In the documentary 10 on Ten (2004)—a lesson, a manifesto and a master-class—Abbas Kiarostami spends ninety minutes driving in the mountains outside Tehran where he had filmed his Taste of Cherry (1997), speaks about the making of Ten (2002)—his first feature shot entirely on digital cameras—and explains his approach to filmmaking. This little-known documentary, which is very important for understanding Kiarostami, premiered in the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival in 2004.
Some of the greatest artistic ideas, as the film shows us, result from chance. Kiarostami’s transition from film to digital video in Taste of Cherry, which proved decisive for his career, happened because the footage for the closing scene was damaged, and in the final edit, Kiarostami replaced it with digital studies. Similarly, he used spontaneously recorded video diaries in the making of ABC Africa (2001)—a documentary about the AIDS epidemic in Uganda. New material, he explains, would not have had the same natural feel. Finally, in Ten, the digital camera was chosen to avoid scaring the non-professional actors with professional equipment and a film crew.
In the film that could have been titled 10 Lessons on Ten, Kiarostami claims that the invention of the digital camera will affect all aspects of filmmaking and creates around it his own film theory that builds on the ideas of André Bazin—one of the key film theorists of the twentieth century. The digital camera will liberate cinema from the pressures associated with production, finance, and censorship and allow filmmakers to produce movies free from excessive manipulation and most similar to unprocessed reality. The creation of a cinematic reality, Kiarostami believes, does not necessarily require real actors and can (or, in fact, should) be made with non-professionals. And “non-professional actors,” he adds, “require a non-professional director.”
To illustrate his point, Kiarostami brings up the two French terms that he believes are no longer appropriate and need to be reviewed: réalisateur and metteur en scène. He says that he never writes scripts but rather treatments of no more than three pages. He no longer uses clapperboard or says “camera, lights, action” to allow for uninterrupted immersion; and hardly ever alters actors’ appearances. Only a few years later, in his paradoxical manner, Kiarostami will reject the principles proclaimed in this documentary and film a clever postmodernist romantic comedy, Certified Copy (2010).
The film will be screened in English and Persian with Russian subtitles.
10 on Ten
Director: Abbas Kiarostami
Iran, 2004. 88 min. 16+
