Films › Directing
Close-Up
Directed by Abbas Kiarostami, 1990
Abbas Kiarostami directs Close-Up by refusing to let the audience know where documentary ends and reenactment begins, and that ambiguity is the entire method. He cast the real people involved in a fraud case to replay their own story, then filmed the actual trial as it happened, cutting between reconstructed scenes and courtroom footage without a title card marking the difference. The famous long take of a rolling can down a gutter, timed to a directorial decision made off camera by Kiarostami himself, shows him willing to let real-time uncertainty replace staged coverage. For a director, the discipline here is patience with non-actors: he lets Sabzian speak in halting, unrehearsed cadences rather than coaching him toward eloquence, because the hesitation is more truthful than polish. The ending, shot with a malfunctioning wireless microphone that drops in and out during an emotional reunion, was kept rather than reshot. That choice alone is worth studying: Kiarostami treats a technical accident as material rather than a problem to fix, understanding that imperfection can carry more conviction than a clean take ever would.
What to watch for
Watch for the moment the audio cuts out during the final reunion and notice that the flawed sound is left in rather than corrected.
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