My Review of Through the Olive Trees (1994) directed by Abbas Kiarostami

 This is Abbas Kiarostami-ception reaching its peak as at one point we see the actor who played Kiarostami in And Life Goes On (1992) being directed by another actor who is playing "current" Kiarostami in Through The Olive Trees (1994), who are both being directed by the actual Kiarostami
(who makes a blink-and-you-miss-it cameo in the movie). This is some peak-Iranian New Wave. This movie is our finale of the Koker Trilogy and takes us behind the scenes of the interpersonal drama happening during the filming of And Life Goes On (1992).

This big contention is that two of the actors in one scene of ALGO were involved in a dispute where the guy—Hossein Rezai (what is it with Kiarostami and dudes named Hossein?)—wants to marry the girl—Taherah Landanian—playing his wife, but her family is firmly against it. This causes problems for for Kiarostami as she is ordered not to talk to Rezai and this brings filming to a halt. Such a story would be a sub-plot for in most films, but is the main thrust of this film. Hossein Rezai is a traicomic character in the style of that other Kiarostami-Hossein: Hossein Sabzain of Close Up (1990). While Sabzain's unrequited love was cinema itself, Rezai's unrequited love is Tahereh who is a bit naïve and vain and not average from what we see of her—yet Rezai really keeps you rooting for him, however hopeless his quest feels The open-ended ending reinforces that it was the journey, not the destination, that this film is highlighting as we bring our journey through Koker, Iran to a close.

And touching back on that, through-out this film we have had Babak Ahmadpour and his brother as side characters. Babak starred in the first film of the Koker Trilogy and the search to find out if he was alive after the 1990 earthquake in Koker was the whole reason for the second film in the trilogy. After confirming that he is still alive in the first 15 minutes of this film, the overall-plot moves on from him rather seamlessly and you would not know how important he was to Kiarostami's canon if this was the only film in the trilogy you had watched. Life Goes On, indeed!

My Review of ...And Life Goes On (1992) directed by Abbas Kiarostami

 This the Iranian New Wave at its peak. When Iranian film-makers decide to go to extremes of blurring fiction and reality in order to tell an honest story rather than a 100% accurate one, you get what Toni Morrison called "the site of memory." How much can you blend reality and fiction together until you gain the ability to almost change reality? On June  21, 1990 the Manjil–Rudbar Earthquake struck northern Iran and killed around 45,000 people. One of the hardest-hit places was the village of Koker where Abbas Kiarostami had filmed his movie Where Is the Friends House?                                         Kiarostami gets his son and immediately makes his way to Koker from Tehran to find Babak Ahmadpour—the boy who starred in WITFH?. The movie is a recounting of this journey.

As the title suggests, the main theme of this movie is that even after apocalyptic devastation, people keep on living. As Kiarostami traveled through the region, he was marked by the resilience of the people even as they were suffering and trying to collect themselves. This film also used a favorite filming method of Kiarostami; while he and his son were portrayed by actors, Kiarostami was always behind the camera interacting directly with people in the film. In doing this, he dares you to classify this as a realist film. The meta-nature of Iranian New Wave films of this era started getting criticized by the Iranian censors and this marked the beginning of Kiarostami's decline in standing with the régime (he never criticized the pre- or post-revolutionary regimes directly, so he was never explicitly banned or went into exile, but after 1999 it became much harder for him to show his films in Iran compared to internationally). 

Abbas Kiarostami always felt that the best films are the ones that look like they made themselves and that is on display here.

My Review of Where is the Friend's House? (1986) directed by Abbas Kiarostami

 I definitely needed to revisit the Iranian New Wave given all that's been happening in the world and my own life. This story is the first of Kiarostami's "Koker Trilogy" of movies that revolve around Koker, Iran. This first movie is a straight-forward neorealist film involving the protagonist trying to return the homework journal of his friend so that he does not get kicked out of school by his hard-ass teacher. There is no experimentation with the style here so I will talk mostly about the movie.

