S & D: Iranian film

Thx for the link Morbs

Yes, interesting article.

thank you for that link.

a separation is really good. i can't think of another film where the feelings and stakes and motivations of so many characters were so complex, at times obscure, and seemingly constantly shifting. totally riveting, even though i don't know that i'll ever be able to sort it out. i can see why it got a surprise nomination for best original screenplay. it's a very clever film. but also an intellectually challenging one, i think.

SPOILER I guess

did anyone else think it was a dodge to keep a certain traffic incident from the audience?

did anyone else think it was a dodge to keep a certain traffic incident from the audience?

I was kinda annoyed by the reveal, but I guessed correctly that something had happened because of the amount of time dwelled in that traffic.

That did cross my mind.
At the time of the traffic scene, when it just cut to the next scene, I thought, "Interesting that they didn't show the end of that situation", and just kind of felt relieved at its apparent resolution, and then later when it was revealed thought, "Oh THAT'S why they didn't show it." It did make it seem less interesting that they cut away from the scene, because the reason for it was now obvious.
I am not sure how I feel about it-how would it have played out if we had seen it and had known all along? I suppose her claim never seemed that plausible to me, but would it have made a difference anyway?

So for me I guess, it did feel like a bit of a cheat, but it would have felt more like a cheat had I felt the movie would not have worked without it. It was just a little disappointing.

i don't know about "cheat," obviously the director wanted to sustain a greater ambivalence about the character of the housemaid and i think that's OK. there is a pattern of suppressed information in the film, but that's obviously the most flagrant example.

what an interesting film. i'm still thinking about it constantly a few days later.

i'm gonna track down this dude's earlier films. i've heard fantastic things re. "About Elly."

Yeah, I'm not really sure. I would like to see it again and see how it comes across to me.

I see the Film Society of Lincoln Center is playing Asghar Farhadi films in April. I wonder if they will now sell out, due to the success of A Separation.
The films being shown are About Elly, Beautiful City, Fireworks Wednesday (3 screenings each) and Dancing in the Dust (2 screenings)

Anyone here see them?

no but about elly is supposed to me super-fantastic. i managed to find it and hope to watch it this week or next. fireworks wednesday has a good rep too.

supposed to BE

I have seen it. It is good, but not as good as A Separation.

sooooo this is not a film is amazing

great -- gonna see it next wk.

yes

yes

i'm probably trampling into "spoilers" below, but

i keep thinking of the excerpt he played from the circle, and his commentary about the beams of the bus station informing our idea of the character's emotional state. like you can view the whole of this is not a film through that lens, in which the claustrophobia, and the implied mental reaction to his limited space - like having to resourcefully map out a rug with tape, having to rely on dvds and pre-shot iphone footage to sense the outside world - map out so much of what he feels, so much of the position he's in. the oscillations between 'truth' and 'artifice' are just fascinating - like his short emotional break as he reads the script, which seems to detract from the thing he's trying to express but actually enhances it. it's just so creative. and so perfectly measured, ie with the garbage collector in the lift.

The final shot ws kinda incredible too - here is a man who just suddenly finds he can't cross that line w/his camera (or otherwise), as if a piece of yellow tape that ws used prev to free up his imagination is being used to now restrict.

drudge siren: http://www.indiewire.com/article/exclusive-banned-from-filmmaking-jafar-panahi-has-made-another-movie-says-kiarostami#

That's great! Wonder how?

About Elly ws great! Good call to give this a cinema run.

