Last night’s opening ceremony, which was shown to the press corps via simulcast in the Debussy theater, was pure joy, especially if you speak French. French film and theater actor Edouard Baer emceed the event with ironic bonhomie and a piano player who accompanied him as he delivered a spoken-word-style love letter to cinema and to humanity at large. With Anna Karina, the actress from “Pierrot le ... more >
ARCHIVES
Asghar Farhadi’s new film TODOS LOS SABEN (“Everybody knows”) to open Cannes Fest.
Film will run in competition
Asghar Farhadi's eighth film was shot entirely on location in Spain. Laura (Penelope Cruz) lives with her husband (played by Javier Bardem) and their children in Buenos Aires. When they return together to her native village in Spain for a family event, the trip gets derailed after unexpected events bring secrets out into the open. The family, its ties and the moral choices imposed on them are all ... more >
Asghar Farhadi’s ABOUT ELLY to finally get released here
(from affiliate Iranian Film Daily) - “About Elly,” which stars Golshifteh Farahani (pictured) is finally getting a stateside limited release, well after the fact. Let’s remember that the year of release for this film is 2009. That’s six long years during which theater-going Americans were deprived of this slow-burning drama surrounding the mysterious disappearance of a woman vacationing at the ... more >
ASGHAR FARHADI’S THE PAST
This is the first time Farhadi competes in Cannes
Stories, whether in film or in literature, generally follow an arc. Things happen to a character or characters that we judge and like or dislike according to their personalities and their choices; situations develop, conversations take place, a certain point is reached, and there is a conclusion. In an Asghar Farhadi film (winner of an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film for “A Separation,”) only ... more >
A Separation
Iran's entry for best foreign film at the Oscars
Peyman Maadi, Leila Hatami and Sareh Bayat
Directed by Asghar Farhadi
Nader and Simin: A Separation by Asghar Farhadi is the Iran-made candidate for Best Foreign Picture at the Academy Awards. Not only is it a superb film with nary a wasted shot, but actors Leila Hatami and Peyman Maadi (they won the Best Actor awards at the last Berlin Film Festival) give three-dimensional, wholly believable performances as the two sides of an acrimonious couple going through a ... more >
Iranian cinema shines again with “Nader and Simin: A separation”
Iranian film gathers speed on Euro fest circuit
Peyman Moaadi and Leila Hatami
Directed by Asghar Farhadi
Get ready for the Iranian hurricane. “Nader and Simin: A Separation” has been riding on a wave of positive buzz ever since Smackdown in Berlin Persian-style--“Separation” won for Best Movie and Best Actor, male and female, at the last Berlinale Festival. It was quite the coup. This second film by director Asghar Farhadi (pictured, below right), whose 2009 film "About Elly" already received ... more >
All eyes on Iranian cinema: Nader & Simin
Iranian cinema is about to get a whole lot more interesting with Asghar Farhadi’s “Nader & Simin: A separation,” which in theory should be shown here in limited release in about two months. Shot in semi-clandestinity in Tehran, "Nader & Simin" provides us with an unforgiving gaze unto a couple on the verge of separation. Nader's father is found to have Alzheimer’s disease and a ... more >