criterionforum.org

Posted: **Thu Jan 31, 2019 11:30 pm**

Asghar Farhadi (1972 - )

"I believe that art in the face of censorship is like water in the face of a stone. The water will find a way to flow around it."

Filmography
Features
Dancing in the Dust (2003)
The Beautiful City (2004)
Fireworks Wednesday (2006)
About Elly (2009)
A Separation (2011)
The Past (2013)
The Salesman (2016)
Everybody Knows (2018)

Television
The Waiter (1998)
Farrokh & Faraj Residential Complex (1998)
Story of a City (1999)
Story of a City II (2001)

Books
Asghar Farhadi: Life and Cinema by Tina Hassannia (2014)

Web Resources
2011 interview with Saeed Kamali Dehghan, The Guardian
2013 interview with Laya Maheshwari, IndieWire
2014 interview with Laya Maheshwari, Filmmaker Magazine
2017 interview with Smriti Kiran, Film Companion
2017 interview with Hillary Weston, Criterion Current
2017 interview with Matthew Eng, Reverse Shot
2017 interview with Matt Fagerholm, RogerEbert.com
"How Iran’s Greatest Director Makes Art of Moral Ambiguity" by Giles Harvey, The New York Times Magazine (2019)

Forum Resources
A Separation (Asghar Farhadi, 2011)
The Past (Asghar Farhadi, 2013)

Posted: **Thu Jan 31, 2019 11:30 pm**

Nice photo! "I believe that I vaaaaant to suck your blood!"

Posted: **Thu Jan 31, 2019 11:31 pm**

Awesome! One of my faves.

Posted: **Thu Jan 31, 2019 11:34 pm**

"How Iran’s Greatest Director Makes Art of Moral Ambiguity" is a solid 5,500-word profile and look at Everybody Knows from The New York Times Magazine, and I'm glad to have it... but that headline is pretty definitive when Rasoulof, Makhmalbaf, and Panahi are still around.

Posted: **Thu Jan 31, 2019 11:36 pm**

How the Director From Iran We've Heard of Makes Art of Moral Ambiguity

Posted: **Wed Feb 12, 2020 2:58 pm**

Upcoming project: A Hero, a "suspenseful drama" to be filmed in Iran with well-known local actors. Plot detail under wraps.

Posted: **Wed Feb 12, 2020 4:41 pm**

DarkImbecile wrote: Thu Jan 31, 2019 11:34 pm but that headline is pretty definitive when Rasoulof, Makhmalbaf, and Panahi are still around.

I agree he is greater than these others. His cinema might be more "mainstream", in style and content, but he masters his craft on a greater scale. His films are perfectly written and mis-en-scène. He's the "Bergman of Iran". And the greatest living Iranian filmmaker since Kiarostami (who was even greater of course).
I've seen his last seven feature films. Even though I'm less convinced by his venture in foreign language territory, still they are great cinema.
To me A Separation, About Elly and Fireworks Wednesday are his masterpieces.

Posted: **Wed Feb 12, 2020 4:57 pm**

BenoitRouilly wrote: Wed Feb 12, 2020 4:41 pm
DarkImbecile wrote: Thu Jan 31, 2019 11:34 pm but that headline is pretty definitive when Rasoulof, Makhmalbaf, and Panahi are still around.
I agree he is greater than these others. His cinema might be more "mainstream", in style and content, but he masters his craft on a greater scale. His films are perfectly written and mis-en-scène. He's the "Bergman of Iran". And the greatest living Iranian filmmaker since Kiarostami (who was even greater of course).
I've seen his last seven feature films. Even though I'm less convinced by his venture in foreign language territory, still they are great cinema.
To me A Separation, About Elly and Fireworks Wednesday are his masterpieces.

His films are nicely made for sure, but there no where near as interesting as the films of Makhmalbaf and Panahi. I'm probably in the minority here but "perfectly written and mis-en-scene" doesn't do much for me.

Posted: **Wed Feb 12, 2020 5:04 pm**

He's more like the Lelouch of Iran. He's fine

Rasoulof is the Pasolini and Panahi is the Bergman

Posted: **Wed Feb 12, 2020 5:09 pm**

My reaction to him is -- "he's okay, I guess"

Posted: **Wed Feb 12, 2020 5:27 pm**

swo17 wrote: Wed Feb 12, 2020 5:04 pm He's more like the Lelouch of Iran. He's fine

Rasoulof is the Pasolini and Panahi is the Bergman

What does that make Makhmalbaf and family?

Posted: **Wed Feb 12, 2020 5:29 pm**

A Separation, About Elly, and Le passé are all tremendous films, Lelouch wishes he was the French Farhadi

Posted: **Wed Feb 12, 2020 5:32 pm**

knives wrote: Wed Feb 12, 2020 5:27 pm
swo17 wrote: Wed Feb 12, 2020 5:04 pm He's more like the Lelouch of Iran. He's fine

Rasoulof is the Pasolini and Panahi is the Bergman
What does that make Makhmalbaf and family?

I dunno, Coppola? I haven't really thought this through

P.S. I made this statement having rather enjoyed the Lelouch film I just saw, Roman de gare

Posted: **Wed Feb 12, 2020 5:35 pm**

Ironically, with its conscious toying of the audience and gradual revelations of key narrative elements, that may be the only Lelouch film that could be fairly compared to Farhadi (though Lelouch’s film is doing it for wonderfully playful and somewhat trashy returns rather than following the traditional playwright’s dramatic structures of revelation Farhadi favors)

Posted: **Wed Feb 12, 2020 5:36 pm**

I was thinking Huston. Also being better than Lelouch is the special olympics of art house conservatism.

