Cinema Is More an Heir to Literature Than to Theater

The first session of the 'Screenplay Age' series was held yesterday, Sunday, 19 Mehr, with the participation of Mahmoud Arbabi, Farhad Tohidi and Saeed Ghotbizadeh. It was organized by the Screenplay Bank in cooperation with the House of Cinema.

According to the report of Iran's Ambassador Arjan, Farhad Toheidi said at the beginning of the program before the screening of the film: "I hope the screenplay evening program that started today at Khana Cinema will continue because this program will be dedicated to the screening of selected films." Movies that are important from the point of view of script discussion and can be learned from them.

The movie "Father" directed by Florian Zeller was screened in Saif Elah Dad Khane cinema hall and after the screening of the film, Mahmoud Arbabi, the head of Screenplay Bank, said: Screenplay Bank has been formed for many years by the screenwriters association and we decided to have cultural programs for it and today we started the first screenplay evening meeting.

He continued: Today's discussion is dedicated to the movie "Father" and we are trying to choose movies that are selected in terms of screenwriting and have something to say.

Arbabi said: Zeller's narration in this film is such that they take the audience in a direction so that people narrate a situation for us. He has chosen a narrative that is related to the times. Dementia is a disease, but little by little we face dementia that is related to time.

He continued: All the narration of the film happens from the father's side and he wants to escape from the challenging situation, but as he goes on, he sinks more and more, and in fact, all the stories that have been narrated are narrated by Hobkins.

Arbabi noted: The film is the story of the attempt of Anthony Hopkins, who finally accepts the failure of the attempt, and this is normal because his dementia is mostly an illusion.

The structure is formed within the narrative

Farhad Tawhidi also said: This script written by Zeller is a play that has another double. The exhibition of mother, father and son, all three of them went on stage and became father and son in the movie.

He continued: All three are plays and movies that are least affected by external events, they all take place in the family atmosphere. The main issue is the storm in the family, which may be due to psychosomatic illness, depression, etc. Among these three plays, "Father" has been the most successful in terms of structure and international success. The father is important in three aspects; Narration, adaptation and characterization.

Stating that linguists to theorists have similar definitions about narration in cinema, Tawhidi said: Narration is the description of events that have a causal relationship. In the beginning, there is a situation, and the events that have a cause and effect relationship lead to the creation of a new situation. Some believe that a narrative consists of only one event (for example: I went to the cinema today) and some believe that there must be at least two events (real or fictional) to be called a narrative. The problem is that it doesn't specify that the two events need to be thematically related.

He stated that chronological sequence is important in narration, but cinema theorists do not believe in it, and stated: Narration is an organized description of events and it should be defined in such a way that it has the greatest impact and pleasure on the audience in terms of aesthetics. In fact, it can be said that narration is the intermediary between the audience and the narration.

Tawhidi noted: Hitchcock is asked how a good movie is made, he says with a good script. In my opinion, the movie "Father" has a good script.

He explained about the difference between structure and narrative: structure means putting one another aside, but the narrative is a little bigger, and the structure is formed within the narrative, and in the original screenplay, it proceeds on the basis of revealing.

This screenwriter stated that the main problem of the screenwriter is the character, and noted: the character in the film must experience four archetypes. In fact, the character moves and creates the story. From which point of view the narrative is revealed to the audience is the work of the structure. Films based on a mystery plot have limited information and delayed answers.

Saeed Qutbizadeh, a film critic, pointed out that according to the Aristotelian division, the determination of the story depends on the determination of the time, place, and theme, and stated: Zeller in the play "Father" with these three principles in mind, has interfered in each of them, which at first glance disrupts the audience's connection with the story. That is, the time, place, and topic in this film are inconsistent with the usual routine and general definition, and this issue is the source of the work's ambiguities.

He continued: In directing his dramatic text, Zeller went further and used the possibilities of sound and image, especially music, to create more ambiguity. For example, the time span in which the events of the play take place is a secret that cannot be revealed in the cinematography. Or the place of events becomes more mysterious with successive location changes, and most importantly, the choice of a worn-out mind to narrate the story makes the events seem irregular and unusual. Time and space in this film are fluid and captivating, far from what is presented in conventional films.

Qutbizadeh said: "Father" is an ambitious work in my opinion, but it is not a great experience and a masterpiece, for several reasons. First, decades after Buñuel's late films, presenting a realistic picture of a sick and worn-out mentality is not a step forward in cinema. Compared to "Tristana", Zeller's film still has nothing new to say, whether in terms of ideas or mise-en-scène. The second reason refers to the director's delight in throwing knots in the narrative that makes the audience's relationship with his film look like the effort of someone who is solving an equation or solving a table or putting together a puzzle. It is only after passing through the difficulties of the text that the audience stops at the zero point.

He continued: The question here is whether there was a need for this level of complexity in the plot to express the condition of an old man suffering from dementia. And if the audience goes through these uncertainties, will the movie still be attractive to him? It is possible to criticize the film in general that what it wants to say does not need to be said in this way. "Father" is a film whose strangeness is in the plot of Pirangi Gang, and the aim of the filmmaker is to trouble the audience. Certainly for those who see this film for the first time, finding answers to their questions about the ambiguities of the text is a fun and even exciting experience.

This film critic said: This is like struggling with a story that is not non-linear in nature, but it looks non-linear and chaotic due to the choice of the point of view of the sick old man. This is the result of a clever trick to make the movie weirder than a genuine weirdness show. My recommendation in this meeting is to see original examples in the cinema such as "Lilith" by Robert Rossen or the silent film "A Leaf of Madness" by Kinogas.

