World Cinema Feature

Cinema Iran
World Cinema's best kept secret?

Most Iranian films are so completely untainted by any Hollywood-style influence that whichever country you live in, watching these gems is a truly unique, refreshing and humbling experience.
The core of Iranian contemporary cinema emits an instantly warming and uncontrived message. You are looking into a world, where the humanity of the characters - whether kind or uncaring - reach the viewer with an air of earthy, non-pretence. Iranian cinema shows how the main core of ordinary middle-eastern culture is not made up entirely of hordes of shrieking zealots, as often depicted by western media.
Captivating by its pure, endearing simplicity, Iranian cinema radiates a strong element of social clarity - trust and friendship. This is often achieved through the meeting of minds in normal, everyday activity (usually using non-actors), rather than held together through a specifically scripted plot ... giving a neorealist feel similar to early Italian cinema.
In fact, the thought of any intrusion by westernized storylines or technological flourishment, such as computerized effects, high-wire camera panning and speed-editing, would seem like a repulsive embellishment. As an example, "20 Fingers", the 2004 Venice Film Festival prize winner by the acclaimed director Mania Akbari, has no edits at all in each of the seven segements of her film, and yet the movie is perfectly paced beacause it's the conversation and emotion which foremost captivates the viewer.
However, some of these movies actually intersect with clever cross-links between one production and another, or films within films, giving a slightly surreal flavour.
Iranian filmmakers often frame their shots beautifully, with the intention of letting character interaction and even everyday background kinetics tell the story. With this in mind, the works of Samira Makhmalbaf (see choice directors page) and Abbas Kiarostami are worth exploring.
Many Iranian movies (such as "20 Fingers") are refused permission from being shown in Iran itself. However it's refreshing to find that Iranian women play a fairly equal share as role of director. This allows for a refreshing and compassionate perspective, subtlety detached (without provocation) from the religiously driven, male dominated hierarchy inside the country itself. It's a shame that Iran's authorities don't recognize the issues of Iranian women and perhaps give consideration to the respectfuly poised questions of freedom of expression raised in the currently banned films. These are usually universally realized issues for women of any race or creed and pose no threat of introducing any socially destructive elements into the natural progression of Iranian society - quite the opposite in fact.
Overall, such poignant and sensitive film making has never seemed so natural and this is Iran's golden age of cinema ... perhaps for a long time to come. Sheer brilliance.

Just some titles to look out for are:

• The White Balloon (Badkonake Sefid)
  dir. Abbas Kiarostami
• Through The Olive Trees (Zire Darakhatan Zeyton)
  dir.Abbas Kiarostami
• 20 Fingers
  dir. Mania Akbari
• The Apple (Sib)
  dir. Samira Makhmalbaf
  (see Cult Digital Top Choice)
• Where is My Friend's House? (Where is The Friend's Home / Khane-ye Doust Kodjast?)
  dir. Abbas Kiarostami
• The Circle (Dayereh)
  dir. Jafar Panahi
• A Moment Of Innocence (Nun va Goldoon)
  dir. Mohsen Makhmalbaf
• Leila
  dir. Dariush Mehrjui
  

Find these titles and more (where available) via the Iranian directors links here:

Samira Makhmalbaf
Amazon USA
Amazon UK
Amazon Canada

Mania Akbari (coming soon)
Amazon USA
Amazon UK
Amazon Canada

Abbas Kiarostami
Amazon USA
Amazon UK
Amazon Canada

Jafar Panahi
Amazon USA
Amazon UK
Amazon Canada

Mohsen Makhmalbaf
Amazon USA
Amazon UK
Amazon Canada

Dariush Mehrjui
Amazon USA
Amazon UK
Amazon Canada

Samira Makhmalbaf

Tehran born Samira Makhmalbaf entered the stage of World Cinema in 1998 when at the age of seventeen made the highly acclaimed "Sib" ("The Apple") a story about twin Iranian girls kept inside their home for 12 years. She followed this up with her second film "Takhté Siah" ("Blackboards"), which won a prize at Cannes. Her segment in the multi-directed "11'09''01 - September" was hailed as a work which projected an intellectually inspiring sensitivity in such volatile times.
Samira comes from a family of equally talented and acclaimed movie makers. Her father Mohsen Makhmalbaf is a major Iranian film director and her younger sister Hana, is the youngest person (when she was just 8 years old) to compete at a major film festival (Locarno) with her first film.
Expect to see more truly outstanding cinematic works from the Makhmalbaf family.

