Representation of Architectural Space in Asghar Farhadi’s Cinema Based on Semiotics ApproachCase Study: “The Salesman” Movie

Statement of the problem:

 In recent years, the increasing closeness between architecture and cinema disciplines the characteristics and mutual effects of which have been fully understood, has become a serious academic subject. As a popular media and influential expressive tool, cinema plays a significant role in creating meaning, establishing an emotional relationship with the audience, narrating, and characterizing by the representation of the architectural space. However, what has been neglected in the Iranian cinema is the accurate theorization of the interdisciplinary interaction between these two areas and the solutions to apply the effect of the capacities of architecture in order to the manifestation of the meaning in the movie space.

The current study aims to analyze the dramatic function of architectural spaces’ elements and physique in Asghar Farhadi’s cinema, especially “The Salesman”, and discover the latent and manifest concepts of the screenplay signs.

This research is a descriptive-analytical research based on the qualitative content analysis and Saussure’s semiotics framework.

The results obtained from the studies indicate that in Farhadi’s cinema, the architectural structure of space, not only as of the background of the story but also as a factor involved in the process of films, is consistent with the behavior of the characters and the theme of the works. Also, it indicates the feelings and even perception of specific meanings of each film. Also, each element and factor of architectural space is represented based on semantic purposes and particular semiotics. The results also show that in “The Salesman”, a great volume of signs is applied intangibility and purposive in various spatial and physical elements of architecture, such as a house, color, light, texture, opening, and objects, for the dramatic narration of the story, conveyance of its latent meanings, the definition of function and moods of characters, and stimulation of the audience’s feelings.