Posted: **Wed Feb 12, 2020 7:02 pm**

Glowingwabbit wrote: Wed Feb 12, 2020 4:57 pm I'm probably in the minority here but "perfectly written and mis-en-scene" doesn't do much for me.

What is your criteria then?

Posted: **Wed Feb 12, 2020 7:41 pm**

BenoitRouilly wrote: Wed Feb 12, 2020 7:02 pm
Glowingwabbit wrote: Wed Feb 12, 2020 4:57 pm I'm probably in the minority here but "perfectly written and mis-en-scene" doesn't do much for me.
What is your criteria then?

I'd say my criteria in this case particular is that Panahi and Makhmalbaf (like Kiarostami) have reshaped/challenged my perception of what cinema is/can be (especially in relation to fiction and reality), which I hold in higher regard to to anything Farhadi has done. And that's just my criteria in this particular argument. I'm not saying Farhadi is bad or that I dislike his films, just that I would never put him at the level of the other 3. Is he a better craftsman, sure, but that's like saying someone is a talented musician, it doesn't mean that their music is interesting.

Posted: **Wed Feb 12, 2020 7:51 pm**

About Elly was a fabulous exercise in pacing while unfolding information across a conscientiously withholding narrative. I liked A Separation and The Salesman slightly less but didn't find either particularly novel in their expositions to make them sit with me as something special, but I wouldn't say anything bad about them either.

Posted: **Wed Feb 12, 2020 8:22 pm**

Glowingwabbit wrote: Wed Feb 12, 2020 7:41 pm Is he a better craftsman, sure

Then we agree.

I get what you say about the innovation of the others, but in spite of this difference I still believe his storytelling and dramaturgy bring more to cinema.
Kubrick was a "mainstream" genre auteur as well yet was superior to most because of his craft and talent. Farhadi doesn't compare to Kubrick (yet), but it's the same situation. And give him time. Bergman did Persona 20 years into his career...

There is a lot of mixed feelings around here... He's good but not good enough. It's worse than being polarizing.
I wonder what is it you miss in his films that are perfect at doing what they are designed for.

Posted: **Wed Feb 12, 2020 8:34 pm**

BenoitRouilly wrote: Wed Feb 12, 2020 8:22 pm I wonder what is it you miss in his films that are perfect at doing what they are designed for.

I don't think I'm missing anything, I just don't think he's done anything as interesting or radical as the other 3 Iranian directors mentioned.

Posted: **Thu Feb 13, 2020 1:36 am**

I'm also in the "not all that" camp. Farhadi makes the kind of tasteful dramas for middle-class audiences that used to define the 'French Films in Colour' arthouse cliche, but with an Iranian twist. There's nothing wrong with that, and he does it very well, but I just don't find it exciting, just as I don't find Claude Miller or Andre Techine exciting.

I also find that his work has got less interesting and more contrived as it's become more international, in terms of audience, production and content. I feel like he steadily improved over his first three features, then steadily declined thereafter, leaving Fireworks Wednesday as his peak and Beautiful City, About Elly and A Separation as the next best works. And none of his subsequent films are to me even as good as his debut, Dancing in the Dust.

There are a lot of Iranian directors who have done and are still doing much more interesting work, not just the big three / four named in this thread.

Posted: **Thu Feb 13, 2020 2:57 am**

Though I am thankful he's replaced Majid Majidi as the choice for middle class audiences.

Posted: **Thu Feb 13, 2020 3:50 am**

He's certainly a lot more sophisticated than Majidi.

Posted: **Thu Feb 13, 2020 4:53 am**

Farhadi's an undeniably excellent director in terms of craft, but it took me a while to figure out what was holding me back from fully embracing his work, and I think it's this: there's something schematic and even manipulative about the way he constructs his narratives, as if the entire story structure had been crafted backwards and everything else were just filling the gaps between key plot points and "twists". It's a pity; his characters are often really well constructed and he's always dealing with deeply interesting themes, but he's playing the same game with the audience every time. I was trying to think of who he reminds me of most in terms of that particular approach to scripting/filmmaking, and I realise it's actually Alan Ball (specifically, American Beauty and Towelhead) – whose work has, I think most people agree, not aged particularly well. I wonder if Farhadi's films will be viewed similarly in the years to come.

Posted: **Thu Feb 13, 2020 7:36 pm**

That's a good observation, and one I thought was particularly true of The Past, a film I found way too contrived and "writerly".

criterionforum.org

Asghar Farhadi

Asghar Farhadi

Re: Asghar Farhadi

Re: Asghar Farhadi

Re: Asghar Farhadi

Re: Asghar Farhadi

Re: Asghar Farhadi

Re: Asghar Farhadi

Re: Asghar Farhadi

Re: Asghar Farhadi

Re: Asghar Farhadi

Re: Asghar Farhadi

Re: Asghar Farhadi

Re: Asghar Farhadi

Re: Asghar Farhadi

Re: Asghar Farhadi

Re: Asghar Farhadi

Re: Asghar Farhadi

Re: Asghar Farhadi

Re: Asghar Farhadi

Re: Asghar Farhadi

Re: Asghar Farhadi

Re: Asghar Farhadi

Re: Asghar Farhadi

Re: Asghar Farhadi

Re: Asghar Farhadi