Close-Up
Films that shaped it
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Yes, Blow Up. I've watched it several times. I like how it questions the nature of perception and reality.
Films it shaped
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I’m influenced by many directors, Kiarostami for sure. 'Close-Up' is just mind-blowing in how it mixes things up. That freedom he has, that playfulness with reality, it definitely inspired me to be more adventurous in my own films, like with the shifts in tone and genre you see in 'Parasite' and even 'Memories of Murder'.
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Barry Jenkins has cited Claire Denis's Beau Travail as a foundational influence, the film that showed him how to use the body, light, and music as primary storytelling tools rather than dialogue. Moonlight's fragmented structure, its use of color as emotion, its willingness to let silence carry meaning, these are lessons from Denis and Wong Kar-wai. Beau Travail is streaming on Criterion Channel and is one of the most beautiful films ever made.
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We looked at 'Close-Up' as a masterclass in how you can take a real-life situation and elevate it, distort it, and make it purely cinematic, but still feel intensely real. We were obsessively watching 'Close-Up' and other Kiarostami films before and during the making of 'Uncut Gems'.
