Essay on Cinematic Film Monthly August 22, 2022 -
The original text is in Persian and the following translation was done by Ai.
Henas
Henas is a custom-made film, but at the same time, due to the subject and the acting of Behrouz Shoaibi and especially Merila Zarei, it can take the viewer with it to some extent. The subject is about one of the nuclear martyrs, who, coincidentally, was not very old. Dariush Rezaeinejad, whose assassination also had a more melodramatic aspect of victimhood since it was in front of his young wife and young child, and this potential grounding has provided an artistic processing for it. At the same time, Henas carries with it the classic disadvantages of custom films: black and white characters, the inability to be creative and create ambiguity, the ability of the audience to guess the scene ahead are the causes of these cases. Another point is that the film does not have the necessary cinematic charms, and even the assassination scene has a serious flaw in the production and is therefore not believable. Finally, it should be said that the film has no significant strengths or weaknesses, and the audience leaves the theater without being impressed by the film's cinematic aspect - even though it is accompanied by the true story and is reminded of it in their minds.
Zero Day
Zero Day is a film completely foreign to Iranian cinema, in the style of Hollywood light and easy-to-understand films with a multifaceted hero: he goes from Europe to Iran, from Iran to Afghanistan, south, north and everywhere, and repels and neutralizes all the country's security threats. The focus of the story is the activity and arrest of Abdulmalek Rigi. However, the dominance, type of behavior, clothing, face and all the first-person aspects of the film are foreign, unrealistic and disproportionate to the viewer's experience. Even the interactions, capabilities and relationships of the people in this film are Hollywood-like and unbelievable. In addition, the work is also devoid of technical presence and without a significant director, it can never capture the audience's mind. The film brings to mind commissioned but meaningless series like Gando, where one person is Superman and has done everything that a citizen of today remembers single-handedly, and in a sense, it seems as if all the trouble is on his shoulders. This style of commissioning the film, due to its incredibleness, does not meet the purpose of the commissioning party. Because it is more like a claim and boasting than a real demonstration of abilities that seeks to create empathy with the audience for the purpose intended by the creator of the work.
The Sixth Day
The Sixth Day is a film with a new form. The charm of the main actor, especially along with the fast rhythm of the story and successive events, creates a significant attraction for the viewer, although the story falls into the trap of making the characters very dark at points, and this excess is the weakness of the script. The lighting of the film is not eye-catching, and this has neutralized the director's small effort in creating a few single mise-en-scènes with visual appeal.
The problem with the film is the exaggeration in the rhythm of the dialogues. The ping-pong dialogues and the very crowded listening space make it difficult for the viewer to follow the details, and sometimes one feels the need to take notes to follow the characters and their statements. Meanwhile, although the back-and-forth dialogues can be a screenwriter's strengths, when they are excessive, they sometimes indicate the director's avoidance of creating other dimensions of a dramatic work. It is as if the work is no longer a movie but a radio or written play. Such dialogues put the viewer in such a state of urgency that his mind does not pursue the technical and formal dimensions of creating a dramatic work.
Lamineur
With all due respect to Mr. Dariush Mehrjui, whose unique films we have seen in his past, Lamineur is a full-fledged king's suit. If we just take the director's name off the film, it probably won't be well received. The film Asir is a slogan-driven story with characters that are not developed and are very vivid. The concern for music is certainly respectable, but this respect alone does not justify any style and quality of filmmaking. An actor like Siamak Ansari was clearly a bad choice for a role that did not stick to him in every way. Even the scene changes are elementary, like student slides, and in no way evoke artistic minimalism. Ali Nasirian's performance is, of course, the only strong point of the film that seems wasted. It is as if Dariush Mehrjui has used a five-star legionnaire for a neighborhood football match.
The two selected focal points of the work are one subject that is of interest due to the sensitivities of civil society to art, music, and freedom from unnecessary and meaningless traditional constraints, and the other is the environment and scenes that, through the use of locations such as the garden, carpet shop, and Shemiran's weaving, especially when accompanied by the whisper of the film's lead role's musical practice, create enjoyable situations for the viewer, as if an attempt is being made to compensate for the weaknesses and holes in the script and the film itself.
Bone Marrow
The greatest strength of the film Bone Marrow was the new story and the novel situation in which the author placed the audience. The main idea of the film, which was based on contradictions in the legal aspects of health, created moments that made the viewer feel obligated to make a decision, which led to his identification with the film's character.
Dramatic art is supposed to tell a story. Bone Marrow has a new story. Its narrative is both impressive and acceptable. This means that both the writer and the director have done their job to an acceptable level, and the most important thing is not to create repetitive stories that the viewer has seen or read similar works many times.
Parinaz Izadyar and Javad Ezzati's acting is realistic while being dense, and the reader does not remain aware of their acting. Except that the film remains on the idea of good, but the role of the element of expediency in modern life and the conflicts that sometimes occur between the law, our basic feelings, and the expediency that sometimes leads to the survival of a human being provide the viewer with reasons to think and rethink. The story has a good complexity, and this, along with the brilliant performances, compensates for the mediocre production in terms of technology and the not-so-skillful dialogue writing of the film.
Without a Prior Appointment
Without a Prior Appointment was a film that was heavily sloganized and lacked the charm of an average cinematic work. The story had almost no complexity, was not believable, and the element of exaggeration was evident in the characterizations. The characters were very typical and no effort was made to produce them. Whether it was the first person, the lawyer, the businessman's brother, or the engineer. The story was also repetitive, and many times such spiritual developments have passed by the eyes of Iranian cinema viewers due to a single incident. Therefore, the viewer must take a magnifying glass and look for elegance, precision, originality, and the way the work was made. Without a prior appointment, it suffers from exaggerated symbolism and has not neglected almost any symbol that comes to mind in the making of the film. The incredibleness, especially in the relationship between the deceased father and his daughter, is another obvious flaw of the film. The work seeks exceptions in life, and exceptions are not so much the priority of the audience's mind. Especially if this exception itself has become a predictable rule due to repetition and frequency, and no creativity has been expended to produce an innovative version of the same old story.
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