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Tag Archives: Iran
The boy in the green bandana
In Jafar Panahi’s entertaining yet pointedly critical film Offside, about five or six girls who dress up as boys in order to enter the Tehran soccer stadium for the World Cup qualifying match between Iran and Bahrain (filmed in 2005 … Continue reading
“And yet, the hope of creating again is a reason for existence.” — hero Jafar Panahi, from prison
I am having a distinct – and enraging – sense of deja vu right now. 11 years apart. Identical situation. Only the second one is worse. Because it’s 11 years later and we’re still dealing with this shit. In July … Continue reading
What to Know About Jafar Panahi
My friend Nicolas Rapold (former editor in chief of Film Comment, the man who gave me my column) wrote a great piece about Jafar Panahi for the New York Times. Nic gives a brief summary of what has happened, and … Continue reading
Here we go again: Three Iranian filmmakers arrested
This is so heartbreaking. On or around his birthday, amazing Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi was arrested along with fellow filmmakers Mohammad Rasoulof (The White Meadows, Manuscripts Don’t Burn, There is No Evil ) and Mostafa Al-e Ahmad (Poosteh), and vanished … Continue reading
“Fear adjective; they bleed nouns. Hate the passive.” — poet Basil Bunting
It’s his birthday today. By all accounts, including his own, Basil Bunting was some kind of genius prodigy. Along with everything else, he was also Iran correspondent for the London Times for a bit, and was very interested in Persia … Continue reading
Posted in Books, On This Day, writers
Tagged Basil Bunting, England, Ezra Pound, Iran, Michael Schmidt, poetry, W.B. Yeats
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January 2020 Viewing Diary
Hell Is for Heroes (1962; d. Don Siegel) A spare lean and mean war movie – pretty standard, actually – except Steve McQueen is actually presenting a character study here, a character he probably knows something about. He is eerie … Continue reading
Posted in Monthly Viewing Diary, Movies, Television
Tagged Al Pacino, Brad Pitt, children's movies, Colin Farrell, comedy, coming of age, crime movies, Dean Stockwell, documentary, Dorothy Arzner, drama, Dustin Hoffman, England, France, Ginger Rogers, heist movies, Iran, Iranian film, Jean Arthur, Joaquin Phoenix, Joel McCrea, John Sturges, Judy Garland, Katharine Hepburn, Leonardo DiCaprio, Lucille Ball, Martin Scorsese, Maureen O'Hara, musicals, Nick Nolte, Quentin Tarantino, Robert De Niro, romantic comedy, screwball comedy, Steve McQueen, Supernatural, true crime, war movies, women directors
3 Comments
Present Tense: on Daughters of the Sun (2000)
I wrote about Maryam Shahriar’s 2000 film Daughters of the Sun for my next Present Tense column on Film Comment.
Posted in Movies
Tagged drama, Iran, Iranian film, Present Tense, reviews, women directors
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More 2018 Movies to See
So all this Top 10 stuff gets a little bit too competitive for me sometimes. There can’t be a “winner” anyway, in art. It doesn’t work like that. This has been a really good year and I’ve seen a lot … Continue reading
Posted in Movies
Tagged Al Pacino, Burt Reynolds, documentary, Elvis Presley, Iran, Iranian film, James Baldwin, Keanu Reeves, Orson Welles, Oscar Wilde, Sanaa Lathan, women directors
10 Comments
November 2018 Viewing Diary
Mr. Soul! (2018; d. Melissa Haizlip) The opening night film of Indie Memphis, which already feels like it was 20 years ago. I wrote about it briefly in my recap of the festival for Ebert. It’s a gorgeous film. Supernatural, … Continue reading