned me.

He's a con artist too.

I think that...

Close-up depicts the natural cou rse

of events I set in motion .

For example,

I promised that family

that they would appear in a film.

Well , they did.

What I said happened.

And when I saw

Kiarostami at work,

I noticed that the direction

I 'd been giving

was no different from his.

The family listened to him

the way they'd listened to me.

There was no difference between

how he directed and how I did.

I felt numb sitting there.

None of it was of interest to me.

They were all in collusion .

Please cut.

Could you give us

your comments about Close-up?

I think Close-up is

the true version of Les miserables,

and my brother

is like Jean Valjean ,

who, for a stale piece of bread,

will have to bear this shame forever.

But I think

there are lots of Jean Valjeans

around if you look.

But only a few are honest,

and my brother is one of them.

Not only is Close-up

not a real close-up view,

but its only artistic feature

is to depict

the misery, shortcomings,

and unkindness of people.

That's the only ""close-up"

to this film.

Close-up is like

both sides of a coin .

It was positive and negative

at the same time.

It was good that it was made,

because I had something to say,

as I mentioned in the film -

that film can be

a medium to express

the ills and challenges

that face a society.

But on the other hand,

when I was back

in the ""city of the pygmies" -

to use your expression -

those who can't see

beyond their nose,

I felt like an outsider.

I had to descend to their level .

That was very hard for me.

It has nothing to do

with geographic location .

Whether they live here in Yabr,

or in wealthy neighborhoods,

it makes no difference.

There are plenty of ""pygmies"

there too.

I've seen lots of them.

But there are those among them

who got the message of the film.

Insofar as Close-up

found its audience,

and they liked it,

that wasn't bad for me,

since they didn't react negatively to me.

But some people

were irritated by the film,

and that was hard for me.

You know,

80% of people are like that,

and we live among them.

How can I ...

convince them

of how things really are?

Do you agree

that 80% of people are common

and that only 20%...

think differently,

or look at things

from a different angle?

We have to live

among these people, like it or not.

They don't see the details.

They only see

the surface of the film.

If they took a deeper look,

we wouldn't have run

into some of these problems.

If Close-up hadn't been made,

I 'd have had to keep going on my own ,

like Nassim in The Cyclist.

He kept on pedaling ,

though the contest was over.

The contest was over,

but he just had to go on .

I 'd have had to do the same,

at least for my own sake.

Because of what happened,

I had no other way to go.

I 'd have come to a standstill ,

so I 'd have gone on on my own .

Or perhaps I 'd have immersed myself

in a kind of nostalgia, my loneliness.

I think that

when it comes to real love,

there's always helplessness,

failure, and disappointment.

Everything Hossein's

been through

shows his love for the movies.

His lack of direction ,

his not fighting for his rights,

are a sign of his love.

That's the best proof

of his love for cinema.

I think people who are like me,

who think like me,

are melting away like snow.

They have no place

to express themselves.

There are horizontal corpses

and vertical corpses.

Perhaps we're the second kind.

I imagined Makhmalbaf

to be like Nassim in The Cyclist.

When I met him...

he treated me all right,

but I had the impression

that I'd like him better

if I kepi my distance.

How old are you?

I'm 42.

I was born in 1954.

Tell us a little

about your childhood.

who was Sabzian

before Close-up?

The foundation

for our personality is usually laid

during childhood.

According to Thomas Harris,

our character is shaped

during the first five years

of our lives

and reveals itself later.

The connection between

my childhood and the movies

is that one day

my father took me by the hand...

and we went

to the Lalehzar Theater

to see The Bride of the Sea,

starring Vigen .

There my father put my hand

in cinema's hand.

My father let go of my hand,

but cinema never did.

I held its hand tight,

and said hello to cinema

for the first time.

I remember...

that as a schoolboy,

I skipped school for three months.

Every day...

I 'd take my books

and go to the movies.

Sometimes

they wouldn't let me in .

Before going home

in the evening ,

I 'd write essays

and grade them with As.

I 'd mark them up

like the teacher would have done,

to avoid suspicion .

This went on for months.

We were living

in lsfahan at the time.

I skipped school for three months,

until they caught on .

My mother took me to school ,

and I was whipped

because of my movie-going.

That's what

they used to do at the time.

Back home

I promised not to do it again ,

and they said

I should think of my future.

Then one day my mother

gave me money to buy gasoline.

I hid the gas can in the bath room

and used the money to go see

Hell at My Feet.

I watched the film

during the fi rst show...

but during the second screening

I ""flashed forward"

and saw my father giving me

a terrible beating.

