Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami, who died in 2016 at age 76, often employed tricky or complicated methods to arrive at results that appeared simple. For most of the conversations in Taste of Cherry (1997), he interviewed the participants separately, then edited their responses together to create the illusion of free-flowing dialogue. For his experimental feature Five Dedicated to Ozu (2003), he digitally composited multiple shots to create the illusion of individual, unbroken takes. 24 Frames (2017), his final (and posthumously completed) work, comprises a series of four-and-a-half-minute sequences in which paintings and photographs appear to come to life; the director achieved this effect by digitally inserting moving figures into still images. As in Five, it often seems as though nothing is happening—humans rarely enter into the images, which center on animals, weather, and natural landscapes. You wonder if Kiarostami simply set up his camera in various locations and hit “record.”
The personal nature of 24 Frames is most apparent in the 15th sequence. A photograph shows six people from behind, standing on a balcony in Paris and looking out at the Eiffel Tower. The three women wear head scarves, and all six people seem to be from somewhere other than France. When moving figures enter into the frame, they don’t interact with—or even seem to notice—the group of six, who remain eerily motionless. The sequence provides a poignant metaphor for the immigrant experience, especially when you remember that Kiarostami spent most of his later years in France and died in Paris.
Directed by Abbas Kiarostami. 114 min.
