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Tag Archives: Jafar Panahi
Jafar Panahi on Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show
I am so glad this happened. The language barrier often means filmmakers as important as Jafar Panahi don’t do the talk show circuit. In fact, I don’t think he ever has before. But It was Just an Accident is nominated … Continue reading
January 2026 Snapshots
January has lasted four months. What a terrible month. I mean, good stuff happened but the stress and dismay is constant. It’s been really cold – colder than it’s been in years – and we had two big storms in … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Movies, Personal
Tagged Frankenstein, friends, Guillermo del Toro, Jafar Panahi, Mary Shelley, snapshots
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Solidarity, or: The boy in the green bandana
In 2011, as a hopeless protest in response to the the arrest of Iranian director Jafar Panahi, one of my faves, I came out of my shell blog-wise and hosted an “Iranian Film Blogathon“. So many people participated and I … Continue reading
2025 National Society of Film Critics Awards
It’s the 60th year of the National Society of Film Critics. We met up in New York / Los Angeles / Zoom to vote today. We also have a couple of fun categories – like Best Experimental Film – and … Continue reading
Posted in Movies
Tagged Argentina, Brazil, documentary, Ethan Hawke, Iranian film, Jafar Panahi, Norway, Paul Thomas Anderson, Richard Linklater, Russia
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August-November 2025 Viewing Diary
I haven’t watched much this year, beyond what I was assigned to review. Of course at end of year I have to scramble to catch up, which I am still doing. Instead I watched a lot of true crime, re-watched … Continue reading
Posted in Monthly Viewing Diary, Movies, Television
Tagged baseball, Brazil, crime movies, documentary, drama, England, France, Frankenstein, Guillermo del Toro, historical drama, horror, Iran, Iranian film, Italy, Jafar Panahi, Jennifer Lawrence, literary adaptation, Martin Scorsese, Nick Nolte, Patricia Arquette, Roman Polanski, romantic comedy, Russia, Sissy Spacek, true crime, Ukraine, women directors, X-Files
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NYFCC 2025 winners
We met yesterday to vote on the year’s best. It’s always a somewhat grueling process, because it’s about counting, and tallying up all the blind votes. We often go into multiple rounds. But we did eventually come up with the … Continue reading
Posted in Movies
Tagged Brazil, Iranian film, Jafar Panahi, Paul Thomas Anderson, Russia, women directors
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Today, the Sheila Variations turns 23.
I don’t even know what to say. And now I will proceed to say some shit. The above pic of me – taken by Michael – graced the top of my original blog, when I set it up 23 years … Continue reading
Posted in On This Day, Personal
Tagged Block Island, Cary Grant, Croatia, Dean Stockwell, Elvis Presley, family, friends, Hope, Humphrey Bogart, Iran, Ireland, Jafar Panahi, Joanna Hogg, July and Half of August, Martin Scorsese, Memphis, politics, Raging Bull, September 11, Supernatural, Tilda Swinton, war
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“If someone spends his life writing the truth without caring for the consequences, he inevitably becomes a political authority in a totalitarian regime.” — Václav Havel
“Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.” — Václav Havel Václav Havel, whose birthday … Continue reading
Posted in On This Day, Theatre, writers
Tagged Czechoslovakia, Golshifteh Farahani, Iran, Iranian film, Jafar Panahi, scripts, Shabnam Toloui, Vaclav Havel, war
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“Nothing can prevent me from making films.” — Jafar Panahi
It’s his birthday today. Jafar Panahi should need no introduction, but just in case… Jafar Panahi is an Iranian director with an international reputation, and a daunting list of films, many of which were made under terrible conditions (The White … Continue reading
Posted in Directors, Movies, On This Day
Tagged Abbas Kiarostami, Iran, Iranian film, Jafar Panahi, Offside
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“Cinema seats make people lazy. They expect to be given all the information. But for me, question marks are the punctuation of life.” — Abbas Kiarostami
It’s the birthday today of the great Iranian filmmaking master. Paying tribute to him – and the country from which he sprung – feels right, albeit sad, in this terrible disgraceful week. When Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami died at the … Continue reading
Posted in Directors, Movies, On This Day
Tagged Abbas Kiarostami, Certified Copy, Iran, Iranian film, Jafar Panahi, Juliette Binoche
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