Mohsen Makhmalbaf's "The Door", his sublime contribution to the Iranian triptych "Tales of Fish", is by a wide margin the best of the short form works, extolling the particular virtues of his art, subtlety, lyricism and irony. But "Tales of a Fish" as a whole is distinctly minor, lacking both dramatic focus and the emotional resonance necessary to connect the separate tales in a satisfying way. Even worse, Makhmalbaf's story is positioned last, where one senses it is barely worth the wait.
The opening of the Makhmalbaf film is fantastic. Beginning with a close-up of a door strapped to the back of an itinerant, illiterate man, Makhmalbaf pulls the camera back and holds the shot until the man walks silently through a vast desert landscape, moving vertically toward the top of the frame. Suddenly a bicyclist, moving horizontally, enters and the paths of the two intersect. Cutting to a close-up of the door, the bicyclist, a postal delivery man, knocks on the door to inform the man of a letter from a young man seeking his daughter's hand in marriage.
Makhmalbaf follows that up with an equally inspired exchange between the man (Mohamad A. Babhan) and a roving band of musicians and performers looking for a wedding and a funeral. "Come in for some fresh water and tea," the man insists.
"The Door" is a short work but a model of filmmaking. The framing, cutting and design are flawless; the use of contrapuntal, ambient sounds imbues a sense of mystery, leading to the quietly devastating final exchange between the man and a stranger.
Unfortunately, "The Door" can't elevate the entirety of the 72-minute competition effort. The three stories, each running about 25 minutes, unfold on the island of Kish in the Persian Gulf, about 10 miles off the Iranian coast. The other two entries, Nasser Taghvai's "The Greek Boat" and Abolfazl Jalili's "The Ring (An Order)" are visually accomplished, though too dramatically attenuated to hold any interest. More damaging, Taghvai and Jalili lack the formal control and mastery displayed by Makhmalbaf.
In Taghvai's tale, the arrival of floating boxes and detritus has a profoundly unsettling effect on a man's wife. In the middle film, a young Kurd (Hafez Pakdel) illegally gains entry to the island to earn enough money to marry a woman left behind at his village. The conflict, tension and social detail Makhmalbaf introduces so casually is lost on Taghvai and Jalili. Some of the images have a cumulative power, but the stories have been drained of intrigue or surprise.
TALES OF FISH
A Kish Production
THE GREEK BOAT
CREDITS
Director/writer:Nasser Taghvai
Cinematographer:Azim Javan Rouh
Editor:Abbas Ganjavi
CAST
Shanbeh:Hossein Panahi
Shanbeh's wife:Atefeh Razavi
THE RING (AN ORDER)
CREDITS
Director/writer/editor:Abolfai Jalili
Cinematographer:Massoud Karani
CAST
Young man:Hafez Pakdel
THE DOOR
CREDITS
Director/writer:Mohsen Makhmalbaf
Cinematographer:Mohamad Ahmadi
Editor:Meysam Makhmalbaf
CAST
Man:Mohamad A. Babham
Daughter:Norieh Mahigiran...
The opening of the Makhmalbaf film is fantastic. Beginning with a close-up of a door strapped to the back of an itinerant, illiterate man, Makhmalbaf pulls the camera back and holds the shot until the man walks silently through a vast desert landscape, moving vertically toward the top of the frame. Suddenly a bicyclist, moving horizontally, enters and the paths of the two intersect. Cutting to a close-up of the door, the bicyclist, a postal delivery man, knocks on the door to inform the man of a letter from a young man seeking his daughter's hand in marriage.
Makhmalbaf follows that up with an equally inspired exchange between the man (Mohamad A. Babhan) and a roving band of musicians and performers looking for a wedding and a funeral. "Come in for some fresh water and tea," the man insists.
"The Door" is a short work but a model of filmmaking. The framing, cutting and design are flawless; the use of contrapuntal, ambient sounds imbues a sense of mystery, leading to the quietly devastating final exchange between the man and a stranger.
Unfortunately, "The Door" can't elevate the entirety of the 72-minute competition effort. The three stories, each running about 25 minutes, unfold on the island of Kish in the Persian Gulf, about 10 miles off the Iranian coast. The other two entries, Nasser Taghvai's "The Greek Boat" and Abolfazl Jalili's "The Ring (An Order)" are visually accomplished, though too dramatically attenuated to hold any interest. More damaging, Taghvai and Jalili lack the formal control and mastery displayed by Makhmalbaf.
In Taghvai's tale, the arrival of floating boxes and detritus has a profoundly unsettling effect on a man's wife. In the middle film, a young Kurd (Hafez Pakdel) illegally gains entry to the island to earn enough money to marry a woman left behind at his village. The conflict, tension and social detail Makhmalbaf introduces so casually is lost on Taghvai and Jalili. Some of the images have a cumulative power, but the stories have been drained of intrigue or surprise.
TALES OF FISH
A Kish Production
THE GREEK BOAT
CREDITS
Director/writer:Nasser Taghvai
Cinematographer:Azim Javan Rouh
Editor:Abbas Ganjavi
CAST
Shanbeh:Hossein Panahi
Shanbeh's wife:Atefeh Razavi
THE RING (AN ORDER)
CREDITS
Director/writer/editor:Abolfai Jalili
Cinematographer:Massoud Karani
CAST
Young man:Hafez Pakdel
THE DOOR
CREDITS
Director/writer:Mohsen Makhmalbaf
Cinematographer:Mohamad Ahmadi
Editor:Meysam Makhmalbaf
CAST
Man:Mohamad A. Babham
Daughter:Norieh Mahigiran...
- 5/17/1999
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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