Cinemadoosti: Iranian Cinephile Documentaries

Poster for VHS Diaries

A programme curated for DocuNight, currently streaming on their platform. Although I have discussed Jerry and Me here, the rights couldn't be acquired by DocuNight, so this one is not being streamed as planned. — EK

In Memory of Negahdar Jamali

This programme celebrates the intense passion for film and its possibilities that persists among Iranians, in a series of documentaries that reflect 'cinemadoosti' – the Persian word for cinephilia. These are films about daydreaming and the high price one pays for it, the story of marginalised and estranged people whose passion for cinema becomes their raison d'être.

The image of an Iranian cinephile asserts certain clichés which are not entirely unfounded: often a lonely male who collects filmic memorabilia and devours the content of film magazines; a figure occasionally facile and portentous yet burnt by an unbounded love for the movies. A name-dropper and date-of-production memoriser who likes to be seen as a walking film history, a 'cinemadoost' (cinephile) living in a parallel universe.

The Glass Key (Stuart Heisler, 1942)

After the successful Hollywood adaptation of Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon, Paramount joined the race to find another story by the author to bring to the screen. When an initial attempt to make a film based on Red Harvest (with Alan Ladd as the lead) fell through, the studio dusted off one of its older properties, The Glass Key, previously filmed by Frank Tuttle in 1935. 

The Forgotten Revolution: Iranian Cinema Before 1979 (A Retrospective at Sinema Transtopia, Berlin, September 2021)

Downpour (1972)

The Revolution of 1978-79 changed both the fate and face of Iran. Like most revolutions, it also suppressed the past and its images – and with it one of the most innovative cinemas of its time. This programme aims to show some of the key films from the more progressive cinematic revolution, which was discontinued by a social one for which the country eventually became known. Films banned, lost or simply forgotten are revived in this overview of Iranian cinema before 1979, which features German premieres of newly restored Iranian New Wave masterpieces. Starting and moving forward from the 1962 Oberhausen prize-winner The House Is Black, directed by poet Forough Farrokhzad, the programme traces the course of the blazing years before the Revolution. — Ehsan Khoshbakht

This selection of Iranian pre-revolutionary films plays at Bi'Bak's Sinema Transtopia (Berlin) in September 2021. For further information on the screenings and tickets visit Transtopia's website here.

Ahmad Shah Qajar Being Filmed for Fox Newsreel

The last Qajar king being filmed

 
Ahmad Shah Qajar, the last shah of the Qajar dynasty (1789-1925), being filmed in Paris by Frédéric Fesneau for the Fox Newsreel in either 1925 or 1926 (a year after he was stripped of his title, so no longer the Shah of Iran).

Il Cinema Ritrovato XXXXV

 
Download the guide to Il Cinema Ritrovato 2021 in pdf format.

The full line-up and titles in each strand will be announced later.

Il Cinema Ritrovato 2021

A few days ago we reopened Cineteca’s cinemas and all the screenings are seeing an extraordinary presence of audiences. It’s been a wonderful start!

The 35th edition of Il Cinema Ritrovato will take place in person in the theatres and open-air venues of Bologna between July 20 to 27, 2021.

The programme is fantastically rich and full of discoveries from across the world, an invitation to start experiencing again the thrill of being part of an audience, watching and sharing cinema masterpieces.

Also this year, for all those who will not be able to attend in person, a selection of films from the festival will be made available through the MYmovies streaming platform.

The Glass Key (Frank Tuttle, 1935)

The Glass Key (1935)

Written in spring 2020 for the catalogue of Il Cinema Ritrovato. EK

Based on a celebrated novel by Dashiell Hammett, The Glass Key focuses on the relationship between a crooked businessman and his loyal associate, whose plans for the upcoming election are blown apart by a murder. The story first appeared in “Black Mask” magazine in 1930. Paramount bought the movie rights for $25,000 before the hardcover edition was even published in 1931. Though Gary Cooper was announced as the leading actor, the film was not made until 1935, possibly due to a fear of failure (the crime cycle of the early 1930s was quickly falling out of fashion). 

However, Tuttle’s take was very different, shaping the characters in a more psychologically nuanced way. Ed Beaumont (played by George Raft in one of the better roles of his career) is a rye-drinking, sharp-dressed gambler who protects businessman Paul Madvig (Edward Arnold) against rival gangs and is smart enough to tell him what to wear too. Madvig is backing a local senator in his electoral campaign, and also plans to marry his daughter; meanwhile Madvig’s own daughter, Opal, is in a relationship with the senator’s troubled son. Ed stays cool-headed, balancing these conflicting interests, which are increasingly open to exploitation by a rival gang. When the senator’s son (Ray Milland) is killed, the rival gang mobilise their newspapers to accuse Madvig of the crime. 

