Vietnam
Did anyone else make a connection between what was being portrayed by the film and the Vietnam war while watching? Especially the war zone surfing scene, reminded me a lot of the movie, "Apocalypse Now". I'm not sure if this was a purposeful allusion or not.
The finalmoments of the film focus upon a group of three young men, recognizable partisans of hiphop culture,who seatthemselves on a bench at the upper right hand corner of the frame. Eventually, another youngman walks into the frame and moves towards them, handcuffed to a much smaller and slighter Israelipoliceman. His friends stand to greet him, and when he gets alongside them, he yanks on the handcuff,forcing his captorto come to a halt while all four youths exchange pounds and hugs. Finally, afterflashing afinal V for Victory, he gives the policeman another yank to move him along, leading him as ifthe handcuff was a leash
This scene felt very random and unrelated to the movie as a whole, which was very surprising because usually the last scene is supposed to give insight and meaning to the movie. Did anyone feel the same way, or were you guys able to find meaning in this final scene?
He is reunited with his two unnamed companions, back drinking coffee at the same tableoutside the Holy Land souvenir shop where we first met them in Chronicle of a Disappearance
Did anybody else find it interesting, the parallelism of the same sort of scene at the table outside of the shop, in both the beginning and the end of the movie, but in the beginning it was a confused soldier and at the end it is some guy whistling? What do you think this is supposed to represent?
view of E.S.’s father, who has been arrested by Israeli forces and subsequently bound andblindfolded — thus, we see what he, blindfolded, cannot. Seconds later, he literally disappears into thelandscape, as his captors throw him over a ledge (he survives, though not without damage, both physi
I am now confused again, is the man who was thrown off the cliff the same man who got in the taxi in the beginning of the movie?
story being told is that of E.S.’s family, and particularly his father
I found it very confusing watching the film the first time through, and I had no idea what the connections between some of the characters were. It was only during my second viewing that I was less lost and was able to piece together more of the character relationships.
a room divided neatly in half
I thought it was very cool how almost all of the shots in this film showed some form of symmetry. Whether these symmetrical angles had meaning to show the division between Palestine and Israel or if they are just there for visual enhancement, they really stood out.
he city into 'an assortment of cloistered zones representing reawakened religious iclentities and communities: a series of enclosed territories founded upon the logic of exclusion and separation'.32 In war-torn Beirut, each group claimed the city as their own.33 While
Does anyone else find it ironic that religion is supposed to bring people together and give people a sense of belonging and community but, at the same time causes so many world issues between different religions and denominations?
e war, which means there is something
Does anybody else disagree with this statement? I think that in no way did the war build Lebanon, all it did was turn it to rubble and divide the people.
What does it mean to be Lebanese?
I am Lebanese and it means that my father was born and raised in Lebanon, until he had to flee the war and move to Dubai and eventually the US. I still go to Lebanon every summer to visit my family and it is a beautiful place.
on the normalization of war; on the reconstruction of Lebanon in the postwar period; and on the way the war still lurks in every comer in today's Lebanon.
It is sad how normalized war and violence has become in Lebanon due to ongoing conflict. Especially if they have lived in Lebanon their whole lives, they don't want to leave because they feel they have worked too hard to start all over and have already established a sense of home and familiarity. Lebanon is actually a wonderful place and is a holy land with history tracing back to the old testament. People in Lebanon like to say that Lebanon is the only place in the world where you can ski in the mountains and go swim at the beach in the same day.
We are not opposed to the cine1na, to radio, or to television; what we oppose is vice and the use of the media to keep our young people in a state of back�rardness and dissipate their energies ... The cinema is a 1nodern invention that ought to be used for the sake of educating the people, but, as you know, it �,as used instead to corrupt our youth. (Khomeini 1981, 248) For Iran, the new cine1na had to be in strict adherence to Isla1nicate values and codes, which meant follo,ving a new system of 1nodesty (hejab) in contrast to the old Pahlavi-era cine1na of idolatry (taqut).4
Did the film seem like just constant scolding and giving of orders to children the whole time? I think this explains a lot of that, since the strict code on film making was geared toward educating the children to bring them up right instead of corrupting them. This is evidently a film that teaches kids moral lessons.
This should retnind us that, before it is a formal principle, it might be said that Kiarosta,nj's films are "unfinished" for a very concrete reason: the restrictive conditions of making films \Vitrun the Islamic Republic
Who thinks that this is the actual reason that Kiarostami's films are "unfinished"? This would actually make a lot of sense, but I think it just his particular style of film making as was said in the beginning of the article.
Many of his films feature a filmmaker character, someti1nes Kiarosta1ni hi1nself
Just like Cairo Station!
the spectator's distance fro,n the filin is not a problem to be overcome, nor in Brechtian fashion is it so,nething that needs to be activated to 1nake hi,n/her self-conscious and aware that the fihn is a representation. Distance is a nor,nal part of the vie"'ring experience.
Does anybody not disagree with this statement? Usually, when the films I watch are captivating and I can feel like a part of the film, that means I enjoyed watching it. I don't think it is enjoyable to watch a film where you can't get into that zone.
Those are the thjngs I don't like in movies. I think a good film is one that has a lasting power, and you start to reconstruct it right after you leave the theater.
Right after I watched this movie, I did start to reconstruct it and come up with a few central themes. It seemed there was a big focus on obedience and respecting old traditions, and even a reoccurring theme from Cairo Station regarding the battle between the new and the old. You could see this through dispute about replacing all of the wooden doors and windows with new iron doors that last forever.
These are the films that take you hostage. I absolutely don't like the films in which the fihrunakers take their viewers hostage and provoke the1n. I prefer the fil1ns that put their audience to sleep in the theater. I think those filtns are kind enough to allo,v you a nice nap and not leave you disturbed ,,vhen you leave the theater.
I wish I had read this before watching the film, so I didn't have to fight the urge to fall asleep. Knowing now that the intention of the movie is to put the viewers to sleep makes me feel that maybe it was a good movie, because it did not fail in that aspect.
film reaped negativereview
Viewing this film for the first time as a modern day American, did anybody else find it difficult to tell some of the characters apart at times, due to certain aspects of the film, such as lack of color, foreign names of characters, and lack of context to what was going on at this time period in Egypt?
Hanouma reminds him that, economically, their situations are similar——they have nothing——but also reminds him that she will marry Abou Saria
Did anybody else get the feel that Hanouma was very good at manipulating people with her sexuality, and that she was only marrying Abou Saria to gain higher socioeconomic status?
Kinawi rubs his nose affectionately against the sideof her head, an act of innocent intimacy that is momentarily acceptable
Is this actually a well known act of innocent intimacy? I perceived it as kind of crossing boundaries, going a bit too far with Hanouma. I thought he was definitely going to get slapped.