Style and Genre in the Iranian Art Cinema(Case Studies: Brick and Mirror, Siavash in Persepolis, Still Life, and Requiem)

In the present research, referencing Evolutionists like Gilles Deleuze and Style analysts like David Bordwell, an overall picture of modernist cinema as art cinema is drawn to define its formal characteristics. iModern Art Cinema creates its genres and conventions, so based on Andras Balint Kovacs’s book, four different styles (Minimalist Styles, Naturalist styles, Ornamental and Theatrical styles) and seven main genres of art cinema (Melodrama, Investigation, Wandering/Travel, The Mental Journey, Closed-Situation Drama, Satire/Genre Parody and The Film Essay) are defined. This theoretical framework plays a critical role in guiding the following analysis and discussion of four case studies of the Iranian Art Cinema, made during 1965-1978: Brick and Mirror (1965), Siavash in Persepolis (1967), Still life (1973) and Requiem (1977). Iranian Art Cinema, which was shaped by various factors such as government patronage and its nationwide agencies as official spectacle, cine clubs, festivals, movie press, in opposition to the mainstream cinema, etc. grew gradually to reflect intelligentsia’s concerns. The research is based on the Descriptive and Analytical approach and deals with two main concerns: the necessity of revision in the category of “New Iranian Cinema” and the stylistic and generic configurations of the Iranian Art Cinema. Findings show the insufficiency of the critics-made categories like “Iranian New Wave Cinema” to include the case studies in this research and generally similar films. Such categories are too incongruous and tend to overlook the basic components of modern films in favor of popular, social, and realistic cinema, which is more compatible with critics’ taste. These findings invite revision of current categories of Iranian cinema. This requires a systematic methodology that takes stylistic and generic issues into account. All case studies reveal various dimensions of styles and genres in the Iranian Art Cinema. Generally, all four styles are traceable in these films. Of seven modern genres, three genres are applied in the case studies: Melodrama, Close Drama Situation, and mental journey. The alienation, lack of real relationship between man and his environment, lack of fundamental human values in pre revolution Iran, and general attention to the human condition is rampant in three films. In one case study (Siavash in Persepolis), Ornamental and Theatrical styles and The Mental Journey genre are used to create a kind of coexistent times of mythology and the contemporary world. These case studies inclusively prove the efficiency of Evolutionist and stylists’ ideas for the Iranian Art Cinema. More important is the inclusion of these films under the modern art cinema styles and genres. These films deal with modern man and his relation to the contemporary world to represent a specific way of thought and reality. The case studies not only show the characteristics of Deleuze’s notion of Time-Image and Bodwell’s formal elements in modern cinema, but also the encounters of the main principles of modern art and cultural traditions like Iran.