24 Frames Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

24 Frames Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 1, 2019

Dinah Washington hit the Top 10, won a Grammy, and forever entered the annals of all time pop vocal greats with her 1959 recording of “What a Diff’rence a Day Makes”, but those of us who toil with screenshot software on a daily basis might want to take the underlying idea of that tune and say, “What a diff’rence a frame makes.” The almost magical way that a series of still photographs, when projected in succession at what used to be the industry standard of 24 frames per second, becomes “fluid motion” is an enigma of almost metaphysical proportions, though of course it depends on more “mundane” elements like neuroscience and vision apprehension capability in humans. When isolating an individual frame for purposes of taking a screenshot, though, some of that perceived “magic” dissolves (no optical pun intended) and the minute differences between frames can lead to weird anomalies like motion blur or unfortunate facial expressions with mouths weirdly skewed or eyes kind of half open. All of this is to say that the late Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami, an artist who dabbled both in traditional photography along with directing movies, was evidently intrigued by the “transformative” powers of making a supposed still photograph into something at least a bit more motion filled, and his fascinating 24 Frames was the result. As Kiarostami’s son mentions in one of the supplements included on this disc as a bonus feature, 24 Frames has often been described as “an experimental film”, while Kiarostami’s son prefers it to be thought of as a “meditative film”. As such, there’s no real narrative here, just a succession of, yep, 24 frames that slowly “come alive”, at least in part, only to fade like the remnants of an evanescent dream.

It’s possible in a way to think of each individual frame in a movie or a still photograph as representing a “slice” of time, and it’s Kiarostami’s conceit in this film that he tries to kind of bridge the (temporal) gap between a still photograph and a motion picture. As such, the title 24 Frames has a kind of double meaning, referring to the obvious idea of a frame rate that induces the appearance of motion in our visual cortex, but in this instance also referring to the fact that the film offers two dozen “frames” (as in still photographs) that come at least partially alive in a series of brief vignettes.

As is documented in some introductory text (see screenshot 19), Kiarostami evidently started this project by adding animation or other live action elements to various legendary pieces of art (it’s mentioned in some of the supplements that there were originally 30 frames, and I for one would have loved to have seen some of the other “art” frames included as a supplemental feature, but, alas, none are offered). That original idea is preserved in the very first frame seen in 24 Frames , the famous Bruegel painting of hunters on a snowy hillside in some quasi-feudal setting. Kiarostami offers a few moving elements here, including smoke pouring out of chimneys, crows flocking hither and yon, and a little dog who similarly wanders to and fro (and kind of cheekily relieves himself on a tree at one point).

In a way, that very opening sequence documents why Kiarostami probably felt it was wiser to utilize his own photographs for the rest of the “frames”, as the animated extras on the Bruegel just seem kind of silly, almost like something you’d see courtesy of some meme on the internet. That said, the rest of the “frames” are decidedly outré a lot of the time, frequently featuring snowbound scenes that often have various animals traipsing through them for no apparent reason. There’s a prevalence of birds and seashores as well, but no real “theme” or underlying content that I personally could divine.

24 Frames is still often rather exquisitely beautiful, though, especially in some of its high contrast black and white vignettes (as the screenshots accompanying this review will show, while many of the “frames” are black and white, some are just slightly colored, and others are in more or less full blown color, albeit at times kind of tamped down). The starkness of some of the imagery, along with just occasional movement (often courtesy of precipitation like rain or snow), and a nicely wrought soundtrack full of ambient environmental sounds, does in fact create a meditative mood of sorts, one where the imaginations of viewers can be engaged to “complete” whatever story Kiarostami started with this enterprise.

24 Frames Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

24 Frames is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of The Criterion Collection with an AVC encoded 1080i transfer (mostly) in 1.78:1 (the Bruegel vignette is somewhat narrower, as can be seen in screenshot 8 accompanying this review). Criterion's accordion style foldout insert contains the following verbiage on the transfer, which also contains a heading I think I've only seen once on a Criterion release, "About the Master":

24 Frames is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.78:1. Black bars at the top and bottom of the screen are normal for this format [sic]. The film was produced entirely within a fully digital 2K workflow, utilizing a number of commercial software packages, including Adobe After Effects, Autodesk Maya and Topaz Studio.

This film features a fully digital 5.1 surround soundtrack. The sound was produced primarily with Avid Pro Tools and Steinberg Nuendo, using a combination of recorded and library sounds to create sound effects, foley, and background sounds.

Aside from the misstatement regarding black bars on a 1.78:1 presentation, I also don't see anything in this statement that necessarily would have required an interlaced presentation, and there are some brief combing artifacts that can be noticed, especially in terms of fast motion of some of the birds that flit through several scenes. Otherwise, this is a nicely sharp looking presentation, though as can probably be gleaned from many of the screenshots accompanying this review, Kiarostami tends to exploit midrange or wide shots without a ton of opportunity for fine detail. Some of what I'm assuming is CGI can look a little hokey at times, but the overall appearance here is kind of intentionally dreamlike most of the time, so that any inherent softness or unreality actually isn't that problematic. Compression handles the animated snow and rain fine, along with some relatively complex patterns like chain link fencing without any issues.

24 Frames Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

24 Frames features a really interesting DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track which is devoid of any actual dialogue, though occasional murmurings and a bit of music can intrude (notably in the Eiffel Tower vignette). Most of this track is made up of nicely expansive ambient environmental sounds, with rain, wind and the lapping sounds of waves breaking on beaches well wrought, lifelike, and regularly positioned throughout the soundstage. Fidelity is fine and there are no problems with distortion, dropouts or other distractions.

24 Frames Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Ahmad Kiarostami (1080i; 8:39) is a really interesting interview with Abbas Kiarostami's son, who gets into his father's concept of a film's meaning only partially unfolding on the screen itself (the rest coming courtesy of each individual viewer's imagination), as well as some of the technical challenges he faced in attempting to finish 24 Frames after his father's death.


• Godfrey Cheshire and Jamsheed Akrami (1080i; 9:45) is a discussion between critic Cheshire and filmmaker Akrami, with their analyses of Kiarostami's life and this piece in particular.


• Print: In Memory of Abbas Kiarostami (1080i; 13:59) is a short 2018 "making of" documentary of sorts put together by longtime Abbas Kiarostami collaborator Salma Monshizadeh. In what I'm assuming is Persian (I'm not an expert and may be misidentifying the spoken language) with English subtitles.


• Trailer (1080i; 1:21)

This is another release where Criterion has included a kind of accordion foldout insert in lieu of a booklet. This foldout features an essay by Bilge Ebiri, a few stills and technical data on the transfer.

24 Frames Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

24 Frames won't be a film for everyone, but for those attuned to Kiarostami's often kind of opaque proclivities may well find this one of the director's most intriguing pieces. Nothing really "happens" in any of the "frames" depicted here, and in some ways this film reminded me of a bunch of the old Topics releases I reviewed years ago that I kind of whimsically dubbed "ambient television". Technical merits are generally solid, and the supplements interesting (though I would have loved to have seen the six jettisoned frames, especially if they were built around legendary pieces of art, which Kiarostami's son seems to indicate at least some of them were). For those with an eye (and ear) for something a little unusual, 24 Frames comes Recommended.