FILM

Persepolis compares to this?

I have a crush on you too, I Have a Crush on Alex Trebek, but comparing Persepolis to this is not a good comparison. But since you brought it up, P illustrates my point just as well. Again, yet another sad, depressing topic (P was not uplifting at all, when you fast froward to where we are as a nation today, essentially in the same hole she was when she left Iran to come to France and live on the streets etc.), explored ad nauseum, until there really isn't anything to do but cry and cry and cry about it.

That's what seems to be happening in modern Iranian cinema, whether it is a poor girl with a cute lisp, who's lost her shoe and can't go to school, or a blind dahati boy who wants to know what color god is, or this kind of depressing story of 4 hapless, helpless women who decide after it all, that there is something wrong with men, and aslan bikhialesh, I'm better off without one. Really? That's the ultimate resolution? What about true love? Should we really give up on that?

I'm not one of those looking for a happy ending every time, but Jesus, when is an Iranian film going to conceive of one for just once! Are we that hope less? (as in without hope, not hopeless...)

I have to agree with the lady who stood up in the theater at the showing with Neshat. I too am very very very bored.

...And why the hell not a full-on comedy?

Shahrnush Parsipur's Women without Men

I saw Neshat's adaptation of Parsipur's novel yesterday, and I wish I had seen it on Friday!

First of all, I think this is so crazy that the author of this review doesn't mention the name of Parsipur, not even for once!! And the review mentions only Neshat's name and how each of these women represent a facet of Neshat's life and soul..:-) How can I take the review seriously when it is clear that it is written by someone who hasn't done his/her homework?!!!

Actually, I discovered Parsipur's amazing work pretty recently (shame on me!)...and I think the novel is way better than the movie.

I found that compared to the novel, there were too many changes, but maybe it had to do with budget and the difficulty of creating a world as magical as Parsipur's imagination.

For example, the story line of Mahdokht (the 5th woman) was eliminated...even if she is the most intriguing of the 5 women, and the book starts with her desire to become a tree. Munes had become too political. The tone of the movie was darker than the novel. Unlike the novel's optimistic ending, Zarrin dies of carelessness. We see some new characters injected into the movie; like the Tudehi boy who wants freedom but kills a soldier so cowardly . The rape of Munes and Faezeh by the truck drivers was replaced by a cheaper rape. Amir didn't kill his sister and Munes didn't come back from death twice. Zarrin the prostitute instead of seeing headless men saw faceless men, etc...

Still, I thought it was a gorgeous movie (great shots and images, good acting, dreamy atmosphere), but sometimes I found the deep meaning and the want of the novel's characters had been sacrificed for the sake of average movie goers' interest. Of course, I can understand the reason behind these choices, and so overall, I think Women without Men is one of the best Iranian movies I have ever seen. 

And also Parsipur's novel is the best Iranian novel I've read after the Blind Owl..

Parsipur's writing compares easily with the greatest of today's literature and it is so unfortunate that someone of her caliber does not even have a literary agent to promote her work.

Azarin

Eroonman, I love you, but cut the BS.

Sad and depressing? People loved Persepolis. They found humor and irony. If you don't like the tone or the mood of these movies (I agree they are mostly depressing themed), please please create something that isn't. I think you are very talented. You are hilarious. I hope you are applying these talents to such a project. Until then, let's let the Lolitas and Women without Men be.

Yet another "Sad" Iranian Film

Oh for the day when our comedy and sense of humor wins a film award!

While I do not in any way wish to diminish the work, I am frankly extremely bored by the continued "victim" mentality that our filmmakers seem to be stuck in as the source of their storytelling.

Whether our Lolita's can't read the books they want, or are deprived of attending soccer matches, or in this case 75% of them being in loveless abusive relationships with men who are not men, but common lowly animals, I long for the day when we can tell an actually uplifting, opimistic story, that is funny, poignant and a great connective cord to the greater world we live in.

Now, as a man, all I can do is kill myself, and after that apologize to all the Iranian women who have married "wrong" or are unhappy and unfulfilled with the choice they made, or were made to make, in their husbands.

But, the recent spate of Sad and Depressing Iranian Films posed as trendy art, has now become a very dull and boring and whiny obsessive discussion.

Sorry.

Neshat's view of Iranian women

I don't know about this movie but I found Neshat's perception of Iranian woman has always been a twisted one and one that is more reflective of her own mind than the reality.

FR

By the way, Shahrnush Parsipur, the author

of the novel upon which the movie is based, who also had a part in the film, is argueably the greatest contemporary Iranian author alive today. She has a huge intellect and imagination and I am privileged to be counted as her friend. Out of 13 novels she has written, only two have been translated into English. Her latest novel yet to be published in English is called "Blue Reason" and is about Tehran during the "Silent" Iran Iraq War in the '80's.

 It is a sad statement of our times that an author of her stature has diffculty finding an agent for that work let alone a publisher in these USA. Check out her website at:  www.shahrnushparsipur.com/index.htm

Brian H. Appleton

aka

Rasool Aryadust

Must See

Thanks for this great review.