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Tag Archives: Iranian film
Review: Appropriate Behavior (2015); from writer/director/star Desiree Akhavan
I had been looking forward to seeing this: written and directed by Desiree Akhavan, who also stars as the lead character, Shirin. The movie uses all the familiar cliches of a Brooklyn-area hipster lesbian love story, with an insistently deadpan … Continue reading
Jafar Panahi Will Not Be Silenced
Jafar Panahi was arrested in 2009 on the suspicion of making a film critical of the regime in Iran. He was not allowed to travel, to give interviews, to make films. He was in prison. He went on hunger strike. … Continue reading
Year in Review: Running my mouth in 2014
I may write some magnum opus in the next two days, you never know, but here are links to some of the things I’ve written in 2014, here and elsewhere. I have worked hard to keep my site an eclectic … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Movies, Music, Personal
Tagged Alfred Wertheimer, Anna Magnani, Austria, Carroll Baker, Christopher Hitchens, Claude Rains, Eli Wallach, Elvis Presley, Eminem, France, friends, Gena Rowlands, Germany, Harry Potter, Howard Hawks, Inherent Vice, Iran, Iranian film, Israel, Italy, Jafar Panahi, Japan, Jim Jarmusch, Joan Crawford, John Cassavetes, Juliette Binoche, Kristen Wiig, Kwik Stop, Lars von Trier, Lauren Bacall, Lester Bangs, Liv Ullmann, Lon Chaney, Love Streams, Mark Twain, Martin Scorsese, Nicolas Cage, Orpheus Descending, Palestine, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Poland, Richard Linklater, Romania, Russia, Seth Rogen, Seymour Cassel, Sudden Fear, Supernatural, Sweden, Tennessee Williams, The Beatles, The Everly Brothers, Tommy Lee Jones, Trotsky, war, year in writing, Zac Efron
14 Comments
My Favorite Films of 2014
My Top 10 (more in-depth commentary, and other writer’s choices over at Rogerebert.com): 1. Beyond the Lights, directed by Gina Prince-Blythewood. 2. Boyhood, directed by Richard Linklater. Review here. 3. Closed Curtain, directed by Jafar Panahi. Review here. 4. Force … Continue reading
Posted in Movies
Tagged Australia, Bong Joon-Ho, Denmark, documentary, France, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Germany, Iranian film, Jafar Panahi, Jean-Luc Godard, Jim Jarmusch, Josephine Decker, Kristen Stewart, Kristen Wiig, Lars von Trier, Paul Thomas Anderson, Poland, Richard Linklater, South Korea, Sweden, Vietnam, Wes Anderson, Zac Efron
35 Comments
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014); an Iranian vampire movie
I’ve seen it twice now. The first impression held. I’m basically in love with it. A vampire stalking an Iranian town. A vampire in a full chador. It’s an incredible first feature, written and directed by Ana Lily Amirpour. My … Continue reading
Closed Curtain (2014); directed by Jafar Panahi
A man enters a seaside villa and before doing anything else goes through every room, closing all the curtains. There are huge windows on every floor, looking out on the vast expanse of sea. There are a lot of curtains … Continue reading
Jafar Panahi: “Remember, a few months ago, because they didn’t allow me to go outside of the house, I said, ‘OK, I’ll open my windows and take shots of the sky.'”
Jafar Panahi, the Iranian director who was convicted in 2010 of crimes against the Islamic Republic (for basically making films that criticized the regime), was given a 6-year prison sentence as well as a 20-year ban on making films/writing/giving interviews. … Continue reading
Jafar Panahi Defies Ban
Jafar Panahi defies the ban and appears at a film festival, via Skype. And this is not even mentioning the fact that he has another film out, Closed Curtain, also defying the ban. I haven’t seen it yet. I cannot. … Continue reading
Circumstance (2011); Dir. Maryam Keshavarz
Four Iranian teenagers sit in a sound booth, headphones on, making obscene sex noises, doing intermittent shots of liquor to loosen up, and bursting into laughter, ruining the takes. The director is annoyed. They are in the process of dubbing … Continue reading