Films directed by Samira Makhmalbaf
Amazon USA
Amazon UK
Amazon Canada

Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Cult Digital Top Choice

Mostly recognized for his recent outstanding movies "Amelie" (Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain) and a "A Very Long Engagement" (Un Long Dimanche de Fiançailles) the meticulous Jean Pierre Jeunet has been making films since 1978. It was the rather grotesque "Delicatessen" in 1991 that brought Jeunet wider recognition, which led him to direct the fourth in the "Alien" series in 1997. Jeunet is a perfectionist in every detail - costumes and sets (even on location) are painstakingly manicured and enhanced to emit the exact hues of colour and light needed to create the required mood or visual dynamic. No DVD collection would be complete without Jeunet's most recent masterworks.

Films directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Amazon USA
Amazon UK
Amazon Canada

Landmarks of Early Film Volumes One and Two

Volume One archives nearly every important film from the beginning of early cinematography. This includes Edison Kinestoscope films (1894-96), films by the brothers Lumière (1895-97) and the magical movies of French special effects pioneer Georges Méliès.

Volume Two covers George Melies in more detail. Melies was the pioneer of film special effects many years before the term was coined. Audiences of the new medium of cinema were witnessing spectacular film illusions that seemed like pure magic to them but what we now realise as simple film and theatrical trickery.
Apart from 15 of his films included in Vol Two, there is also a documentary "Georges Melies: Cinema Magician". His most famous film "A Trip to The Moon" can be found on Volume One of this collection.

The two volumes together make up almost four hours, providing a fascinating study of the pioneering days of cinema.

Note: Only Available through Amazon USA & Canada (Region 1 DVD)

USA
Landmarks of Early Film Vol. One
Landmarks of Early Film Vol.Two

CANADA
Landmarks of Early Film Vol. One
Landmarks of Early Film Vol.Two

Mychael Danna

Canadian composer Mychael Danna has been scoring films since 1987 and is often commissioned by acclaimed director Atom Egoyan ("Exotica", "The Sweet Hereafter").
Mychael's music for film settles naturally and unobtrusively into its respective productions - perfectly balanced arrangements that give a strong and often melancholic atmosphere, but with a forward-thinking and modern twist. Recent works include "Vanity Fair", "Aura Borealis" and "Where The Truth Lies".

Soundtracks by Mychael Danna
Amazon USA
Amazon UK
Amazon Canada

Florian Fricke (Popol Vuh)

Florian Fricke (1944-2001) was the genius behind the mythical German band Popul Vuh, providing music for Werner Hertzog's films, including “Aguirre, Wrath of God”, “Nosferatu The Vampyre”, “Cobra Verde” and “Fitzcarraldo”. Composer, Fricke was a master of dark, dreamy, visionary music; using analogue synthesizers in a textured, humanized style along with traditional wind and percussive instruments.
Popul Vuh presented a totally unique approach to soundtrack music, which ultimately created an often eerie and vivid soundscape to Hertzog's equally original cinematic masterpieces. A Looking-Glass Cult Digital favourite.

Soundtracks by Florian Fricke (Popol Vuh)
Amazon USA
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Yann Tiersen
Rue Des Cascades
+ Amelie

Rue Des Cascades isn't specifically a film soundtrack album but a wonderful collection of compositions by the composer of "Amelie" and "Goodbye Lenin". The title track 'Rue Des Cascades' was the end music to the Cannes Film Festival award winning "Dream Life of Angels".

Rue Des Cascades
Amazon USA
Amazon UK
Amazon Canada

Donnie Darko ... full soundtrack

Double CD soundtrack reissue to the cult film that includes the original score by Michael Andrews plus extra tracks from the film but left off the USA Single CD Version. 80's Bands Including Duran Duran, Inxs, Echo and the Bunnymen, Joy Division and Tears for Fears.

Donnie Darko Soundtrack
Amazon USA
Amazon UK
Amazon Canada

Heimat
Tired of 'dumbing-down TV'? ...

There is no doubt that writer and director Edgar Reitz's combined series of "Heimat" surmounts to the most important contribution ever to world film and television drama.
Since production started around 1980, Heimat has been twenty five years in the making. The three parts combined sum up to fifty four hours, creating the compelling story of five generations of the Simon family, based in the fictitious German village of Schabbach.
The story begins in 1919 at the end of World War One, and continues through the rise and fall of the Third Reich, the political and social issues of the 1960's, the fall of the Berlin Wall and finally concludes with the millennium.
Heimat was finally completed in 2004, and is hailed as the finest television drama / arthouse epic ever made. From both inside Germany and throughout the world, this series has changed peoples lives; who reflect on the emotions of love, loss, and humanity so wonderfully portrayed in this carefully paced, beautifully photographed and highly absorbing drama.
The three Heimat DVD sets are impeccably presented in book-style bindings - and collectively offer a superb library addition for any connoisseur of long-standing, quality drama.

Heimat 1
Amazon USA
Amazon UK
Amazon Canada

Heimat 2
Amazon USA
Amazon UK
Amazon Canada

Heimat 3
Amazon USA
Amazon UK
Amazon Canada

Double Five Star Recommendations
(Region 1 + 2)

Turned off by subtitles on great foreign films?

