S & D: Iranian film

With the shots of the stairs and the door it didn't give you much for a while. Sorta cleverly delays.

this isn't ~spoilerish~, but fyi don't read if you haven't seen a separation--

oh god yeah, the grandfather. man. this film. yeah some of the performances are radiant, cf the kid. i feel like its success in stirring empathy and feeling towards the characters is exemplified by the whole stairwell thing - i think at distinct points i was specifically identifying with and feeling viscerally defensive of each party, there - well he was pushing her out, she left the old guy!, & then, he pushed her, he's straight up lying. & to resolve it that way - that he guesses he knew, but that in that moment he didn't?, it just feels like such a mature, complicated, real thing to try to represent that could seem like a cop-out.

i think i felt compelled throughout, i forget. have you seen about elly? i think i remember hearing that it was a little maybe unambitious or light, but i probably oughtta check it.

i'm so annoyed i missed this in glasgow. friends were raving about it too.

it was nice to see, b/c intense & absorbing & because of a really beautiful green kitchen, but i don't think it'll all evaporate on a small screen.

i could watch iranian films all day i think (& i oughtta). psyched for the next rasoulof, whenever it surfaces.

Haven't seen About Elly

but that in that moment he didn't?, it just feels like such a mature, complicated, real thing to try to represent that could seem like a cop-out.

otm. A lot of the film was v 'universal'. The iranian system is indicted for not providing support: so much argument as there aren't any intermediaries. And yet his admission that he knew of her pregnancy but not at that moment might have landed him in trouble anywhere.

"because of a really beautiful green kitchen"

i have to see this!

oh well, i- i don't want you to envisage some kinda insane jodorowsky-esque centrepiece in an entirely green kitchen; it's just there are these scenes in a kitchen tiled with these pure-green tiles & it was really arresting to me, sorta - to backtrack to what i said before - the same way that getting a look at any of the houses/streetscenes are compelling just as being a neat visual insight into another country. i think i saw it not long after i saw cassavetes' minnie & moskowitz, which has a great, '70s pink kitchen scene, so i was maybe especially attuned to this sorta thing & it could perhaps pass by unnoticed. just pretty is all, and representative of the film's attractive deep tones.

i wasn't thinking crazy kitchen. i'm looking forward to seeing it ;)

artificial eye, i guess

wanna see the new panahi so bad

tape store (if you are here), were you putting on the new rasoulof film? have you seen it?

Panahi film has been picked up for US distrib

yeah i saw, w/'coming soon'. are you seeing at nyff?

yep

aw. i should hush & watch the couple i haven't seen, but knowing a little about it - even the limits of equipment, n/m movement or censorship - has me excited. everyone everywhere is loving a separation, also, pleasingly, & also the other iranian thing from sundance - coincidences, maybe?

Love Still Life

Saw it years ag on C4, but end up think about it every now and again. iirc The story is too simple to have a plot (a bit Tokyo Story-y at times), or to have much of theme (capitalism destroying the old ways felt tacked on) but the still-ness of the image, the acting/staging just sucks you in. The final shot takes you breath away.

Pleased to see some mention of Bahman Ghobadi on this thread. I have only seen Persian Cats, Turtles Can Fly and A Time For Drunken Horses, but they were all fantastic.

I rewatched The Apple last night and it is such a strange, wonderful movie.

http://hyperallergic.com/47086/censored-iranian-filmmaker-shoots-film-entirely-on-iphones/

Never saw this

I saw that, it is great

hugely sad i couldnt see that at tiff

it's just coming out theatrically?, at least in the us & uk

the apple kills. it would make a good double bill w/poto & cabengo. i watched it w/some friends, once, & the turnaround from its first twenty minutes, which are in all senses of the words hard to watch, & seemed to just subdue and depress the room, to the kinda errant jubilance of the rest, was amazing.

Panahi out in April, can't wait.

As is The Apple, watched that over Xmas - good call on Poto & Cabengo, read a rev of the Gorin DVDs so will be on it at some point.

All of the Gorin films are great (even My Crasy Life, which gets a bad rep). I saw THIS IS NOT A FILM at AFI Fest

Some legal background re A Separation's plot:

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2012/02/a-separation-iran-law.html

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