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=> Re: If Israel was Lichtenstein...or Belize....

Re: If Israel was Lichtenstein...or Belize....
Posted by Marcello (Guest) georgiomalik@yahoo.com - Sunday, February 6 2011, 9:29:12 (UTC)
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I asked my mom and she loves Aghassi who happens to be from her hometown of Ahwaz, I think.

Iranian cinema was historically in accordance to the political state of affairs. For example, the emulation of Western lifestyles was used to shape the consciousness of Iranian public to not only accept Western culture and domination, but to incorporate it in daily life; which, in effect, alienated more than half of Iranians who were barely literate and were living below the level of poverty.

In the 60's Hollywood's young filmmakers (Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Arthur Penn, etc.) were engaged in a cinematic revolution of their own - many of whom were influenced by the French "New Wave" (who, in turn, were paying homage to Hollywood's post WWII "Film Noire" - you know, like the Bogart films, were everything is in the dark of night (Noire) and nothing and no one seems to be what they are). The dark, existentialist aspect of "Film Noire" in some ways had to do with the fact that most of the writers were Jewish, some of whom survivors of the Holocaust.

During the years 1967 (when Arthur Penn's "Bonnie and Clyde" exploded on screens) to 1974, the Iranian film industry began producing films by young writers and directors who were depicting the realism of Tehran's poverty and the injustice of such a lopsided society under the opulent reign of the Shah.

But sometime around 1975 the standards changed and the industry began making more movies that resemble Mexican movies from the same period that are on Telemundo late night: Big dumb, big-ass, busty women dancing while a bunch of mustached guys fight - movie after movie.

Then during the Islamic Revolution two things happened: All of the great - domestic and international - uncensored, political films were showing in theaters, and at the same time, there were groups of people who were burning down movie houses because to them it represented Western decadence. This was the period when my father would take my brother and I to the cinema. I still remember the films: Costa Gavras (Greek communinst direcor) made three films with French actor and activist, Yves Montand: "Z", "Confession" and "State of Seige" - all three were controversial in the US at the time and all three are relevant today in sharing insight to how dictatorships work.

What transpired later were propaganda, war films during the regrettable Iran/Iraq War... But from the ashes of that rose the new, authentic and wonderful Iranian Cinema, renown world-wide for its simple and honest poetry. According to filmmaker, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, the Europeans have a rich history of painting and photography from which they draw inspiration to help shape their cinematic language. We, Iranians, do not want to copy their language, as wonderful as it is, it is theirs, grown out of their history. Since visual representation is forbidden in Islam, we don't have a history of art and painting like those of the West. We draw and shape our visual language from our Persian Poets and the timeless, mystical landscape of our poetry.



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