This movie is one of the last of Kiarostami's kid films where the protagonists are children and it is like a book-end of his second feature film The Traveler (1974). In the earlier film it was an evil little hellion that goes around looking for people to scam and goes on a journey only to get his poetic justice in the end. In this film it is a much more forthright kid who goes all over the province where he lives to find his school friend and return the book he picked up by mistake and the film also ends with poetic justice, but in a different way. Both films have jackass families, but this film sees the protagonist do right despite this while The Traveler's protagonist does the wrong thing. Where is the Friend's House?  makes you have to watch until the very end for the satisfying pay-off and just goes to show the beautiful humanism of the Iranian New Wave cinema at this time. A good ending can just make a film!

My Review of Taste of Cherry (1997) طعم گيلاس directed by Abbas Kiarostami

 Depending on who you ask, this film or Close-Up (1990) is thought to be the magnum opus of Abbas Kiarostami. I can't say, but like all of the films of the Iranian New Wave it is something that humbles you and really make you consider what it is to walk upon this Earth. Right now I am dealing with the back to back losses of my grandmother and my aunt so I may be foggy in my perspective, but I'll try to get this right. The plot of this film is not the important part, but the details of how the plot plays out.

Bahdii is the man who goes to different people with the macabre favor of burying him if his plan to take his life goes forward successfully and collect the payment he has left behind for them. Most people turn him down flatly, but he finds an old man who is willing to it–but trying to convince him not to take his life. He uses the analogy of being in a dark night of the soul himself and almost killing himself until he eats a cherry from the tree he had planned to hang himself with–hence the title. I'll leave the ending up to the viewer.

This film in the hands of a lesser or less sophisticated film-maker would have been a disaster, especially given how easy the plot could be given over to pretentious grand-standing. But we have one of the greatest humanist film-makers of all time and the top-dog of the Iranian New Wave working this project so it becomes a transcendent masterpiece. It is a quite masterpiece compared to Close-Up, but it does make one fell a certain lightness and thoughtfulness (at least that's how I felt). The featuring of so many ethnic minorities in this film was noted throughout this movie. Also, this may be the darkest Range Rover commercial ever created (some comedy for you in these sad times). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMbRV5d7TeY 

On Iranian New Wave Cinema

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I spent the last weekend or so going over some Iranian films from yesterday-year, specifically the two giants: Abbas Kiarostami & Mohsen Makhmalbaf. During the late 20th century, they made films unlike any I ever saw. I was not aware of Iranian cinema until the success in the West of A Separation (2011) by @asgharfarhadiofficial . I always hate when that happens of being late to the party. When I saw the feature on Iranian cinema from The Story of Film: An Odyssey, I knew I had to see some of these classic films. This has not been easy, given the political situation, but I have had a chance to watch some films:

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The Traveler (1974); Close-Up (1989); Salaam Cinema (1995); A Moment of Innocence (1996).

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The first two films are by Kiarostami (who died in 2016). The Traveler is about a boy who attempts to travel across Iran to see his favorite soccer team play. Close-Up is a documentary-on-steroids about a man whose obsession with film ruins his life. He ends up being arrested for trying to impersonate the director of the other two films films in the image. What makes the documentary unique is that AK gets all the people in the real life incident to re-enact their roles. Salaam Cinema was conceived by Makhmalbaf as a celebration of the 100th anniversary of film, but ends as a meditation on art and humanity (questioning if a true artist can really be humane). A Moment of Innocence recounts Makhmalbaf's time as a militant, during the last years of the Shah. It is a study of memory, violence, and how you truly try to save the world.

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I have to say, these films remind me so much of the work of Dostoevsky and Chekhov. Kiarostami's Close-Up is like watching a character from The Brothers Karamazov wander into Uncle Vanya. Salaam Cinema & AMOI sees our very Dostoevsky-inspired director push his actors to their emotional limit to make them (& us) discover deeper truths about being alive.

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These films are beautiful–emotionally devastating–but beautiful. Can't recommend them enough! #movie #movies #film #documentary #iranianfilm #iranianmovie #abbaskiarostami #mohsenmakhmalbaf #Mosāfer #thetraveler #closeupmovie #salaamcinema #amomentofinnocence #cinephilenoir

A post shared by Ken's Bookshelf & Movieshelf (@rinehartstation) on Nov 19, 2018 at 8:50pm PST