Last week, Iranian cinema can be summed up with two words: bitter and adveurous! On the one hand, three new movies with differe faces came out and animations and comedies took over the box office market, and “Old Boy” said goodbye after four mohs, with a sale of 181 billion. In addition to this, historians and critics preseed their frank criticisms, and the sweet and bitter news of the art world, from true love on the screen to the lack of promine figures, filled the atmosphere of the coury’s cinema.
A noisy Wednesday!
Last Wednesday, three new movies came out at the same time: “Kej Pileh” which with Elnaz Shakerdoost’s male make-up was able to create more margins than the movie itself (so much so that one thinks that maybe the eire marketing budget was spe on this issue!), “Salon 4” which had low sales with 78 tickets and “Queen Alishon” which proved with 68 tickets that our children and teenagers prefer to see the same “Youz”. In addition, “Old Boy” quietly said goodbye after four mohs and sales of 181 billion tomans and firmly held the crown of the best-selling movie of the year.
In the box office battle field last week, the animation “Youz” with sales of 12.6 billion was able to surpass Pejman Jamshidi’s “Constaine” (12.2 billion). “Merd Aynaki” in the third place with 6.1 billion tomans showed that Karim Amini has decided to take over the cinema market this year. The eire box office of the week reached 47 billion tomans with 634,000 viewers, which shows that Iranian cinema can still draw people out of the house, of course, when Iranian movies and star comedies are involved!
Khosrow Motazad: I can’t stand Iranian historical films even for 5 minutes!
Khosrow Motazad, a historian and television expert, declared in a frank ierview that he can no longer tolerate even five minutes of Iranian historical films! He criticized this “geographical displaceme” by referring to “Shakargah”, whose story is said to have happened in Khorasan, but its creators have decided to involve Azerbaijan in this story. Motazad, who seems to be sitting in fro of the TV at night with a historical magnifying glass, has noticed that the uniforms of the gendarmerie in these works are more like carnival clothes than the real uniforms of the Qajar period! He regretfully meions Indian cinema that he has seen Salman Khan’s movie eleven times, probably to learn how to make a proper historical film or maybe he just fell in love with Salman Khan!
This critic, who is tired of Iranian cinema, with a tone that is a mixture of despair and humor, says about the series “Soushon” that instead of showing the resistance of the Qashqais, it has become more like a dance party of the English in Shiraz! Referring to Arabic series such as “Mu’awiyah” and “Omar Bin Khattab” in which even Omar’s hand is historical, he asks Iranian producers to hire at least one historical consulta to choose the right gendarme hats.
When the cinema is not enough, we go to the series!
It has been reported that Oktay Brahni’s “Old Boy” after attracting enough viewers in cinemas, has now decided to visit online platforms, but this time with a six-part serial version! It’s as if the filmmakers thought that two hours was not enough to tell the story, so let’s add 60 minutes so that the audience can fully understand what happened. Of course, this is also a strategy; First we drive people to the cinema, then we invite them to the platform with the completed version to see what they missed! The serial version of “Pirpasser” will last 260 minutes and will again feature Hassan Pourshirazi, Leila Hatami, Hamed Behdad, Mohammad Valizadegan and Mohammad Reza Davudenjad. It means the same actors, the same director, only more time and probably scenes that did not fit in the cinema!
A man is made of three thousand faces
Mehran Modiri, who these days seems to have decided to set the record for most work and take on several projects at the same time, now was to go back to Masoud Shasatchi after 15 years of silence and make the third season of “The Man of a Thousand Faces” with the possible title “The Man of Three Thousand Faces”. Of course, don’t worry, the filming of “Shish Mahe” which coinues with the presence of well-known actors such as Javad Razovian, Alireza Khamse, Sahar Zakaria and Mohammad Shabanpour in the main role, is not over yet! Now the question is, does a manager wa to conquer Nowruz 1405 with which series, or maybe put both on air at the same time and leave the viewer in awe?
Ierestingly, “The Man with a Thousand Faces” was a great success for Channel 3 in 2008, but its second season, “The Man with Two Thousand Faces” in 2008, could not repeat that initial magic, and now, after a long period of silence, the director has decided to revive this character. Maybe he thought that after more than a decade, everything was forgotten and he could get lucky once again!
Babak Karimi’s collaboration with Asghar Farhadi again
Babak Karimi, who has apparely decided to record the role of “Farhadi’s official actor in Europe” exclusively in his resume, this time he packed his suitcase for the fourth time and we to Farhadi’s new film called “Parallel Stories”. His presence alongside famous figures such as Isabelle Hooper, Vince Castle and Catherine Deneuve shows that Farhadi either loves Karimi’s acting or has lost the phone numbers of other Iranian actors!
Cinema, a place to forget a billion tomans!
Apparely, for some people, cinema is so exciting that they forget a billion tomans! The story goes that one of the esteemed viewers of Tehran’s Bahman cinema decided to leave his bag, which was like a national treasury full of dollars and euros, as a souvenir for the movie theater after watching the movie Man with Glasses. Now we don’t know if the movie was so good that Mr./Ms. got distracted, or maybe they thought that a free depository system was set up in the cinema! But fortunately, Hossamuddin Sarvari, the young coroller of the cinema, found the bag and returned it to its owner without even a mome of temptation (which is really admirable!).
What about celebrities?
A bitter week for cinema and television fans
In the past week, Iranian cinema witnessed the loss of several promine artists. Spinod Najian, author and screenwriter, died at the age of 54 after years of fighting cancer; He, who created lasting works such as the collection of stories “Serira, Siliva and others” and the script of the movie “Botox”, played an importa role in coemporary literature and cinema. On the other hand, Shahin Gholamrezaei, the writer and director of cinema, passed away due to cardiac arrest; He wrote screenplays such as “Diagnoz” and “Zarosha” and directed short films such as “General Pistor” and “Gol Ya Poch” and worked as an assista director and scheduler in numerous film projects. Unfortunately, Ali Bahrami, the make-up artist of cinema and television, died due to an accide.
Also, the Iranian artistic community experienced the loss of Mohammad Kasbi, a veteran actor of television and cinema, and Naser Taqvai, a filmmaker and creator of the long-lasting series “Uncle John Napoleon”. Kasbi died after a period of illness and Nasser Taqvai also passed away at the age of 84 due to the complications of the disease and old age. In these days, Iran’s dubbing diamond, Saeed Mozafari, a promine dubbing and dubbing director, died at the age of 83. He was the voice of promine characters such as Cli Eastwood in “A Fistful of Dollars”, Brad Pitt in “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”, Ryan O’Neill, Alec Guinness and many others. These artists left an eternal memory in Iranian cinema and literature with their lasting works and roles, and their loss is a great loss for the art of the coury.
Male make-up image of Elnaz Shakerdoost, in the film Kaj Pileh
Naimeh Nizamdoost, referring to Elnaz Shakerdoost’s hard make-up, said that “Elnaz Shakerdoost struggled a lot to become my husband!” Of course, becoming a husband in today’s conditions requires something more than appearance.
When the role of husband and wife becomes a reality
Elika Abdul Razzaghi revealed her love story with Amin Zangdhani in the program “After the Eve” with an iimate tone. Apparely, these two, who played the role of husband and wife in a movie on stage in the 80s, decided to coinue the same role in real life! Of course, Elika herself emphasized that this love did not happen overnight and after years of family relationships and gradual closeness, it finally came to fruition in 2012. But the most ieresting poi of the story is here. Elika announced with a sarcastic tone that “she has not had any suitors, not even one!” Of course, he quickly added that this does not mean that he is unwaed, only that his heart was reserved for Amin since the year 80.