Qutbizadeh continued: If we look at it fairly, this movie has features that we can learn from. One of the most important of these lessons is the precise use of objects in the story. The clock and wall painting as two thematic story elements of the film are recurring motifs. The timelessness and placelessness of the story, from the old man's point of view, is with the emphasis on the clock itself, not its hands. Here, the clock indicates time, it shows the narrator's childish sensitivity, and its frequent loss points to his Alzheimer's disease.

This well-known film critic also explained Zeller's narration method in the movie "Father" as a fluid and moving movement between the first person and the third person. In the description of this double narrative, he said: It seems that a major part of the film is devoted to the father's point of view, and we observe the surrounding environment and people from his point of view, and then, in an untimely turn, in chapters such as the daughter's fantasy about her father's murder, we see images from his mind. He continued: In addition to the mentioned cases, the movie "Father" is an interesting and modern example of showing "unreliable narration" in the cinema. A kind of revelation against the principle of "image as reality" that Christian Thomson expands on in his comprehensive writing called "Breaking the Glass Protection".

He continued: For the audience who always evaluated the moving image as a proof of the authenticity of reality, examples like Hitchcock's "Stage Horror" invalidated this assumption and turned the simple-minded audience of classic movies into an audience that later looked at even the most realistic scenes with doubt. Aware of the impact of an unreliable narration, Zeller took an extreme approach to shock the audience. In the movie "Father" everything we see is apparently real. This emphasis on a real house and ordinary people and tangible relationships is to trick the audience into being surprised to see the father in the nursing home minutes later, in the unraveling chapter of the film. As if all those things that seemed so real were nothing more than an illusion. This realization of the unreal is a trick that, although it surprises the audience the first time, I doubt it will be an effective tactic for subsequent viewings or to emerge victorious from the test of time.

Stating that cinema is more the heir of literature than theater, he said: One of the things that cinema borrows from literature is playing with the angle of view in fictional and non-fictional narration. In the play, except for exceptions such as Beckett and UNESCO, due to the limitation of the stage and the key need for dialogue, the hand of the playwright is not so open for this work, but literature is a wide field for these tricks.

He stated: The chronicle of a dreamer, sick and delusional mind is basically interesting and attractive. We must pay attention not to consider forgetfulness in this film as just a complication and to think about its metaphorical aspects as well. Praising the performance of Anthony Hopkins and choosing a piece from the opera "Pearl Fishers" by Georges Bizet, Kotbizadeh also emphasized at the end of his speech: If we see forgetfulness in the movie "Father" not only as a complication, but as a metaphor for the suffering of today's man, loneliness and the breaking of emotional ties, then the film will be a mirror in front of us.

At the end of this meeting, the attendees raised their questions about the script of the movie "Father".

The first meeting of "Screenplay Era" was held last Sunday, October 19, with the presence of Mahmoud Arbabi, Farhad Tawhidi and Saeed Qutbizadeh, by Screenplay Bank in cooperation with Cinema House.

The great conference of law and literature, with the focus on examining legal and social concepts in Ferdowsi's Shahnameh, Golestan Saadi and other Persian classics, seeks to open a new window to Iran's literary heritage and link it with legal knowledge.

Fars - The first smart library of Fars province named "Fershtgan Minab" public library was opened today in Shiraz with the presence of the Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance.

Yazd - Hossein Masrat, a Yazdi writer and historian, introduced the most exquisite manuscript of Diwan Hafez in Iran, referring to the existence of a treasure of manuscripts in the Ministerial Library of Yazd.

Seyyed Abbas Salehi, the Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance, issued a message to express his condolences on the death of Ayatollah Haj Seyed Alireza Heydari.

Zanjan - Maryam Tavakoli, the author of Zanjani, referring to the importance of holding the Zanjan book exhibition, said: This event can be the basis for increasing cultural vitality, expanding people's relationship with books, and introducing the literary and cultural capacities of the province.

The long story "In preparation for the unlived life" is a narrative of the interconnected lives of hope, dream, time and desire, each of which is intertwined with love, family and the past. Instead of a clear answer, the novel presents the gap between the lived life and the desired life; Love is the promise of liberation, but its social face is not clear, the relationship is never completely two-person, and the "third person" such as the family and the past is always present. "Hasn't lived" is not the past; It is a future whose relational and temporal conditions for its realization have not yet been provided.

Zanjan - Director General of Endowments and Charitable Affairs of Zanjan province, emphasizing the need to promote the culture of reading and using the model of "the most book-reading leader in the world", announced the determination of this general department to revive Hosseinieh Azam specialized library.

"Caring for Her" by Jean-Baptiste Andrea, a reflection on memory, freedom and the responsibility of the artist.

The Frankfurt Book Fair ended its work yesterday, which this year focused on the functions of artificial intelligence and examined its role in the book market.

Zanjan - Vice President of Economy and Culture of Iran Book and Literature House met and talked with booksellers in Zanjan.

Hormozgan - Rasakh Library official announced the holding of a special ceremony commemorating Hafez in Dostdar Kitab Gezir village and in Rasakh Library.

Khorasan-Razavi- specialized exhibition of the book "Hafez; The mirror of mysticism and love" was held in the Holy Shrine of Hazrat Reza (AS) with the display of works in Persian, English, German, and Chinese languages.

Hormozgan - The writers of Hormozgan, on the occasion of National Children's Week, had a sincere meeting with their children and teenagers and told them sweet stories and answered their children's questions.