The Crown Jewels of Iran (Ebrahim Golestan, 1965) | Notes on the film and its restoration

Ebrahim Golestan's 1965 short documentary, Ganjineha-ye Gohar [in English: The Crown Jewels of Iran], will be screened at International Film Festival Rotterdam 2021. This will mark the world premiere of the restored version and a new beginning for a film very difficult or even impossible to screen in a cinema for almost 55 years. Like its title, The Crown Jewels of Iran is a true jewel of Iranian cinema, though so far a buried one. 

Made for the Central Bank of Iran to celebrate the collection of precious jewels kept in the treasury, this film remains filmmaker Ebrahim Golestan's most visually dazzling work, embellished with terrific camera movements. 

Some of the most iconic landscape photography in the history of Iranian cinema can be found within a minute after the opening credits, in which peasants of various ethnicities and tribes are quickly reviewed, all posed in a graceful manner, like kings without being kings. Like a work of musical composition, a simple act of ploughing is spread across shots of various size and angle, creating an intimate visual symphony. And then appears one of Golestan's allegorical match-cuts: a farmer seen on the horizon before a cut to a diamond on a dark background – the farmer is the jewel. 

The Deer Freed — On International Rediscovery of Masoud Kimiai's Classic

The Deer گوزنها

اولین حضور رسمی فیلم گوزن‌ها در صحنۀ بین‌المللی کمی دیر رخ داده، اما برای دیده شدن فیلم‌هایی با اهمیت تاریخیِ گوزن‌ها هرگز دیر نیست.

فستیوال رتردام 2021 در هلند، گوزن‌ها را برای نمایش در بخش Regained فستیوال انتخاب کرده است، فیلمی که به خاطر حوادث سیاسی و اجتماعی‌ای که به طور مستقیم و غیر مستقیم به نمایش این فیلم در ایران گره خورده و محبوبیت کم‌نظیر آن بین تماشاگران و منتقدان ایرانی (در واقع یکی از معدود فیلم‌هایی ایرانی که هر دو دسته دربارۀ آن متفق‌القول‌اند) باید دهه‌ها پیش دوباره کشف می‌شد.

من همیشه دربارۀ شانس موفقیت گوزن‌ها در خارج از ایران تردید داشتم و مطمئن نبودم فیلمی باشد که غیرایرانی‌ها آن را دریابند. نمایش‌های اخیر فیلم و ارزش‌های مسلم آن ثابت کردند که من اشتباه می‌کردم. بازی بهروز وثوقی (یکپژوهشگر و استاد دانشگاه اسپانیایی/بریتانیایی اخیراً بازی وثوقی را بهترین و دقیق‌ترین تصویر اعتیاد در سینما خواند)، فضای خانۀ سید، مضامین سیاسی فیلم و الهام خلاقانه از سینمای آمریکا، به خصوص موج فیلم‌های «دورفیق» از ایری رایدر تا بوچ‌ کسیدی و ساندنس کید، این اثر مسعود کیمیایی را به یکی از محبوب‌ترین فیلم‌های ایرانی نمایش داده شده در خارج از ایران تبدیل کرده است.

نمایش این فیلم هم‌چنین مهم‌ترین وظیفه‌ای را که در قبال گوزن‌ها داریم یادآور می‌شود: این فیلم باید هرچه زودتر مرمت شود. دلیلی برای به تأخیر انداختن آن وجود ندارد. در فیلم، رقص برهنه یا سکس وجود ندارد. فیلمی است که سرنوشت‌اش پیوندی محکم با مسیر انقلاب ایران دارد. آیا مشکل هم‌چنان بهروز وثوقی است؟ اگر این حدس درست باشد، ایران یکی از معدود کشورهای دنیاست که قصد دارد یکی از بهترین بازی‌های سینمای ملی‌اش را به خاطر مهمانی آخر شبی که بازیگر آن نیم قرن پیش رفته، زنده‌به‌گور کند. آیا 42 سال شکنجۀ دائمی وثوقی در خواب و بیداری کافی نیست؟

Playing with Camera: 'Music Films' from Bach to Bob Dylan (2021)

