S & D: Iranian film

im a fan of panahi's earlier work, but didnt quite see the worth in taxi (or this is not a film either), beyond their very creation, and the lengths he had to go through to make them, which of course makes them an achievement of some merit, but im not sure the actual content measures up to their surreptitious conception. it took me a while to get past the fact he is basically just remaking ten, and really as memorably. all the old tropes of panahi's and his peers' old films are there (cutesey kids, bluring of docu realism and fiction, a drawing attention to the nature of film making itself), which i suppose is forgiveable, he is allowed to revisit himself, but it was all done without much in the way of surprise. there was also something weirdly smug and self regarding about the whole feel of the film as well, which got trying after a while. it touches on lots of interesting topics/themes, probably most memorably the idea of unscreenable films, which again is not a new theme for anyone familiar with iranian movies/directors, but this at least was explored more than the other characters, whose stories didnt really seem to add up to much, and were just minor glimpses that we are expected to read into more than they actually allow us to. in terms of that generation of iranian directors, makhmalbaf's the president was more impressive (though oddly got worse reviews). and if you want a real sequel/reprisal of ten, mania akbari's 10+4 was also better.

*really not as memorably

I really don't want to do this but..

Panahi's niece had a very meaty part. She wasn't cute but by turns manipulative and argumentative. Funny but no more than the adults. Panahi used their interactions to make points about making film as a practice. It was the opposite of 'cutesy' when he trotted out two nattering old ladies for The White Baloon re-creation.

You talk about the idea of unscreenable films as some abstract notion that he must 'make new' and refresh and innovate. But the reason these are rough-ish is precisely because these idiotic set of rules have been used to stop Panahi from making films the way he wants to. The stories didn't 'add up to much' because maybe they would need a wider scenario that couldn't be shot? But actually I found most of it quite coherent. Was it 'smug and self-regarding' to have the lawyer come in and talk about how her practice and work are being stopped by the Iranian government? The rose to the camera was applying a sentiment of solidarity in a similar way to Makhmalbaf's A Moment of Innocence".

This was better than The President (although the ending almost made-up for the slluggish story) and liked it more than Ten although I need to re-watch that.

i said her part was given the most room for exploration (though argumentative and manipulative kids in iranian films is not a new thing), compared to the others, so we agree there. obviously her section had the most resonance, which im not disputing, but even though it does still hold weight, the fact is that you didnt really learn anything new about it, or anything fresh. i know its prob churlish to criticise it in light of how it was produced, and maybe im being a bit mean spirited, but for a director who comes from a generation of filmmakers who are quite expert in getting mileage out of constraints and working around what they have to deal with, i still think there was room for the film to go somewhere else, or to do more, say a bit more.

I really disagree with pretty much everything you are saying, not least because even most of the audience who have seen more than half a dozen Iranian films wouldn't really know then ins-and-outs of unscreenable films or the rules Panahi is meant to have broken beyond talking about things that he shouldn't have in his films. Your bigger mistake is in the notion of the way films break ground. Because I think these are doing just that at a very micro-level, in tiny steps, and in a way Panahi would never have gotten to if this ban wasn't imposed on him.

Think this trilogy of films as such really covers new ground in terms of constraint - its quite an act to flip these constraints around in the way he has and in the end actually re-boot the old-ish dynamic of totalitarian regime against the lone artist (Panahi has become a really great actor through these, although again its all playing with the notion of what is and isn't acted or planned).

I really can't recall such a grown-up conversation between a main actor and a child in most films so I don't think we agree where you think we agree.

The full story - how Panahi has managed to make two films post This is not a Film hasn't quite been told (or I haven't heard it) but that's for another time.

"I really can't recall such a grown-up conversation between a main actor and a child in most films so I don't think we agree where you think we agree."

you should check out ten again then, and 10+4

That's two films, one of which was made over a decade ago, which Panahi clearly drew on..

to be fair, i think the film is charming, amusing, playful, and all the stuff i expected it to be, which should be enough, but perhaps i just expected more.

"Your bigger mistake is in the notion of the way films break ground. Because I think these are doing just that at a very micro-level, in tiny steps, and in a way Panahi would never have gotten to if this ban wasn't imposed on him."

"Think this trilogy of films as such really covers new ground in terms of constraint - its quite an act to flip these constraints around in the way he has and in the end actually re-boot the old-ish dynamic of totalitarian regime against the lone artist"

id be interested to hear more on this.

not sure i would go so far as to call him a great actor, though he does do a good line in strained smiling

With the first quote you pulled out - its in the way you come across as wanting a film to break ground as almost a seismic shift in the way things are done. Funny because these are certainly not normal films where you can demand that kind of expectation. otoh its arguable that the specific contraints imposed on Panahi pushed him to make choices and film subjects in a way he wouldn't have done.

(There is an aside for thinking around other directors and the ways in which they dodged the censor (Tarkovsky in the Soviet Union) but it needs more thinking/fleshing out.)

Did you or did you not expect more? So is it an 'amusing, charming' film that is worthless at the same time? I'm confused. Can you think more about what you are typing before you do? I know you don't have to.

"otoh its arguable that the specific contraints imposed on Panahi pushed him to make choices and film subjects in a way he wouldn't have done." this is obvious but I think the results have given some highs and very different colours and moods: Closed Curtain, which has this darkness to it, where Panahi is dabbling in a form of destruction.

Quite shocking to go from that to the comic in Taxi

A bit late to the party, but some thoughts:

The switch from Closed Curtain to Taxi is indeed quite big, but it's also quite logical. In Closed Curtain Panahi not only depicts his suicidal thoughts, he also wins over them, and leave them in the seaside villa, while he himself drives off. So the next film opens with him more cheerful, in another car!

