https://www.scribd.com/document/218353638/Hamid-Dabashi-Close-Up-Iranian-Cinema-Past-Present-and-Future-2001
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Close Up: Iranian Cinema, Past, Present and Future Paperback – 17 November 2001
by Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature Hamid Dabashi (Author)
4.6 out of 5 stars 9 ratings
Abbas Kiraostami planted Iran firmly on the map of world cinema when he won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes film festival in 1997 for his film A Taste of Cherry. In this book Hamid Dabashi examines the growing reputation of Iranian cinema from its origines in the films of Kimiyai and Mehrjui, through the work of established directors such as Kiraostami, Beyzai and Bani-Etemad, to young film-makers like Samira Makhmalbaf and Bahman Qobadi, who triumphed at the Cannes 2000 festival. Dabashi combines exclusive interviews with directors, detailed and insightful commentary, critical cultural context, an extensive filmography, and generous illustration to provide an indispensable guide to globally celebrated but little-studied cinematic genre.
Unabashedly polemical, he dissects the idea of the oriental in western perceptions of Iranian cinema and details the way that film festivals and distribution in the west have shaped domestic output in Iran. He looks, too, at the particular difficulties faced by women film-makers in a country of Islamic orthodoxy, and the obstacles placed in the path of directors attempting to introduce dissident politics in their work.
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"Hamid Dabashi's learned book on Iranian cinema in the era of globalization sparkles with verve and a sometimes punishing wit. Encyclopedic in scope, informal in tone, shrewd in its interpretation, it is the indispensable work on one of the most extraordinary artistic and social adventures of our time. Dabashi is the perfect guide."--Edward W. Said
"With Hamid Dabashi's new book, we finally have a reading of the post-Revolutionary Iranian cinema from within Iranian culture and society. Dabashi traces the deep roots of the work of filmmakers such as Abbas Kiarostami, Mohsen Makhmalbaf and Rakshan Bani-Etemad, and shows how their work opens up a fascinating and far-reaching interrogation of contemporary cultural production."--Richard Peña
"A better understanding of Iranian cinema needed someone as much aware of its global significance as knowledgeable of its immediate social roots--Hamid Dabashi is one of those rare cultural critics who has been able to add such a perspective."--Mohsen Makhmalbaf
About the Author
Hamid Dabashi is the Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. He is the founder of Dreams of a Nation: A Palestinian Film Project, committed to the preservation and dissemination of Palestinian cinema. His Close Up: Iranian Cinema: Past, Present and Future is also published by Verso.
Publisher : Verso (17 November 2001)
Language : English
Paperback : 318 pages
ISBN-10 : 1859843328
ISBN-13 : 978-1859843321
Dimensions : 19.05 x 1.27 x 23.5 cmCustomer Reviews:
4.6 out of 5 stars 9 ratings
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Hamid Dabashi
Hamid Dabashi is the Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. Born in Iran, he received a dual PhD in Sociology of Culture and Islamic Studies from the University of Pennsylvania, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University. Dabashi has written 20 books, edited four, and written over 100 chapters, essays, articles and book reviews. An internationally renowned cultural critic, his writings have been translated into numerous languages.
Dabashi has been a columnist for the Egyptian al-Ahram Weekly for over a decade, and is a regular contributor to Aljazeera and CNN. He has been a committed teacher for nearly three decades and is also a public speaker, a current affairs essayist, a staunch anti-war activist, and the founder of Dreams of a Nation. He has four children and lives in New York with his wife, the Iranian-Swedish feminist scholar and photographer Golbarg Bashi.
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M. A. Seifter
3.0 out of 5 stars Pioneer Iranian cinema directorsReviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 4 August 2018
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Dabashi has delivered a relatively comprehensive treatment of modern Iranian directors, at least those men and women who have made this nation's cinema one of the surprising-though still little known-wonders of the world. Along with this, he has given the reader a serviceable historical record and critical analysis of Iranian cinema from its beginning at the start of the 20th century to the present day, and for that alone, the reader should be grateful. On the down side, Dabashi, himself a noted academic in Middle Eastern cultural studies from Columbia University, clutters up his analysis with academic verbiage and run-on sentences that are apt to confuse and irritate the general reader-along with the non-area specializing graduate student. He could simplify, accordingly, his narrative substantially, aiming his own critical analysis thereby more at a general audience than for his own, doubtless, panting students.
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Mrs. Alison Quigley
5.0 out of 5 stars The Novelist's GodsendReviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 11 December 2012
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What makes this survey of Iranian film so entertaining is the scope he gives to incorporating personal, anecdotal material. This is not a dry account about what makes Iranian theatre so dynamic and interesting - it's also a story about the hilarious schemes that Hamid undertakes as a child, in his quest to discover more about movies. There's an energetic, cheeky tone to the first chapter of this book that drew me in immediately; watch out for his fabulous account of his attempts to make a slide projector, and nearly burn the family house down! There's also a story about the outdoor cinema and the local kids methods for circumventing admission fees, by selling "seats" in the boughs of trees.
On the whole, Hamid's prose style is very satisfying, particularly when he's summarising the plots of various films, and when translating the poetry of Sepehri. It is at its weakest when he resorts to the jargon of the "cultural studies" lexicon, exemplified in sentences such as "Art denatures and dethematises reality so that precisely its culturation and thematisation become self-evident." Does this mean "art deconstructs in order to reconstruct?"
In any case, Hamid Dabashi's acount of Iranian cinema is a gift for anyone seeking to understand the historical, political and social contexts of movies. I was fascinated with the interviews, particularly as directors discussed the challenges they needed to overcome in order to conform with post-Revolutionary censorship requirements.
Highly recommended, Alison Q.
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Jonaid Sharif
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent AnalysisReviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 1 November 2013
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Wonderful reading with lots of detailed commentary and interviews. This is a great book about the vibrant Iranian cinema both in depth and in scope.
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