Original 2017-03-20 Helen Director Help Director Help
Five years later, "The Salesman" directed by Iranian director Asghar Farhadi won the Best Foreign Language Film award again. The last award-winning film was "A Farewell" in 2012. Regardless of whether Farhadi attended the Oscars, or whether the award was mixed with the political pleasure of the organizing committee to slap Trump in the face, it is undeniable that the film is still affirmed by film critics and fans, even if its new film "The Salesman" "The influence cannot be compared with the masterpiece "A Farewell", but it really deserves the best picture. Asghar Farhadi, a film rookie born in Iran, has always insisted on a familiar narrative environment. The themes and themes of each of his works are generally similar, but they are all equally exciting, with a high degree of completion and reputation.
film genius born in iran
Iran is a magical land. Under the extremely severe and perverted political censorship of films, the film is booming, as can be seen from its repeated international awards in recent years. Even if it is similar to the output mode of "flowers inside the wall and fragrance outside the wall" like Chinese films, compared with our current situation where capital is chasing profits and lack of masterpieces, Iranian films are a series of excellent works of realistic themes. At the same time, it is also a holy place for Asian literary and artistic film masters, all of which are heavy and not inferior to Europe. From the great master Abbas Kiarostami, to the important leaders such as Majid Mediji, Jafar Panahi, Mussen Makmabaf, and then to the new generation of Samira Makmaba Husband, Bachman Gobadi, etc., Iranian directors have already played a pivotal role in the world film industry. The current leader of Iranian films is Asghar Farhadi, who is soft on winning awards. In his youth, he obtained a master's degree in theatre arts and stage directing from the University of Tehran, and then began to write plays and direct TV dramas. He started to attract attention from the second film "Beautiful City", the third film "Fireworks Wednesday" won the highest award at the 2006 Chicago International Film Festival, and the fourth film "About Ellie" won the 59th Silver Bear for Best Director at the Berlin Film Festival. The famous film theorist David Bordwell even called "About Eli" a "masterpiece". Afterwards, "A Farewell" and "The Salesman" both won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. His films are all written and directed by himself, and the author's style is strong. The theme focuses on the social reality of Iran, and presents objective and rational issues such as gender power differences, middle-class anxiety and spiritual loss, the quagmire and predicament of the two sexes in marriage, emotions such as religion and morality, and human nature choices. However, Farhadi is not a person who likes to talk about politics. His films focus more on people than politics.
Tell middle-class stories in your own language
"Fahadi is a director who uses his own language to tell stories about the middle class," said Khairi, an Iranian documentary filmmaker. "His works represent the daily life of the audience, which is why he has a huge following in Iran." Farhadi's films are always more or less disturbing and suspenseful, and have the magic power to directly hit the pain points of life. Although they are filled with dull, depressing and even hopeless emotions, they are not obscure or difficult to understand, and they are even beautiful. . The exquisite story structure, the natural performance of the actors, and the slow narrative rhythm attract the audience to follow the protagonist to find the exit of the problem, but after reading it, it brings people deep and unavoidable thinking. He is good at foreshadowing in advance, and the seemingly tedious and useless dialogue always hides mysteries, which promotes the development of the follow-up story and gets a response. At the beginning of "About Yili", Yili's "meaningful" phone call with her mother, as well as concealing her unhappy state of mind, will make the audience curious and puzzled, and that phone call has actually become a thin window to pierce Yili's moral wounds. In "Salesman", the students in the class casually said the information that their father was in the police station, which became the key to the male protagonist's "solving the case" later. Farhadi doesn't mess with your audiovisuals with useless babble, his films are like guessing games, more and more wanting to peel away without getting drowsy. It is not his intention to use hand-held photography with a slight shake. He once said in an interview, "When all the stories happen in front of the audience, hand-held photography is needed. This is the demand of the film itself, not me personally. I like it.” He doesn’t pursue photography skills too much, but concentrates on storytelling, with a strong sense of drama. The tension-oriented drama repeatedly pushes the characters to the extreme, and the characters need to spend more and more courage facing themselves and others. Going deeply into the characters is a playwriting technique that Farhadi is particularly good at. However, reversals and conflicts always occur naturally and unexpectedly, showing the director's strong ability to deal with dramatic conflicts and details. The person who entered the house in "The Salesman" was not a young man, but an old man with heart disease. The man who worked hard in "Fireworks Wednesday" turned out to be an out-and-out cheating scumbag. It's really exciting to turn around and reverse again. The lies of the male protagonist and the maid take turns, and the lies and distrust in society are the most difficult problems to solve. His films make good use of props and imagery. Although it is unavoidable to over-interpret, symbols and their metaphors are essential to understanding the film. In "About Yili", Yili's most splendid smile appeared in the bridge section of flying the kite. The red kite symbolized the freedom she desperately wanted. Whether she committed suicide because of moral issues or to save a drowning child, her freedom seems to be gained only by ending her life like a broken kite. Isn't "Fireworks Wednesday" a messy room in need of cleaning just a picture of the overgrown and chaotic married life of the hero and heroine? And the turban that the heroine tightly wraps her hair is a moral shackle tied to Iranian women, which seems to determine their power of life and death. "Salesman"'s crumbling old buildings, walls with obvious cracks, and the drama-within-a-play that eventually leads to tragedy, all hint at the end of the film where the two are separated and their marriage is difficult to heal.
