Hossein Sabzian

(1) Close-Up Long Shot (Mamhoud Chokrollahi & Moslem Mansouri, 1996)

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.

But even now, just one good film and I eagerly turn back to cinema.

(2) Close-Up Long Shot (Mamhoud Chokrollahi & Moslem Mansouri, 1996)

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.

(3) Close-Up Long Shot (Mamhoud Chokrollahi & Moslem Mansouri, 1996)

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.

(4) Close-Up Long Shot (Mamhoud Chokrollahi & Moslem Mansouri, 1996)

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.

(5) Close-Up Long Shot (Mamhoud Chokrollahi & Moslem Mansouri, 1996)

Hossein Sabzian in Close-Up Long Shot (Mamhoud Chokrollahi & Moslem Mansouri, 1996).

 

Images (1), (2), (3), (4) and (5) from Close-Up Long Shot (Mamhoud Chokrollahi & Moslem Mansouri, 1996)

COMPILATION
31.01.2013
NL FR EN
In Passage, Sabzian invites film critics, authors, filmmakers and spectators to send a text or fragment on cinema that left a lasting impression.
Pour Passage, Sabzian demande à des critiques de cinéma, auteurs, cinéastes et spectateurs un texte ou un fragment qui les a marqués.
In Passage vraagt Sabzian filmcritici, auteurs, filmmakers en toeschouwers naar een tekst of een fragment dat ooit een blijvende indruk op hen achterliet.
The Prisma section is a series of short reflections on cinema. A Prisma always has the same length – exactly 2000 characters – and is accompanied by one image. It is a short-distance exercise, a miniature text in which one detail or element is refracted into the spectrum of a larger idea or observation.
La rubrique Prisma est une série de courtes réflexions sur le cinéma. Tous les Prisma ont la même longueur – exactement 2000 caractères – et sont accompagnés d'une seule image. Exercices à courte distance, les Prisma consistent en un texte miniature dans lequel un détail ou élément se détache du spectre d'une penséée ou observation plus large.
De Prisma-rubriek is een reeks korte reflecties over cinema. Een Prisma heeft altijd dezelfde lengte – precies 2000 tekens – en wordt begeleid door één beeld. Een Prisma is een oefening op de korte afstand, een miniatuurtekst waarin één detail of element in het spectrum van een grotere gedachte of observatie breekt.
Jacques Tati once said, “I want the film to start the moment you leave the cinema.” A film fixes itself in your movements and your way of looking at things. After a Chaplin film, you catch yourself doing clumsy jumps, after a Rohmer it’s always summer, and the ghost of Akerman undeniably haunts the kitchen. In this feature, a Sabzian editor takes a film outside and discovers cross-connections between cinema and life.
Jacques Tati once said, “I want the film to start the moment you leave the cinema.” A film fixes itself in your movements and your way of looking at things. After a Chaplin film, you catch yourself doing clumsy jumps, after a Rohmer it’s always summer, and the ghost of Akerman undeniably haunts the kitchen. In this feature, a Sabzian editor takes a film outside and discovers cross-connections between cinema and life.
Jacques Tati zei ooit: “Ik wil dat de film begint op het moment dat je de cinemazaal verlaat.” Een film zet zich vast in je bewegingen en je manier van kijken. Na een film van Chaplin betrap je jezelf op klungelige sprongen, na een Rohmer is het altijd zomer en de geest van Chantal Akerman waart onomstotelijk rond in de keuken. In deze rubriek neemt een Sabzian-redactielid een film mee naar buiten en ontwaart kruisverbindingen tussen cinema en leven.