50 films essential to understanding Iranian cinema

http://www.fandor.com/blog/the-iranian-film-50

so this is out now, yeah

http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/60010/this-is-not-a-film/

via Fandor:

Abbas Kiarostami tells the Hollywood Reporter‘s Clarence Tsui that the students he teaches in Tehran are not only finding it more and more difficult to turn in new work, many of them can’t swing tuition anymore, either. “Without referring to specific political events or figures, Kiarostami said the situation in Iran has ‘never been this dark.’ He added: ‘And we have huge question marks in front of us now—some miracles should happen in Iran to save the nation.’ The director expressed hope that the upcoming presidential elections will bring about the miracle he is hoping for. ‘If I say [it won’t help], it would show I’m a pessimist,’ he said.”

http://m.hollywoodreporter.com/news/iranian-director-abbas-kiarostami-situation-559514

so Makhmalbaf's latest The Gardener, a doc about the Baha'i faith made with his son, is winding up a week's run here in NYC, and there was a kerfuffle last month.

Iran's expatriate filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf is facing withering condemnation in his homeland for attending a film festival in Israel, the Islamic Republi's archfoe.

The acclaimed director, considered a pioneer of moviemaking in Iran, traveled to the Jerusalem Film Festival this month to screen his latest work, "The Gardener," which explores the conflict between two generations about the role of religion in society.

Javad Shamgdari, the head of Iran's official cinema organization, penned a letter to the leadership of the Iranian cinema museum demanding the removal of all of the director's awards and trophies.

“Makhmalbaf made his first 10 films in Iran using the money of the state-run organizations to learn cinema,” Shamgdari was quoted as saying by the semiofficial Mehr news agency. “Now he has fallen into the arms of the occupier, the murderous Zionist regime.”

Members of Iran's artistic community have expressed mixed feelings about Makhmalbaf's visit to Israel.

Some 150 Iranian intellectuals, academics and artists signed a public letter assailing Makhmalbaf's action. However, 80 others lauded him in an open letter sent to the Times of Israel.

The letter to the Israeli newspaper applauded the filmmaker's “bravery for breaking the taboo of visiting the state of Israel and conveying the message of friendship between Iranian people and people of Israel.”

In intellectual circles in the Iranian capital, only those who criticized the filmmaker's visit agreed to speak on the record....

http://www.latimes.com/news/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-iran-filmmaker-mohsen-makhmalbaf-israel-visit-20130723,0,2686091.story

have you seen it? as a baha'i i'm of course very interested

probably will go tonight if I'm not beat

It's quite a piece of work, why did I doubt? Not at all a primer on Baha'i -- I know a little more than I did when I went in, so almost nothing -- but a means of getting at Big Themes, and of presenting cinema as the Makhmalbafs' religion. Here's the Manohla Dargis review:

http://movies.nytimes.com/2013/08/09/movies/the-gardener-mohsen-makhmalbafs-inquiry-into-religion.html?_r=0

Also, more of this was in English than I expected (60-70%). And along those lines...

http://www.screendaily.com/news/production/makhmalbaf-to-shoot-first-english-language-feature/5059286.article

closed curtain so good. he is as good a director as anyone, i think. so rich.

yup. best film of the year, in my opinion, though obviously i haven't seen everything.

seeing it kinda just reminded me of how energising iranian film is - how much more than story it can be, & how close to life it gets. i loved to see him adjust the pressure of its metaphors - letting them either breathe & flex to our interpretation, or narrowing them to specifically address his own condition. & it's such a heavy film in light of that. it weaves in & out of this structure that really directly addresses, literally personifies a lot of issues, but it's also an extension of what he was doing in the last movie, i think, which is just transferring that weight onto himself, & then as well as that dropping crumbs that suggest those pressures elsewhere - the medicine delivered, &c. the directness of it as a piece of filmmaking is really catching, too; i really think he's like bresson or dreyer in how quietly measured everything is, the geography of the house, the confidence of the camera, the economy of the shots. there are so many moments of this that just totally spun me in my seat.

upcoming series at Asia Society in NYC:

http://asiasociety.org/new-york/iranian-new-wave-1960s-1970s-film-series

Just finished The White Balloon, and Panahi is just really underrated. The Mirror, The Circle and Crimson Gold are fantastic as well. I love how Closed Curtain answers things from This Is Not a Film, how this time it's so extremely filmic. Those two films combined is really some of the most important stuff that has been made this decade.

