S & D: Iranian film

Pete to thread!

I think the position of non-Western cinema even reaching Western audiences is one bundled up with so many contradictions (Iranian films are now - due to their success getting a fair amnount of co-production money which then feeds the industry). But if you think of the films released in the UK last year, the fifth largest exporter of titles was Iran. This is being concentrated around four or five directors - one cannot help but wonder if their are othe rnational cinemas who could also blossom with this kind of critical interest.

Not to do down the quality of any of the Iranian films I've liked.

I also have a suspicion that his movies are so slow because he may have nothing to say. But Close-Up = total masterpiece.

Mentioned above is the amazing film 'The Apple'. It tells the real story of two sisters who've been locked up by their father for their entire life until rescued by welfare authorities and it stars the family involved.

are kids used as subjects to go under the radar of state censorship? and why always the quest theme - i mean I know it's not unique to Iranian cinema but just seems so prevalent.

the girl wants a goldfish. she haggles her mother for the money and then she loses it down the drain and she needs to get ppl to help her.

OK i saw it a long time ago and my memory isn't as good these days but that's how i remember it.

http://www.mastersofcinema.org/pics/kiarostami_28_08_04.jpg

The conversation with the purse-snatcher in the second scene was pretty funny.

iranian films are HUGE in paris. there were often 10 of them in theaters at once. i had a hard time following all the new releases. inevitably the euphoria of first disocovery has worn off a bit, and i've seen a few that didn't impress me at all.

i don't think the second part of this sentence follows from the first

As does everything involved in film.

the insert to the bfi VHS?

Kiarostami's final film "24 Frames" , made in the last 3 years before his death in 2016, is, uh, something. He took a photo of a Pieter Bruegel the Elder's 1565 painting The Hunters in the Snow and 23 of his own photos (many of them of snow-covered fields, or waves crashing on the shore) and imagined what happened before and after. He via computer tools added 4 minutes or so of action to each of the 24 shots. Some are wearying and repetitious with little happening, but others are special.

I keep missing Fest films... Maybe I can make it this weekend

Two years later the 25th anniversary DC Film Festival of Iranian Films is virtual and free, but you have to live in the DC area to see the movies through February 7th.

I liked Bandar Band and Dance with Me.

https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/507554/city-lights-the-25th-dc-festival-of-films-from-iran-goes-on-virtually/

Come back other ilxor fans of Iranian film

I tried, but can't watch the films outside DC/Maryland/Virginia.

Is the entire thread about Abbas Kiarostami and Jafar Panahi

Well, ok. I took my mom to see Closed Curtain at IFC years ago and she complained the entire time that it was insufferably boring and repeatedly urged me to walk out with her.

Oh well. I think the DC Film Fest offerings may also be available for viewers in Houston, Texas and Boston, Mass via museums there. Bandar Band , although flawed, is worth seeing as is Dance w/ Me.

I still have lots of old Iranian new wave films to see.

Just watched Crimson Gold as it was expiring from Criterion and really glad I did. Here is some discussion, including a great Morbius take:
Briefly talk about what you've seen recently

Is the entire thread about Abbas Kiarostami and Jafar Panahi
So it would seem. Apologies for continuing the trend.

Really enjoyed this, and impressed by implicit political implications, although also, there are a lot of times and places in which you really, really wouldn't want to call the cops, no matter what:
The Salesman (Persian: فروشنده, romanized: Forušande, released in France as Le Client) is a 2016 drama film written and directed by Asghar Farhadi and starring Taraneh Alidoosti and Shahab Hosseini. It is about a married couple who perform Arthur Miller's 1949 play Death of a Salesman on stage. When the wife is assaulted, her husband attempts to determine the identity of the attacker, while she struggles to cope with post-trauma stress. Farhadi chose Miller's play as his story within a story based on shared themes. A co-production between Iran and France, the film was shot in Tehran, beginning in 2015.

The film premiered in competition in the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, where it won two awards—Best Screenplay for Farhadi and Best Actor for Hosseini. The Salesman was very well-received by film critics, who mainly praised Farhadi's direction and writing, and won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. However, Farhadi did not attend the 89th Academy Awards ceremony in protest of the U.S. Executive Order 13769.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Salesman_(2016_film)

implicit implications OK!

Been meaning to watch that one. Recently watched this Israeli Apple TV+ production called Tehran, in which the Iranian characters are pretty sympathetic so now have been inspired to (re)watch some actual Iranian movies.

Tbh I kind of got used to Athens doubling as Tehran so interesting to see how the real place looks. Which is not totally different.

Is the entire thread about Abbas Kiarostami and Jafar Panahi

Lots about Farhadi upthread already.

Anyway, HIT THE ROAD lived up to its trailer and poster.