من هم مثل خیلی‌ از فرزندان عصر سینما و تلویزیون، بخش عمده‌ای از تاریخ موسیقی را از طریق تصاویر متحرک و با دیدن نوازندگان و موسیقی‌دانان و خوانندگان در فیلم‌های داستانی و مستند کشف کرده‌ام. بین آواز و ساززدن لویی آرمسترانگ به‌عنوان قطعات ضبط‌شدۀ موسیقی با تصویر ثبت‌شدۀ او در فیلم‌ها، با آن عرق روی پیشانی و چشمان درشت‌شده و زخم روی لبش که حاصل دهه‌ها دمیدن در ترومپت‌ بود، ارتباطی حیاتی وجود داشت. این نه‌فقط برای دیدن کشمکش فیزیکی یک موزیسین با خودش و بدنش و سازش در حین اجرا، بلکه برای دیدن روابط او با بقیۀ موزیسین‌ها بود و اینکه آرمسترانگ چطور فضای پیراموش را می‌بلعد، چطور به طبّال گروه با شوق نگاه می‌کند و نخ می‌دهد یا چه شوخی‌هایی در گوش جک تیگاردن زمزمه می‌کند که ما هرگز نمی‌شنویم. شنیدن کی بود مانند دیدن؟

شاهکارهای مستند دربارۀ موسیقی، مانند جاز در ظهری تابستانی، پشت‌سر را نگاه نکن و مونتری پاپ، هم به درک من از انواع مختلف موسیقی که در آن‌ها شنیده می‌شد (جاز، راک‌اندرول، گاسپل، فولک، راک، موسیقی سنتی هندی) کمک کرده‌اند و هم اطلاعات بی‌اندازه مهمی در خود داشته‌اند دربارۀ ارتباط موسیقی با جوامع و دوره‌های فرهنگی که این آثار موسیقی از آن‌ها برآمدند. هدف این کتاب مطالعۀ هر دو جریان و نقش سینما در ترجمۀ آن به تصویر و چگونگی بازنمایی موسیقی است.

این کتاب حاصل دو دهه نوشتن دربارۀ سینمای موسیقی است و رویکردی تجدیدنظرطلبانه دارد، هم تجدیدنظر در موضوع در مقایسه با آثار مکتوب دیگر و هم تجدیدنظرِ خود این نویسنده در دریافتش از موسیقی که این آخری باعث شد بخش عمده‌ای از نوشته‌ها و دیدگاه‌هایی را که در اوایل کار دربارۀ موسیقی داشتم، دور بریزم و آن‌ها را در طرحی تازه بیان کنم.

Brecht in a Persian Miniature: A 1978 Interview with Iranian Filmmaker Marva Nabili

The Sealed Soil (1976-77)

Marva Nabili's The Sealed Soil [Khak-e Sar bé Mohr] has been rediscovered and reclaimed in recent years as a feminist masterpiece. However, judging from the interview you are about to read, the film didn't enjoy the same enthusiastic reception upon its initial release. Though premiered at the Berlinale Forum (along with films by Dorothy Arzner, Sohrab Shahid Saless, Germaine Dulac, Laura Mulvey, Karin Thome, Ursula Ludwig, John Cassavetes, Barbara Kopple, Godard & Miéville and Taviani brothers) and enjoying a healthy festival run afterwards, it was forgotten until its name appeared on a couple of lists about great films made by women directors. It was then that both Cahiers du Cinéma and Sight & Sound took note of the film and the filmmaker (who made only one other work, for the US television.) In Sight & Sound, the film's "poetic tone, sparse dialogue and focus on its heroine’s daily life" was compared to Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman.

Chronicling the life of woman in a small village in southwest Iran, the film's US premiere took place on January 25, 1978, at Pacific Film Archive where my friend, Tom Luddy, interviewed Marva Nabili. Below is an edited version of that conversation of which an audio tape of poor sound quality survives. Since some of the audience questions are inaudible even to the people present in the auditorium, Tom occasionally repeats them for Marva. He also has the unenviable task of translating and abridging the long-winded, abstract questions. (I have altered the order of some of the question/answers to have the more general questions appear at the beginning.)

The reason I bothered to transcribe the interview was the fact that I was hoping to show the film in Berlin next month (Sinema Transtopia, May 2021) but I discovered that the Arsenal/Berlinale print of the film is too worn-out to be screened. Even before this revelation. I knew a restoration was much needed and already long overdue. If someone comes forward, there's a good chance that we could make this great piece of cinema available to general audiences. Hopefully, next time around they'll ask more sensible questions.

* * *

TOM LUDDY: Is the first American showing of the film to a public audience?

MARVA NABILI: Yes.

LUDDY: Well, we're very honoured. Can you talk a little bit about your life as a woman filmmaker in Iran?