Number 1!

1. What are the 5 areas in which art cinema generally distinguishes itself from Hollywood Cinema?

According to Tytti Soila, art cinema distinguishes itself from Hollywood Cinema by addressing issues of cinematic aesthetics and practices, displaying formal innovations, including social and psychological realism, affirming certain directors as auteurs, disturbing classic realist narrative codes as well as temporal and special constructions.


2. How does Tay suggest that Kiarostami’s reception in the West relates to these 5 areas?

Through Kiarostamis blatant self-reflexivity he places himself as a moderator between the subject and the audience so that an “authorial dialogue” can take place. Rather than presenting something as a text he brings the film out and the audience in. In doing so he creates new meanings both aesthetically and politically which gives him not only the authority to comment on contemporary Iranian culture but also gains him recognition in doing so.


3. What was Ayatollah Khomeini’s attitude towards the cinema?

He felt that the cinema is a useful tool for educating young people and advancing society but he feared that at the time it was a “center of vice” and dragging young people back into the time’s of barbarianism. He also felt that this stemmed from a misuse of the medium by their rulers.



4. Name two significant policy changes after the appointment of Mohammed Khatami as the head of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Orientation.

The first was the banning of all commercial distribution of videocassettes and the closing of all video clubs. The Farabi Cinema Foundation was also created to oversee these reforms. Reporting to the Deputy Minister for Film Affairs the FCF was put in charge of regulating the importation and releasing of foreign films (as well as pre-revolution films) so that only European and Japanese directed films would be the only alternative to recent domestic releases.


5. Briefly explain why domestic audiences for Iranian films rose from one million in 1983 to 7.6 million in 1985.

The FCF lowered the tax on showing domestically made films and raised the tax on foreign films. They also relaxed the strict censorship standards that existed prior to the revolution, which kept most films from being banned.


6. What was the significance of cutting the soundtrack during the school prayer in Homework?

To save the audience from having to listen to a prayer recited in such an automatic and less-than-devout way. It was also a subversive attack on the way the school is attempting to control the children through various means and obviously not succeeding.

11. The part that I kept coming back too in the clip of Homework was the center framing of the interviews and the lack of depth. It remained very claustrophobic even with the reverse shots of Kiarostami. I think this added to the attitude and mannerisms of the children since most of them seemed nervous and “put on the spot.”
I liked how he took the sound out of the prayer scene and then guised in under the terms “out of respect.” It’s funny that even the censors understand its intent and removed it from the domestic showings.