adam3000

A nicely subtle parsing of the stereotypes of African-Americans that have dominated popular culture in America since the early days of slavery. The commentary on the evolution of types, and the cultural motivations for the creation of caricatures like the laughing Sambo or the asexual Mammy, is particularly interesting. Both an invaluable historical documentary and an insightful commentary on the larger impact of racist, harmful depictions in popular culture on the people they're intended to ridicule and belittle. Derisory caricatures of blacks have both inspired and justified (and helped to make legal) racism and racial violence.

One of Fassbinder's first films, 'The Niklashausen Journey' might be the most explicitly political the filmmaker would ever get. Once again - as with all his earlier work that I've seen - Godard's influence is palpable, particularly the messy mythologizing he applied to revolutionaries in 'Weekend' (although from what I've read about Straub-Huillet and other first generation of filmmakers from the New German Cinema, the influences extend much farther beyond that). 'Niklashausen' is a scathing critique of both political radicals and the society that produces them. Unlike Godard, Fassbinder makes this a very specific society, a very German society. The movie draws very clear parallels between religion and revolution, questions both the means and ends of revolutionary violence, suggests similarities between this uprising and the one led by Hitler several decades earlier - and it completely dismisses the ruling class as worthless, absurd fools quick to devastation when their enemies are involved. It works on the viewer in unexpected ways, building on our empathy with the revolutionary cause, while nearly condemning the whole movement, to make us truly care about enacting change - it is not as depressingly claustrophobic as the summary would have you believe. Without the usual melodrama to carry the film along, it does feel like an emotionally distant version of Fassbinder's later films like 'In A Year of 13 Moons' or 'Querelle.' It is difficult to deny that the film is formally and structurally brilliant, however, and of immediate interest to anyone who wants to see yet another side of a genius manifesting itself for the first time, in one of his more fascinating experiments.

In a sea of beautiful masterpieces from Iran, somehow this piece of drek got snapped up for the kind of distribution and attention that dozens of other films deserved. It's the cliched story of a poor brother and sister who have to get by with one pair of beat-up old shoes between them. Direct references to Bicycle Thieves abound.

Samira Makhmalbaf's The Apple, one of the greatest films of modern cinema, is still unavailable on video and has been seen by almost no one in the states. Until Kiarostami won the Palme D'Or for Taste of Cherry, his films were only seen by a handful of lucky individuals who made it to the right film festivals. Samira's father, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, whose films make it to theaters but never with too much attention, and other great artists like Bahram Bayzai and Daryush Mehrju'i, are overshadowed in America, somehow, by Majidi. Despite having made what might be the most significant Iranian film in history, The Cow - shown at Venice in the early 70's and introducing the country's cinema to the world - Mehrju'i and Bayzai - considered to be their best by the Iranians themselves - collectively have fewer films available on video than does Majidi, in his relatively young career.

Children of Heaven is the only Iranian film that I have seen which seems artificial. The performances are not good, the plot seems hackneyed and contrived, and it's sentimental - there's lot of crying and yelling. The children aren't real people, but little angels beset upon by this harsh life. The little boy hero is even the best student in his class AND a great athlete.

Jafar Panahi's The White Balloon and Abbas Kiarostami's Where Is The Friend's Home are both very similar storywise, but infinitely more touching, substantial and genuine.