10 on Ten - 2004
Directed by Abbas Kiarostami
Master Filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami shares ten lessons on movie-making while driving through the locations of his past films. The movie is shot on digital video with a stationary camera mounted inside the car. This of course mirrors his preferred camera method as seen in such movies as "Taste of Cherry" and "Ten."
Color, 1 hour 23 minutes, Farsi
Trailer currently not available, Watch Scene (Farsi w/English voiceover)
Star Rating
No Longer Ranked
Cast
| Abbas Kiarostami | As Himself |
Crew
| Writer | Abbas Kiarostami |
| Director | Abbas Kiarostami |
| Producer | Marin Karmitz Abbas Kiarostami |
| Director of Photography | Abbas Kiarostami |
| Sound Recordist | Abbas Kiarostami |
| Editor | Abbas Kiarostami |
| Sound Mixer | Eric Ducher |
Pictures
Kiarostami addresses the camera as he begins the first lesson.
The same hillside overlooking Tehran from "Taste of Cherry."
Kiarostami dictates to his trademark dashboard mounted camera.
Yet more scenery from "Taste of Cherry," this time a herd of sheep occupies the frame.
Kiarostami exits his car to demonstrate the capabilities of digital filmmaking.
The versatility and spontaneity of digital filmmaking - Kiarostami happens upon an ant colony.
DVD
External Reviews
By Manohla Dargis The New York Times
In "10 on Ten," the critically revered Iranian auteur Abbas Kiarostami proves that pedagogy is not among his talents. A tediously didactic, often condescendingly reductive 10-part lesson on cinema that Mr. Kiarostami shot in digital video, this minor work principally consists of the director driving around in a 4x4 as he jaws on about the putative wonders of digital video and muses about some of his own work, notably his 2002 feature "Ten." Every so often, Mr. Kiarostami punctuates one of these lessons with an abbreviated scene from "Ten," which comes as a relief because that feature is very good. Continued
By Jonathan Rosenbaum Chicago Reader
Abbas Kiarostami's recent features satisfy few of the usual expectations about narrative films. Yet in "10 on Ten" -- a documentary about his most recent feature, "10," showing twice this week at the Gene Siskel Film Center -- he appears to be slavishly living up to those expectations.
Like "10," "10 on Ten" is split into ten chapters, the last nine of which have labels that suggest topics in a master class: "The Camera," "The Subject," "The Script," "The Location," "The Music," "The Actor," "The Accessories," "The Director," and "The Last Lesson." Kiarostami implies that this film -- made for the French DVD of "10," released last summer (the U.S. version will be out November 2) -- is his attempt to explain the rationale behind his working methods. The film never becomes as far-fetched as Edgar Allan Poe's 1846 essay "The Philosophy of Composition," which purports to explain rationally how he made creative decisions in composing "The Raven." Yet there's something suspect about Kiarostami's cookbook-style lucidity -- he may be sincere, but he seems to be overestimating the role rationality plays in his decisions. Continued
By Sandrine Marques Plume Noire
Ten masterly lessons of cinema by Abbas Kiarostami, whose metaphysical work is characterized by his unique poetry and his sense of purity. In addition to the rigor of his frame, the Iranian filmmaker imposes the physical immediacy of his shots, inspired by the magnificence his landscapes and depth of field. His naturalist fictions are spread majestically in the election sets. Besides, nature is the starting point of this documentary, as the auteur lightheartedly enjoys pointing out: "During the debates which followed screenings of "Ten," certain movie goers said to me that in my films I had accustomed them to seeing landscapes and nature and that they had still come to see the landscapes and nature. Actually, each film requires its own place. Ten had to be filmed in such a confined space." Continued
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