Abbas’ movie review

From August 3 to 13, 1995, the Locarno Film Festival, which was the first to bring Abbas's films to the international film scene, held a retrospective of Abbas's films, screening his films for the first time. All works. The film festival organizing committee published a full-page advertisement for the retrospective in the July-August issue of the French "Cahiers du Cinema" magazine, which included the following sentence to evaluate Abbas's films: This talented Iranian director created The images mark that contemporary films are reaching a new level every year. At the same time, this issue of "Cahiers du Cinema" (114 pages in total) also provides a comprehensive introduction to Abbas and all his films in 48 pages.

Advertisements may inevitably be exaggerated or untrue, but Abbas's reputation was indeed at its peak at that time. Although the 1990s have just passed, Abbas is already considered the most important film director to emerge in the world of cinema in the 1990s. (1) This bold view originated in Europe, but soon expanded to the entire West. Famous European and American directors such as Tarantino, Kusturica, Guidi Guian, Krabisch, Claire Simon, Godard, etc. There is great enthusiasm for Abbas, especially the uncoordinated director Godard, who has always been fond of making shocking remarks. It is said that after watching Abbas's film at the Cannes Film Festival, he openly declared: "Film begins with Griffith." , ends at Kiarostami!

(2) In the Western film world at that time, the reputation of this Eastern director even surpassed that of Kieslowski, who was also highly praised by the West. Dahl related. In 1994, Godard wrote a written letter of thanks to the New York Film Critics Association, politely refusing the film award awarded to him by the association, and at the same time condemning Americans for placing Kielowski's achievements above Kiarostadt. What Mi Shang did was a sign of dissatisfaction with the cold reception the Iranian director received in the United States.

(3) Godard’s move caused strong repercussions among American film critics. Soon after, "The White Balloon" (which won the Caméra d'Or at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival), written by Abbas and directed by Jafar Panassi, who had served as his assistant director, was released in art theaters in the United States and not only won wide acclaim , and set a box office record for Iranian films in the United States, and Abbas's name began to be truly recognized by American audiences.

In addition to the above-mentioned Makhmalbaf and Pahasi, famous contemporary Iranian directors include Masood Jafari Yozani and Kianush Ayari , Prang Drakshandekh, Lakstan Bani-Itmed, Nasai Tajivai, etc. It is worth mentioning that Abbas, who is self-taught, has spared no effort in supporting young film directors. He is willing to be a wedding dress for young filmmakers, plan films, edit and write scripts for them. Some people say that Abbas is the leader in contemporary Iranian films. The world plays the role of godfather.

(1) Godfrey Chessir, "Films that Raise Questions--On the Films of Abbas Kierostami", American Film Review Magazine, 1996, No. 7- Issue 8, Chinese (translated by Lin Qian) published in "Journal of Beijing Film Academy" Issue 1, 1997. The author of this article is an American film critic who mainly writes film reviews for The New York Times and Spectator magazines.

(2) Laura Mulvey "Kierostami's Uncertainty Principle", British "Picture and Sound" magazine, Issue 6, 1998, Chinese (translated by Mei Feng) "World Cinema" 》Issue 3, 1999. When I wrote this article, I was greatly inspired by the two articles of Cecil and Mulvey. Their quotations below are all from these two articles. I will not indicate them one by one, but will only indicate them before and after the quotation. In addition, both articles have been translated into Chinese. When quoting, I made some slight text adjustments with reference to the original text, and unified the names of people and business cards with this article.

(3) See Godard’s letter to Almon White, chairman of the New York Film Critics Circle, published in the March-April 1995 issue of the American Film Review magazine. Furthermore, according to Cecil, Godard preferred Kiarostami's earthy humanism to Kielowski's scheming mysticism.

(4) Stefani Gudai "The Taste of Cherry and the Taste of Mulberries--Commentary on "The Taste of Cherry"", French "Cinema Front" magazine, April 1998, No. 471 overall issue, in Chinese, see this issue of "Contemporary Film".