Relationship Terminators, Focusing on Marital Anxiety and Moral Dilemmas
In Farhadi's films, the moral dilemma of Iranians largely stems from religion and belief. Women's injustice in social status and inability to grasp their fate are everywhere. Yili couldn't get rid of the man she was engaged to, suffering from being unable to let go of herself to pursue the person she liked, so she could only embarrass herself. After her disappearance, the first thing her fiancé did was to ask Yili if she had rejected the "blind date" event, and she didn't care about her life or death. In "Salesman", the heroine who was seen naked in the shower even suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, and her husband who was supposed to be concentric also changed his temperament. In a country where women have no right to speak, women's chastity, dignity, shame, and belief are more important than life. Therefore, in "A Farewell", the maid, who can help her husband pay off his debts by lying at the end, refuses to violate the teachings of the Koran no matter what. The social division between women and men is heavily guarded and the boundaries are clearly defined. Men's rights are always supremacy, and women's rights and human nature cannot be guaranteed, which also makes the life of the middle class full of thorns. And the anxiety of the middle class is as full of gunpowder as the extremely unstable and fair social reality, and it is just a point. In "A Farewell", Westminster insists on immigrating with children and therefore does not hesitate to divorce her husband. This is also the dilemma faced by Iranian intellectuals: when Iran is gradually modernizing and the influence of Western society is becoming more and more obvious, they realize that all kinds of social problems cannot be solved. problems, but had to avoid right and wrong by escaping. Whether it is a wealthy middle class or a lower class struggling on the edge of poverty, they all face conflicts between their religious beliefs and their own rights, they all lie for life, and they are full of despair, anxiety and distrust of love and marriage. So Farhadi's films are keen to present what he considers an "Iranian divorce". The men and women who face ethical dilemmas in his films cannot always reach an agreement on the way they look at the problem. In the end, they either insist on divorce if their conflicts remain unresolved, or their relationship cannot be healed. Regardless of whether they are cheating in marriage or originally falling in love, they will eventually be destroyed. The real driving force is the invisible and deadly religious beliefs and moral values in Iranian society. And when Farhadi told the story, it also made people unable to stay out of the uneasy conflict that made people hopeless and collapsed, but where is the way out for this society?
cool feminist
On Farhadi movie posters, there is often an entire female image, which is beautiful and moving. Men and women often appear side by side in opposition, giving people a sense of tense confrontation and a sense of disillusionment in the relationship between the sexes. But women, who tend to be in the middle or at the front, are clearer, taller, and more dominant. No wonder. In Farhadi's films, women are exceptionally beautiful, hardworking, gentle, kind, and full of tolerance. They have no say in the discrimination and injustice of the society. They are often vulnerable and helpless, but they will never fail. The greatness and inclusiveness of women are particularly evident in them. It is women who are responsible for carrying and conveying the truth, goodness and beauty in human nature. The Iranian woman who encouraged her to pursue happiness in "About Yili"; the cleaner girl in "Fireworks Wednesday" was innocent and cute, and even the hairdresser who cheated on the man was very charming and pitiful; Westminster in "A Parting" , is the wisest and most reasonable person in the whole family. Men, on the other hand, are often arrogant, conceited, irritable, and have too much self-esteem and shame. Farhadi must have been critical and critical in shaping the male image. In the face of difficulties, irritability and irritability, Iranian men are in stark contrast to the gentleness and calmness of women. When men feel that their dignity is being challenged, their first reaction is not to appease women, but to fight back to restore their dignity, even at the cost of destroying two families. In "A Parting", Nader deliberately pushes down the pregnant maid without any empathy or sympathy; in "Salesman", Imed feels embarrassed because his wife is humiliated, and must drive the errant old man to a dead end; " In "About Yili", the men who became angry because of Yili's disappearance and put the blame on the wife of the inviter. They always appeared as straight men with cancer who were reckless and thoughtless, but they were extremely real and credible. And this all stems from a strong sense of shame and society's excessive reinforcement of patriarchy. Farhadi once said in interviews that I try to make every character in my film realistic and complex, male or female. I don't know why women are cast as protagonists, maybe it's an unconscious choice. After all, in Iran, women are more painful and struggling in the struggle for their disenfranchised rights, and they are more resistant and judgmental. This bearded Iranian man gave Iranian women enough affection, tolerance and humanistic care in the film, and in his "unconscious choice", he became the messenger of feminism. This outstanding film master in Iran uses real but dramatic stories and characters to analyze the family and life of ordinary people in Iranian society "softly and silently", and tenderly and powerfully presents the anxiety and morality of the relationship between the two sexes in Iran. Dilemma and conflicting reality. "When I was writing a script in Berlin a few years ago, I suddenly heard music from Iran outside, right next to me. I tried hard not to think about Iran, but I couldn't do it, people and things were already there. I was deeply imprinted on my heart. At that time, whether on the street or on the bus, I was thinking of Iran. Finally I went back and started writing the script of Neda and Westminster.” He used his unique The language system gently describes the sensitive turmoil of Iranian social life, the crisis, and even the "marriage siege" of each family, giving ordinary people more reflections on life. Because of his continuous and affectionate love for the land of Iran, he also keeps moviegoers thinking and paying attention to the plight of Iranian society.
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A few viewing notes:
Although the film is obviously lengthy, the story focuses on the continuous occurrence of several days, and the camera does not breathe, keeping up with the development of the event. This sophisticated narrative rhythm creates a cinematic experience that tracks the record. I think it is a little innovation and breakthrough compared to previous works.
Rape did not happen, and the death of the old man was not a simple karma. Such a simple and crude interpretation would underestimate Farhadi. Speculation about rape is the touchstone in the face of moral and religious struggles, both for the hero and for the audience. The death of the old man raised this struggle to a very serious and realistic level. rather than judging events.
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