Then why not learn the language?

Linguaphone
Languages Made Easy

The Return

First time director Andrei Zvyagintsev's bleak award winning road tale of two teenage boys re-bonding with their father after his 12 year unexplained absence. Unforgetable.

The Return
(Region 1 only)
Amazon UK
Amazon USA
Amazon Canada

Free Radicals (Böse Zellen)

Barbara Albert directs this stylish tale of intersection and fate between residents of an Austrian suburb. First rate multiple award nominee.

Free Radicals
(Region 1 only)
Amazon USA
Amazon Canada

Zatoichi

Takeshi "Beat" Kitano's bizzare blend of a samurai gore-fest laced with clever visual / audio gags, rhythmic pacing and a tap-dancing scene to round it off.

Zatoichi
Amazon USA
Amazon UK
Amazon Canada

Motorcycle Diaries

The multiple award winner Motorcyle Diaries by Brazilian director Walter Salles gives a soulful insight into the revolutionary young Che Guevara and his friend Alberto Grenato as they set off on a gap-year trek around South America. Beautifully photographed.

Motorcycle Diaries
Amazon USA
Amazon UK
Amazon Canada

Belleville Rendez-vous (Triplets of Belleville)

An instant hit by Sylvain Chomet, which has become a favourite for animation fans world-wide. Sardonic, wonderfully composed yarn with exquisite attention to detail. If Jacques Tati had made animations, Belleville Rendez-vous would probaly be compared to those also.

Belleville Rendez-vous
Amazon USA
Amazon UK
Amazon Canada

City Of God

Co-directors Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund tackle, with sheer brilliance, a true-based story of extreme gang-warfare in a Brazilian ghetto. It's a harrowing subject, but this widely acclaimed and important movie has apparently even prompted socio-economic reforms for Brazilian slums. (Perhaps Meirelles and Lund should make a movie on the appalling world-wide-affecting destruction of the Brazilian rain-forest and see if that makes the government consider "enviro-economic" reforms)

City Of God
Amazon USA
Amazon UK
Amazon Canada

A Very Long Engagement (Un long dimanche de fiançailles)

Another cinematic masterpiece from Jean-Pierre Jeunet, the director of "Amelie". As with "Amelie", Jeunet casts Audrey Tautou in the starring role.
"A Very Long Engagement" is set in France during World War One where Mathilde (Tatou) refuses to believe that her fiance has been killed - and so she sets out to find him. This is a truly un-missable movie and shot with sepia-toned perfection. (see an excellent review on Amazon UK by Budge Burgess)

A Very Long Engagement
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Amazon UK
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Show Me Love / Together (F**king Åmål / Tillsammans)

Compelling Swedish cinema at its best, directed and written by four times Guldbaggar winner Lukas Moodysson (The Swedish "Oscars"). Moodysson's first lo-fi feature "Show Me Love" is set in a small, gloomy Swedish town called Åmål. It's a tale which unfolds into a sensitively presented insight about angst-ridden teenagers discovering their sexual identity.
The equally excellent "Together", which was highly praised by Ingmar Bergman, is Moodysson's second feature - Set in 1975, "Together" realistically depicts the emotional turmoil and rights of passage inside a Swedish commune.

Films by Lukas Moodysson
Amazon USA
Amazon UK
Amazon Canada

Note: This UK Link presents Lukas Moodysson's 4 movie box set (great value) which includes both the above titles

Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind

Michel Gondry's second directorial gem from 2004 (and a break from making his outstanding pop promos). This is a truly unusual movie romance, penned by Charlie Kaufman ("Being John Malkovich") which might leave you in a similar philosophical quandary as "Lost in Translation".
However, "Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind" also works in a similar way that "Sliding Doors" played out a unique, fantastical experience, without over-emphasing on the science fantasy - and so retaining a warm attachment to the characters - and therefore the emotional turmoil that ensues.

Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
Amazon USA
Amazon UK
Amazon Canada

The Apple (Sib)
Cult Digital Top Choice

Poignantly directed with warmth by the then 17 year old Samira Makhmalbaf this is a very extraordinary film from the stables of new wave Iranian cinema. It's a beautifuly captured true story about twin girls who have been kept inside their home for 12 years, until a social worker persuades their family to allow the children to explore the world outside. Remarkable acting, particularly from the younger cast.
This, along with many other recent films from Iran is a wonderful example of earthy, untainted, culturally inspired cinema - a million miles from plasticized views of the world through a Hollywood camera lens.
Since making this, her first release, Samira Makhmalbaf has gone on to win prizes at Cannes for her subsequent movies and has been hailed as one of the most significant new directors in both Iranaian and international cinema. (Double 5 Star)

The Apple
Amazon USA
Amazon UK only
Amazon Canada

The Apple (Sib)
(1998)
USA
UK
Canada