(5) The Iranian Youth Education and Development Association (commonly known as Kanun, the Spanish pinyin is Kanun) is an educational institution founded in the 1960s at the initiative of the Queen of Iran. It soon won the Government financial assistance. The institution does not have many departments such as painting and ceramics. The film department, established in 1969, soon became a rising star. In 1970, Abbas's first film won an award at the Iranian Children's Film Festival, and Qanun has since become a famous film production institution in Iran. After the 1979 Islamic revolution. The first Iranian film sent to participate in film festivals abroad was produced by this institution, and many films by contemporary Iranian film directors were shot here.

(6) Abbas, "Abbas's Autobiography", French "Cahiers du Cinema", Issue 7-8, 1995, No. 493 overall, Chinese (translated by Shan Wanli), see this issue of "Contemporary Cinema" 》, the quotations in this section are all from this article unless otherwise noted.

(7) Abbas "Movies Have No Passport - Abbas on "Gone with the Wind"", written by Thierry Huys and Serge Dubiana, France "Cahiers du Cinema" December 1999 issue, Chinese (translated by Shan Wanli), see this issue of "Contemporary Cinema".

(8) See "Kierostami - Interview with Abbas", Philip Ropat's interview with the American "Film Review" magazine, Issue 7-8, 1996, published in Chinese " Journal of Beijing Film Academy" (translated by Lin Qian) Issue 1, 1997.

(9) Refers to the audio signal of the movie screen, which is generally not projected on the screen when showing the movie.

(10) Li Yiming's "Experience Venice", published in "Contemporary Film" Issue 1, 2000.

(11) See "How to Fill the Emotional Hole--Comment on "Strip Club"" ("Contemporary Film" Issue 6, 1998). In "Strip Club", Igoyan believes that human emotions are like a void, but also like a black hole that is difficult to fill. Substituting things for things cannot solve the problem. In his next film "Beautiful Tomorrow" 91996, he tried his best to describe such a huge black hole. The words of the American poet Emily Dickinson quoted in the title of the novel on which the film is adapted may be even more important. It can explain his intention in making this film: due to meager talent and the constraints of language, the human mind has learned nothingness. Nothingness is a power that can make the world look new.

(12) Omar Khayyam (1048-1122) once served as a palace physician and in charge of astronomy. He also wrote some quatrains (similar to Chinese quatrains), but he did not Famous as a poet, his poems were not widely disseminated until they were translated into English in the 19th century (China published a collection of Khayyam's poems translated from English by Guo Moruo in 1928, titled "The Rubaiyat").

(13) Same as (4).

(14) Abbas "Six Sides of the Cube--Abbas talks about "Under the Olive Tree"", Michel Simon and Stéphane Gudai interviewed the French "Main Film" The February 1995 issue of the magazine is the 408th issue. For Chinese, see this issue of Contemporary Cinema.

(15) Abbas began to refer to Khayyam in his film creations in "Life Goes On". He also obtained creative inspiration from the works of contemporary Iranian poets, such as "Where Am I?" "Friends' House" refers to the work of the poet Sohrabi Sepehri, and the title of "Gone with the Wind" itself is taken from the poem of the same name by the female poet Fulu Farrokhzad.

(16) Same as (13), Cimarosa (1749-1801), an Italian opera composer.

(17) The Farabi Cinema Foundation is an unofficial film organization established in 1983 to promote the development of Iranian film culture.

(18) For information about new Iranian films in this section, please see: The Iranian Spring section of Laura Mulvey's "Kierostami's Uncertainty Principle"; French "Main Film" A group of articles published in the magazine in October 1991 (total issue 368) with the general title Abbas and Iranian New Cinema; Iranian film entries in Larousse's "Film Dictionary" (1995 edition) in France; Iranian film information The museum compiles "Iranian Cinema: 1979--1984".

(19) See "The Current State of Iranian Cinema" by Godfrey Chessir, American "Film Review" magazine, Issue 3-4, 1993.