The lawyer at the end says that the regime is jailing people, not to punish those specific people, but to make all of Iran feel like a prison. Well, Panahi responds, not just by turning his Taxi into a place of free discussion, but also by turning all of Teheran into a playground through cinematography. At times the spiritual equivalent of this film is more something like Playtime. As in the scene where the niece is trying to film the wedding couple, while the beggar walks around as well, that's just marvelous choreography.

I don't think there's anything particularly seismic about these three films, Panahi is working in a typical Iranian form that he himself helped define. He talks in This Is Not a Film about The Mirror, about the moment of 'throwing off the cast'. Well, the new thing about these films is that Panahi is also, through circumstances, forced to throw down the gauntlet. Not so much in This is Not a Film, that's still an attempt to create art within the limitations. These other two films are fighting films, though. And while they're techniques are wellknown, from Panahi and Makhmalbaf and others, Panahi now uses them differently, and creates new things with them.

I consider this trilogy to be the most important thing in world cinema this decade. I quite simply love it. It's not a complete statement, it's a discussion, with himself, his filmmaking and now the rest of his country. There are things that might not be true, that Panahi later discards. But this discussion is so so important, in a world where questions of free speech, censorship and art continue to be important. And Taxi Teheran responds with the most triumphant and warm voice to all the inhibitions put in his way.

And while they're techniques are wellknown, from Panahi and Makhmalbaf and others, Panahi now uses them differently, and creates new things with them.

That's it - definitely a shift. Again all through a partic set of circumstances that meant he had to use techniques there are well-known in different ways.

Is this a trilogy? Just get a sense of Panahi carrying on in whatever way he can. Closed Curtain felt like it was filmed a particularly depressing time.

Wishful thinking... I so want the ban to be lifted so he'll only make three films this way.

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

20th anniversary Iranian film fest in W. DC and Maryland started last weekend and goes through spring. Old and newer films include: The Cow; The President; Taxi; Avalanche; Wolkaan; Monir; Melbourne; 316; Atomic Heart

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

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/general/2016/01/14/exile-censorship-and-pink-floyd-a-qa-with-curator-tom-vick-on-the-iranian-film-festival/

TV: I would say that this year's batch is quite varied. Films like Avalanche and Melbourne are typical of the style many people associate with Iranian cinema, but Taxi, 316, and Atomic Heart, for instance, take more experimental approaches. The first two comment in different ways on censorship in Iran. Atomic Heart (whose title comes from an obscure Pink Floyd album) shows a side of Iranian life most Americans wouldn't be familiar with. The two films made by Iranians living abroad (Bahar Noorizadeh and Mohsen Makhmalbaf) both reflect on their makers' exile.

Saw Makhmalbaf's "The President" at a packed National Gallery of Art in W. DC showing Sunday (people sitting in the aisles; many DC area living Iranian families). Big 500 seat theatre too.

I thought it was very impressive. Good blend of satire and seriousness in this tale of a dictator.

You can see "The President" in Boston tonight, as part of the MFA's end of January Iranian Film Fest

http://www.mfa.org/programs/series/the-boston-festival-of-films-from-iran

It's showing in Copenhagen as well this week. Think I'll go tomorrow.

The President sneaking into one New York theater today for a week

its brilliant i think. underrated, actually.

hafta say i thought it was a misfire, kinda hated the moppet (American child actors really are the best)

some good scenes of course, mostly in the last third

I liked it. Thought the kid was kinda universal in some ways

ICA in London are doing a makhmalbaf season. 35mm prints of salaam cinema and moment of innocence (only ever seen them on dvd so hoping to make it), and digital screenings of some of his more recent stuff - i dont know much about the gardener or daddys school but they sound interesting (though as they are only about an hour long, would have been nice to have had them as a double bill).

https://www.ica.org.uk/whats-on/season/mohsen-makhmalbaf-focus

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

Iranian Film Fest has been going on in DC area (continues to March 1). Lots of Kiarostami. Plus I saw this:

Reza Dormishian’s latest, Lantouri, is a harrowing, suspenseful effort about the relationship between a criminal rehabilitation activist and a troubled member of a cold-blooded gang of thieves who falls in love with her. Some scenes that graphically invoke the legal concept of “an eye for an eye” are gruesome, while others, employing a range of speakers, will test the viewer’s ability to read subtitles quickly. Reportedly influenced by Jean-Luc Godard and Iranian documentaries, Dormishian’s confrontational work addresses women’s and human rights and questions how far the notion of forgiveness should go

and this:

For longtime followers of Iranian cinema, brilliant actress Leila Hatami needs no introduction. Feted with awards around the world for her performances in such films as Leila and A Separation, she is one of Iran’s most recognizable and compelling performers. In Soheil Beiraghi’s debut, she plays the force-of-nature queen of Tehran’s underground, a ruthless and enigmatic fixer, staying one step ahead of the law as she forges passports, moves illicit booze, and effortlessly emasculates a musical protégé. Me (aka I) is an eye-opening depiction of Tehran’s surprisingly robust underworld. (Soheil Beiraghi, 2016, Persian and English with subtitles, 84 minutes

Wonder if I should see "Taste of Cherry" Saturday? It seems to be a hate or love it effort.

Only one way to find out! :) I loved it, personally, and think it's one of his best.

Great bill, this festival.

Taste of Cherry is awesome

The Saless retro looks like a must

Don't know him at all, and neither does anyone in my Letterboxd feed except Jonathan Rosenbaum. So retro here should follow.

Still Life was incredible, given a one-off broadcast on TV here many years ago.

Don't know anything else so it'll be a discovery.

https://www.freersackler.si.edu/events/films/#/?i=2

Annual Iranian Film Festival going on in DC for free. I saw Oscar nominated Film “Breath.” A sad touching effort about a young girl and her family in late 1970s end of Shah era Iran.

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.