Saw panahi's Closed Curtain on Saturday night; well worth seeing. I felt the last third is kind of stopped in place -- it didn't bring me anyplace new -- and it's not as sui generis as This Is Not a Film, but perhaps that's not possible.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQyU7dpuLl4

ends July 22 - New York City, NY - Film Forum

opens
July 18 - Los Angeles, CA - Laemmle Music Hall
July 18 - San Diego, CA - Digital Gym Cinema
July 18 - San Francisco, CA - 4 Star Theatre

July 25 - Washington DC - West End Cinema
July 25 - Chicago, IL - Gene Siskel Film Center
July 25 - Santa Fe, NM - CCA Cinematheque
July 25 - New Orleans, LA - Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center

August 1 - Omaha, NE - Film Streams

August 21 and 23 - Bloomington, IN - Indiana University Cinema

August 24, 25, and 26 - Taos, NM - Taos Center for the Arts

I saw Children of Heaven recently and quite enjoyed it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-gfNZqKULw

Yeah, Closed Curtain was the best film of 2013. People should go check it out.

SSSSPPPPPOOILLLEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRSSS

i do feel slightly constrained, with un film nist acting as an obvious comparison to this; it's obviously so much tighter, & more complete a metaphor. but i loved this & found it so affecting. frustrating reading the various blurbs by brody et al & knowing that the arrival of the third character is announced in advance; it was a real moment, for me, much as what happens in the mirror felt like a fresh, unexpected way of making films. has been awhile since i saw this, but i could still draw a blueprint of the layout of his house. so much to like about it, the smaller roles, the woman bringing food, & obviously the dog.

Hopefully this will be in London soon.

wow. i love that trailer. looks great.

felt a wee bit of old-fashioned dog awwwwws going in this, at least if Asta in The Thin Man was watching TV footage of slaughtered dogs.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/museums/iranian-film-festival-at-freer-gallery/2014/12/31/b526295e-8f72-11e4-a900-9960214d4cd7_story.html

Mokri said that at first it was difficult to get “Fish & Cat” screened in Iran, in part because authorities had interpreted the mention of the year 1998, the movie’s reference to the restaurant scandal, as an allusion to a period of political killings in Iran. But after Hassan Rouhani (who has been described as a relative moderate) became president in 2013, “we had no problems, and we screened the film,” Mokri said.

Censorship was and is “very strong in Iran, both in terms of what you can make and what you can see,” Vick said. But more recently, he added, “because everybody can sneak around the rules and see things online or on satellite dishes,” Iranian directors have been able to enter more fully into dialogue with world cinema.

the iranian festival that's happening somewhere soon - at the mfa, maybe? - looks really great. still dying to see fish & cat.

The Washington D.C. showings at the Freer Gallery: Mokri is scheduled to appear at the Jan. 16 screening of “Fish & Cat,” which also airs Jan. 18.) Another festival highlight: “Manuscripts Don’t Burn,” by director Mohammad Rasoulof, who shot the thriller in 2013 despite being banned by Iranian authorities from filmmaking for 20 years.

http://www.asia.si.edu/events/films.asp

http://www.mfa.org/programs/series/boston-festival-films-iran-0

Boston fest and DC one are showing some of the same films

Surprise: Taxi is yet another masterpiece from Jafar Panahi, who at this point doesn't really make anything less than that. A bit bewildering since there is a multitude of characters and voices, and a lot of them are reflections of characters in Panahi's earlier films, and I'm still not entirely sure of what some of it means. But it's so inventive, funny and humanistic.

so hyped

yup!

Hey, trailer!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eM2tblIkL4g

I love this film. Especially the warmth between Panahi and his niece. Who was also the one who received the Bear in february:
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/02/14/25AEAC4300000578-0-image-a-57_1423946700438.jpg