Summary
Brick and Mirror is the first Iranian feature film to use direct sound (also used in several scenes in The House is Black). With the absence of music (except percussion in the intro), this broadens our sense of space extending beyond the screen. The title of the movie comes from a verse of the classic Persian poet Attar who wrote "What the old people see in the mud brick, the young see in the mirror." The philosophical implications of the verse come to the fore in the story of a young man who finds a littlr girl in his taxi and then spends the whole night with his girlfriend discussing what to do with the child. Although at first glance, this black-and-white film resembles the work of Italian neorealism, especially in its unwavering view of street and nightlife in Tehran in the 1960s, it more closely resembles Dostoevsky and expressionism: the supporting characters periodically step out and perform anxious soliloquies, which contributes to the general elegance, which is both physical and metaphysical, external and spiritual. Golestan brings a devastating portrait of hypocritical intellectuals and various bureaucrats who preach altruism. His tragic narration, which takes place over 24 hours, shows us that Tehran is radically different from anything we saw in the second Iranian new wave. Once it finally dawns, the constant underlining of institutional failures in the midst of the bustle of Tehran during the early 1960s becomes an epic indictment of society as a whole in Iran's first modernist masterpiece.
(Jonathan Rosenbaum)
featured
Film Mutations: Festival of Invisible Cinema XIII.
Cinemaclash! Film+Power
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Film Is More Than Film
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Border
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Pasolini's Anger. Hypotheses for the Reconstruction of the Original Version of the Film
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6/64: Mom and Dad (An Otto Mühl Happening)
6/64 Mama und Papa (Materialaktion Otto Mühl), Austria, 1964., director: Kurt Kren, eksperimentalni
Film or Power
Film oder Macht, West Germany, 1970., director: Vlado Kristl, feature film
7/64: Leda and the Swan
7/64 Leda und der Schwan, Austria, 1964., director: Kurt Kren, feature film
Liberty
Liberté, France / Portugal / Spain / Germany, 2019., director: Albert Serra, feature film
Actors: Submission and Pleasure: Opening of the Festival
Actors: Submission and Pleasure,
Cinema Conversation
Cinema Conversation,
Film is. 1-6
Film ist. 1-6, director: Gustav Deutsch,
In the Name of the Law
Enligt lag, Sweden, 1958., director: Peter Weiss, Hans Nordenström, documentary
12th December
12 dicembre, Italy, 1972., director: Giovanni Bonfanti, Pier Paolo Pasolini, documentary
Power and Rebellion
Albert Serra - Selection of films,
Tommaso
Italy / United Kingdom / United States / Greece, 2019., director: Abel Ferrara, feature film
Symposium - Power of Cinemaclash
Symposium - Power of Cinemaclash,
Women's Quarter
Qaleh, Iran, 1966., director: Kamran Shirdel, documentary
Tehran Is the Capital of Iran
Teheran, Payetakht-e Iran Ast, Iran, 1966., director: Kamran Shirdel, documentary
The House is Black
Khaneh siah ast, Iran, 1963., director: Forugh Farrokhzad, documentary
The Incomparable of The Non-comparable
Lo incomparable de lo no comparable, France, 2019., director: Paul Grivas, feature film
Jean-Luc Godard: Initiation into the revolutionary film
Initiation au cinéma [révolutionnaire], France, 1969., director: Jean-Paul Török, documentary
1968: A Blind Archive
1968: A Blind Archive, Mexico, 2014., director: Bani Khoshnoudi, documentary
Visual Riots
Visual Riots,
Socialism
Film Socialisme, Switzerland / France, 2010., director: Jean-Luc Godard, feature film
Film Catastrophe
Film Catastrophe, France, 2018., director: Paul Grivas, documentary
Film/Speaks/Many/Languages
Film/Spricht/Viele/Sprachen, Austria, 1995., director: Gustav Deutsch, documentary
The Hills of Marlik
Tappeha-ye Marlik, Iran, 1963., director: Ebrahim Golestan, documentary
El Grito
El Grito, Mexico, 1968.-1970., director: Leobardo López Aretche, documentary
Visual Riots
Nicole Brenez,
9/64 O Christmas Tree
9/64 O Tannenbaum, Austria, 1964., director: Kurt Kren, feature film