The fear of that beating

nailed me to my seat.

Du ring the next screening,

I was consumed with fear

and couldn't absorb

anything from the film.

I was overcome with fear.

I stayed like that for a while,

until the last show.

This was

at the I ran Cinema in lsfahan .

When the last

of the audience left,

I pretended to have to use

the restroom and hid in there.

Then I went back in the theater

and fell asleep

on one of the seats,

in some kind of purgatory.

A janitor found me

early the next morning

and asked

what I was doing there

and why I wasn't at home.

I told him about my interest in film.

I stayed away from home

for three months.

I was afraid to go back.

I stayed at a friend's house

until my family found me

and took me back home.

My father gave me another lecture

and a terrible beating.

He said to come work with him,

that he would take me to the movies

himself on weekends.

For instance, I remember...

it was cinema

that made my father

take me for an outing

one weekend.

I had no idea where we were going.

We went

to one of his friends' house.

After a while...

the host -

There were

about ten people there,

including the host's son ,

seated next to his father.

The host started telling us

how great his son was.

I didn't know

what it was all about.

Then my father

asked him for advice.

""What should we do?"

I still didn't know

what was going on .

Our host took us all

down to the basement.

We were in lsfahan at the time.

That's where

I saw most of the films.

In the middle of the basement...

I saw a stool ...

turned upside down .

They all stood around.

Mr. Shirazi stepped forward

and pushed me.

I fell back into the stool ...

with my legs sticking up.

His son was laughing.

Everyone was laughing.

Mr. Shirazi said they had

to teach me a lesson .

They had these switches,

and they all took turns

whipping me with them.

That was a bit of a blow

to my self-confidence.

After that...

I was afraid of people around me.

But I'm not anymore.

Unconsciously maybe,

but not in the same way.

All I can do

is curse the movies.

They robbed me of my childhood.

But I've come to think

that today's cinema,

which I consider

an advanced cinema,

is simply color and form.

That's enough .

Exactly half my life

was spent in the dark.

My life itself was in the dark.

I've never seen my life in focus.

It's all been a blurred image.

Financially speaking ,

I spent money to buy tickets.

In terms of years,

I spent my time.

And psychologically speaking,

I sold my soul to cinema.

So that's how

I spent the best hours

of my childhood...

in the dark.

It's the child in me

who gives the orders.

The adult may be ti red,

but he obeys.

Because of my early days...

the child always surfaces.

One interpretation is that

the adult is scared of him.

When the adult shows himself...

it's a defense mechanism...

to protect me from my father...

and from the conflicts I've repressed.

It's a means of self-protection .

You'd need a long time...

to dissect me.

I may be a small man ,

but I'm deep.

The more you dig,

the deeper it goes.

Nobody's reached bottom yet.

My anguish prevents me...

from revealing myself.

Childhood fears.

I may sound self-satisfied,

but I believe Jean-Paul Sartre

when he says,

""if a cripple doesn't win the race,

he has only himself to blame."

In Close-up, I was scared in that house,

but the child was with me.

The adult in me

was on the alert...

but the playful child kept going.

I may be too arrogant.

I don't know.

But I don't care.

What you call multiple personalities...

isn't multiple to me.

It's just a life without harmony.

Sometimes the forces reconcile.

Sometimes

they encourage each other,

and sometimes

they antagonize each other,

and this humiliates the child in me,

so I feel like a victim.

But sometimes

the child jumps for joy.

I don't know what you're up to.

What are your intentions?

Which Sabzian

are you trying to reach?

The one always seen

from a high-angle shot?

Or the one constantly

in a tilt shot?

Or the one in a pan shot?

In any case,

I like all that movement.

It doesn't bother me

as long as I'm in the picture.

Sohrab Sepehri says, ""I knew a donkey

who understood the hay."

I may not understand the hay,

but I'm happy to be a donkey.

I even relish it.

I'm all for it,

watching from the outside.

I've reached a state

of mental constipation .

I sound like I'm on a soapbox.

Let's cut.

Cinematography by

FARZlN KHOSROWSHAHI

Edited by

NASROLLAH SH E I BAN I

Sound by

BAHMAN H E I DARl

Music by

SHAH ROKH KHADJ ENOU Rl

Sound Assistant

DJAVAD MOG HADASSl

Production Manager

SHAH RAM ZAH EDl

Featu ring HOSSE I N SABZIAN ,

FATEMEH SABZIAN , N EMAT EBADl ,

AN D RESl DENTS

OF TH E Vl LLAG E OF YA