It's Not Language that Governs the Connection Between People

Bérénice Bejo and Tahar Rahim in The Past (Photo by Carole Bethuel, Sony Pictures Classics)

Excerpts from "Oscar-Winning Filmmaker Asghar Farhadi on Making Movies in Iran," KCRW's The Business, Dec. 23, 2013:

Kim Masters: The film is almost entirely in French. How did you manage that [since you don't speak French]?  

Asghar Farhadi: I moved with my family and we lived in France for two years. I set aside a great deal of time to become acquainted with the melodies of the French language. I tried to become familiar with the daily details of life there, with the way people behave. I had numerous French friends and they were invaluable. But what helped me the most was the fact that the story I had was one that was structured on the basis of the similarities of our cultures, not the differences...

I had several people who acted as my voice. There was one of them who accompanied me constantly, who not only interpreted the words I spoke, but who shadowed me in gesture. When I would move my hands, he would also do the same thing. When I raised my voice, he too would raise his voice. Gradually I began to feel that he was my voice. He was closer to who I was. I remember the day when I said something and then I walked over to the table to pick up a cigarette, and he started interpreting and walked over to the table and picked up a cigarette...

But after a while, I discovered that it's not language that governs the connection between people to the extent that we imagine it does. When people grow close to each other—through their eyes, through a kind of an exchange of energy—they can grasp a great deal about each other.

With Bérénice, with those children, I discussed matters of great delicacy and intricacy that even in Persian would be difficult to convey.   

Discipline of Do Easy

"D.E. is a way of doing. D.E. simply means doing whatever you do in the easiest most relaxed way you can manage, which is also the quickest and most efficient way, as you will find as you advance in D.E. You can start right now tidying up your flat, moving furniture or books, washing dishes, making tea, sorting papers. Don’t fumble, jerk, grab an object. Drop cool possessive fingers onto it, like a gentle old cop making a soft arrest."

Changing The World

"So here’s the thing about changing the world. It turns out that’s not even the question, because you don’t have a choice. You are going to change the world, because that is actually what the world is. You do not pass through this life, it passes through you. You experience it, you interpret it, you act, and then it is different. That happens constantly. You are changing the world. You always have been, and now, it becomes real on a level that it hasn’t been before."

~ Joss Whedon, from his commencement address during Wesleyan's 181st Commencement Ceremony. 

Read the text of his speech. 

Nothing is Original

Grant Avenue at Oak Street, April 12, 2012

“Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery—celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: “It’s not where you take things from—it’s where you take them to.” 

~ Jim Jarmusch, from "Jim Jarmusch's Golden Rules," MovieMake Magazine, January 22, 2004

To Be Good at Feeling

"We exist in a time where technological change is taking place so profoundly that as human beings reared on the 20th Century paradigm there is little way we could possibly keep up. Think for a second about the effect this must have on our emotions. Though Beginners weaves a simple narrative about a man and his relationship to his father, his girlfriend, his dog and his work, there is a bigger story at play. Some people draw well, some people play music well, some people make films well, but how many of us actually feel well? I'm speaking of 'well' in the sense of being able to feel with talent…to be good at feeling. To act and live within the full expression of the word and to accept all the responsibility that it entails. Perhaps, even if we have to approach this journey as beginners, this is a proposition worth considering."

~ Aaron Rose, excerpted from The Art of Feeling Well in Drawings from the Film Beginners

See also:

• "A Son's 'Love Letter' To His Gay Father," Fresh Air, June 2, 2011
• Metacritic reviews for Beginners