The Greatest Films

Ingmar Bergman spent much of his life searching for silence. He distrusted distraction, guarded his privacy with extraordinary determination, and believed that genuine artistic work demanded distance from the noise of the world. The emotional landscapes explored in his films required an equally austere physical landscape in which to exist. For years, however, such a place remained elusive. He found it almost by accident.
In April 1960, Bergman traveled to the windswept Baltic island of Fårö while scouting locations for "Through a Glass Darkly". Scotland had been his preferred choice, but budget constraints led the production to a less expensive Swedish alternative. As he stepped onto Fårö's rain-soaked limestone shores, he experienced an immediate, almost mystical sense of recognition. He later recalled feeling that he had finally come home. The island's immense silence seemed to mirror the architecture of his own inner world, giving physical form to the solitude he had always sought.
Over the following decades, Fårö became far more than a filming location. It became the place where Bergman could finally live exactly as he wished. By the mid-1960s, he had built Hammars, his home overlooking the rocky coast, eventually expanding his refuge into four separate properties. Sheltered by the island's remoteness and by a local community that instinctively respected his privacy, he shaped a life defined by discipline and ritual. Every afternoon at precisely 3:00 p.m., he retreated to his fifteen-seat private cinema to watch a film, an unwavering routine that anchored his creative existence.
Residents of Fårö deliberately misdirected curious visitors who asked for directions to his house, while an automated loudspeaker at the entrance to his property instructed uninvited guests to turn around. By 2003, Bergman had severed his final ties with the mainland, selling his Stockholm apartment to spend the rest of his life entirely on Fårö. He died there in the summer of 2007, in the place that had fulfilled his lifelong search for silence.
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Homework (1989), directed by Abbas Kiarostami, is a documentary that examines Iran's educational system through interviews with young schoolboys.

"The Color of Pomegranates" (1969) is a film inspired by the poetic life of Sayat Nova, who lived in the Caucasus in the XVIII century.

Director Sergey Parajanov narrates his life more than words, through different visuals, colors, symbols and rituals. The dialogue in the movie is almost in the background; pomegranate, blood, cloth, icons and body movements replace words.

During the Soviet period, the film faced censorship, the broadcast was limited and Parajanov's free, non-traditional film language created concern for Soviet ideology. This was not only an aesthetic issue, but also closely related to Parajanov's q***r identity. Although the movie does not openly sound slogans, it speaks silently about body, desire and identity.

Interestingly, for some q***r communities in Georgia, the visual world of Parajanov, especially pomegranate, has become a symbol of hidden feelings and free expression.

Which movie best describes freedom for you?

În această zi, Abbas Kiarostami ar fi împlinit 86 de ani.
Inițial format în pictură și design grafic la Universitatea din Teheran, Kiarostami și-a petrecut anii 1960 proiectând postere și regizând reclame de televiziune. În 1969, a contribuit la înființarea departamentului de film al Kanoon, o instituție care avea să devină un incubator vital pentru cinematografia iraniană modernă.
La Kanoon, a regizat scurtmetrajul său de debut, „Pâinea și aleea” (1970), urmat de primul său lungmetraj, „Călătorul” (1974). Lucrând în limitele unui institut de film pentru copii, Kiarostami a dezvoltat stilul care avea să-i definească cariera: actori neprofesioniști, filmări în exterior, echipe minimaliste și povești a căror aparentă simplitate ascundea profunde întrebări sociale, morale și filozofice.

Kiarostami a obținut recunoaștere internațională cu „Unde este casa prietenului?” (1987), o poveste înșelător de modestă despre un băiat hotărât să returneze caietul unui coleg de clasă, în ciuda indiferenței adulților din jurul său. După ce un cutremur devastator a lovit regiunea în care fusese filmat filmul în 1990, Kiarostami s-a întors în zonă pentru a crea două filme meta-cinematice complementare: And Life Goes On (1992) și Through the Olive Trees (1994). Împreună, aceste filme formează Trilogia Koker, o realizare importantă în cariera lui Kiarostami.

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