Abbas Kiarostami, the Iranian director.
Here’s the beginning of Under the Olive Trees which has a striking long shot from about 4:00 – 7:00.
And here is a scene from Taste of Cherry. There are a few long takes inside. The man driving wants to kill himself and asks his passenger to come and bury him or rescue him from a ditch the next morning. The old man has a story of his own. There are long telescopic shots of the vehicle going up and down hills and the old man’s monologue is one take, though sometimes interrupted by cuts.
Re: Taste of Cherry
Patience is undervalued in movie-making. I suppose there’s a fine line between boring the viewer and allowing him to feel as though the characters are doing what they would ordinarily do. I like this. The story within a story reminds me of what Chekhov did in fiction; you feel as though the characters are just talking without design, though there is a larger design they aren’t aware of.
Chekhov is a great spiritual brother for Kiarostami. The trilogy of stories with ‘Gooseberries’ is a good example of the stories with in the story.
I love Kiarostami’s films. And Taste of Cherry is one of his finest.
I’m also a fan of Kiarostami– The Wind Will Carry Us and Taste of Cherry are two of my favorites… they’re more expansive than, say, Close Up or Ten