Watched About Elly and The Salesman over the weekend. I suppose either The Hero or Fireworks Wednesday is next.

I have lots of catching up to do

The Hero another nail-biter.

And there’s a story behind the story: https://www.indiewire.com/2022/04/asghar-farhadi-found-guilty-plagiarism-a-hero-1234714331/

https://www.vulture.com/2022/04/asghar-farhadi-sued-plagiarism-a-hero.html

Masihzadeh claimed Farhadi made her sign a document in 2019, before he began production on A Hero, stating that he owned the idea for All Winners, All Losers, which she did “under great pressure.” Farhadi’s lawyer does not dispute the document, saying it clarified that “he was the one who proposed the idea and the plot of the documentary.” His lawyer said he researched the story on his own, based on media coverage; Masihzadeh claims there was little coverage of the incident that inspired her documentary. Relatedly, Farhadi claimed the main character of A Hero, Rahim, is dissimilar to the real-life subject of All Winners, All Losers. One former student from 2011 additionally told The Hollywood Reporter he believed Farhadi made a film based off one of his projects, but did not plan to sue because he “is a genius filmmaker.”

An interview with Farhadi also on Vulture links to this interesting article: https://www.latimes.com/local/great-reads/la-me-c1-tarof-20150706-story.html

It seems that the star of About Elly, Golshifteh Farahani, is mostly making films in exile in France these days, including a really terrible love triangle thing I recently tried to watch called Two Friends directed by Alfred's crush Louis Garrel.

Not the same film, but
Never Coming to a Theater Near You - Arthouse Cinema 2016

Louis Garrel's directorial debut may be the worst feature i've endured in the last several years

― we can be heroes just for about 3.6 seconds (Dr Morbius), Monday, March 7, 2016 2:18 PM (six years ago)

Think my take on Farhadi is close to Bilge Ebiri’s.

really liked About Elly

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/11/07/did-the-oscar-winning-director-asghar-farhadi-steal-ideas

Also this: https://www.indiewire.com/2022/10/jafar-panahi-and-mohammad-rasoulof-tear-gassed-in-iran-prison-fire-1234772987/

Search: The Runner!

I hadn't heard about the plagiarism case prior to reading that article, but it seemed quite damning. Although this quote from an erstwhile collaborator makes sense:

"If you ask me—as a person who hasn’t seen either ‘A Hero’ or the documentary but just knows the guy extremely well—this is not plagiarism. Asghar is far too intelligent and interesting as an artist, as a writer, to do something like that. This is him wanting control over authorship. It’s a character flaw.”

Everyone in the article is just like "Look, I don't care that you took my idea, just acknowledge that you did it." And he won't.

Found that article totally fascinating for the same reason, the fact that other figures in the industry were so willing to go on the record to basically say, "Haha, yeah, of course he passed off her work as 100% his creation, that's just how he is."

Didn’t really read that article until just now and it was indeed fascinating and kind of painful to read. To me it is as if the hero with the “broken smile” of The Hero is kind of an obvious DO U SEE? shadow self for Farhadi.

Bahram Beyzaeie's Downpour, on the third World Cinema Project box, is a really excellent comedy.

Are you saying that because you know he edited The Runner?

New Jafar Panahi is good, believe the hype!

Panahi on hunger strike. This is sickening!

it's pretty horrible.

Apparently he's just been released from jail?

Great news!

Now what about Mohammad Rasoulof?

Rasoulof has apparently been out for a month: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/feb/03/iranian-film-maker-jafar-panahi-released-on-bail-after-hunger-strike

About to watch Samira Makhmalbaf’s THE APPLE and came across this about her dad’s little film school which she attended:
https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2002/filmmaker-profiles/makhmalbaf/

Not an Iranian film, but Golshifteh Farahani is really good in the film known in English as ARAB BLUES.

Movie is kind of broad and she plays a French-Tunisian rather thn a French-Irani but her perfomance is still good.

Just finally watched Rasoulof’s There Is No Evil before it leaves MUBI. It is indeed very long but the first and last sections both make it worth your time.

And today I watched his The Seed of the Sacred Fig. Incredibly intense, I was on the edge of my seat the entire time.

Planning on seeing that in DC. I think it’s showing here as both part of an Iranian film fest and separately

https://asia.si.edu/whats-on/events/event-series/29th-annual-festival-of-films-from-iran/

It's pretty good except for the thriller-suspense ending.

Rasoulof doing an in-person at MoMI tomorrow, along with the actress who played the older daughter.

Just saw Seed of the Sacred Fig . I wasn’t crazy about ending either but the film earlier showed the horrible situations that people can get placed in under authoritarian governments, and how situations can be made ever more stressful and tense in such a world . Some of it had me thinking of federal employees now under Trump.