Dinner For One (1995)
Abbas Kiarostami
France/Iran
1 Min.
Abbas Kiarostami’s short for Lumiére and Company (1995), the film made to commemorate a century of cinema, is arguably the best of the 40 odd films in the compilation. The short films were to be made using the earliest camera that the Lumiére siblings had devised and in accordance with three basic rules, aimed at replicating the filming constraints prevalent a hundred years ago – the films could run for more than a minute, they had to be filmed using a static camera and no artificial sound or light could be used. Kiarostami, being the iconoclast he is, breaks one of the rules instantly by making sound a critical part of his film. Titled “Dinner for One”, the short film shows us two eggs being fried on a pan placed over a hot stove. Meanwhile, on the soundtrack, a woman (voiced by none other than Isabelle Huppert) on the phone urges the person (invisible to us, presumably a man) to pick up the phone and talk to her. She seems to know that he is in the house and, yet, is not willing to pick up the phone. The man, on the other hand, continues to fry the two eggs (a couple?) without paying any heed to the call. Proving once more, as he has so consistently done in his marvelous career, that minimalism actually means maximum utilization of available resources, Kiarostami presents a film that can well be regarded as a crash course in minimalism by one of the greatest exponents of the school. Having us see just a couple of eggs being fried and hear an unanswered phone call, Kiarostami paints a heartbreaking portrait of failed relationships and unrequited love.
December 27, 2009 at 7:37 pm
A one minute wonder! Thanks for this one.
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December 27, 2009 at 8:09 pm
Indeed, Omar. You’re welcome
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December 27, 2009 at 10:09 pm
JAFB,
Between not having the time to assemble my annual round-up the usual way, having read other blog sporadically and haphazardly in 2009, and having only recently discovered certain bloggers (like yourself) I’m soliciting submissions for a “best of the blogosphere” post in a few days. A punt, but perhaps a more democratic one.
Explanation (& mea culpa) to be found here, but I hope you’ll participate:
http://thesunsnotyellow.blogspot.com/2009/12/best-of-blogosphere.html
Leave your own selection on that thread & I’ll link up to it when the post goes up.
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December 27, 2009 at 10:18 pm
Sure Movie Man. Will be glad to.
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December 28, 2009 at 12:47 pm
[…] Just Another Film Buff has another scholarly post up on a short Kiarostami film at his place: https://theseventhart.info/2009/12/27/short-films-7/ David Schleicher has a terrific post up at his place on Avatar that is receiving excellent […]
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December 30, 2009 at 7:27 am
I just expended maybe a minute to watch this! LOL!! Well, JAFB, this is minimalism at its most severe, and leave it Kiarostami to pull something like this off, with only eggs frying and a woman speaking on the phone. It’s a testament though to its singular focus that you deemed it strong enough to trum every other entry in this compliation.
I don’t doubt it. Lovely capsule review.
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December 30, 2009 at 7:38 am
Thanks Sam. There are also some other fascinating ones in the compilation – Lynch, Spike Lee and many more… They are available on YouTube…
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December 30, 2009 at 8:29 am
Thanks JAFB! I’ll have to check these out on You Tube….convenient too, as I’m on the PC a lot….
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December 30, 2009 at 2:40 pm
I second the recommendation of Lynch’s short film.
I’d like to recommend too the best short films I’ve seen:
Dans le Noir du Temps – Jean-Luc Godard
Karin’s Ansikte – Ingmar Bergman
The Skywalk is Gone – Tsai Ming Liang
Je Vous Salue Sarajevo – Jean Luc Godard
Regen – Joris Ivens
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December 30, 2009 at 2:48 pm
Stephen,
Thanks for all the reccos. I’ve seen the Godard films, but the others seem darn interesting. WIll check them out ASAP.
Thanks a ton…
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December 30, 2009 at 4:56 pm
My pleasure. Hope you enjoy them.
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January 3, 2010 at 3:51 am
Happy New Year’s to a prince of a guy! The best always to you and yours, JAFB!
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January 3, 2010 at 6:43 am
Thanks so much, Sam, and teh same to you and your family. Hope you are having a great weekend…
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July 6, 2016 at 3:56 pm
[…] good time, perhaps, also to revisit Srikanth Srinivasan’s expansion and unravelling of a short that is Essential […]
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