Abbas Kiarostami : “My film has no beginning and no ending.”

Abbas Kiarostami held a press conference for Like Someone In Love, presented in Competition. He answered journalists’ questions in the company of actors Rin Takanashi, Tadashi Okuno and Ryo Kase.
 

Abbas Kiarostami on contemporary Japanese cinema
The one thing I didn’t get from these films was soul and emotion. All I saw was a pale imitation of Hollywood. Maybe I didn’t see the right Japanese films but I didn’t really like what I saw.

The funding difficulties of the film in the words of producer Kenzô Horikoshi
I found two solutions: one was the Ministry of Culture and the other was because I am a collector and sold a work by Yves Klein to pay for the film.

Tadashi Okuno on preparing for his role
We didn’t get a script. That was a first for me. Abbas Kiarostami told us that we were not to act, but just to be natural. Maybe that’s why it was easier for him to choose an actor like me who doesn’t know how to do a great deal.

Abbas Kiarostami‘s choice of film
At the moment of the impact against the window, what I saw was “THE END”. I said to myself “That can’t be the end”. I also realised that I had no beginning. My film has no beginning and no ending. That’s just what life is like. We turn up after the beginning: things always get underway beforehand.

Reported by TK