نشریه نامه هنرهای نمایشی و موسیقی
پیاپی 31 (زمستان 1401)

Cinema and architecture, in addition to the functional aspect of their work that creates space, in the process of understanding space, both have common principles that have been intertwined by architects and operators. The purpose of this study is to identify and analyze Cocker's three films in Kiarostami's cinema using a phenomenological approach. For this purpose, based on the case study approach with an analytical and phenomenological approach to space, focused on theoretical studies, the phenomenological approach to space in cinema has been studied, then using Merleau-Ponty’s interpretive phenomenology method and Subchak model, the role of space and the possibility of using the interaction between architecture and cinema has been read in Kiarostami's works and in the final step, using this approach, a model of the relationship between the evolution of architecture and cinema has been presented. The results show that architecture and cinema can be intermediaries for the presentation of meaning, which can be shared between different fields and media. In fact, architecture and cinema are composed of common elements such as stage, space, light, movement and vision. Kia Rostami's cinema is more than an abstract place, it is a whole that is made of real objects and things and has elements such as way, human being, everydayness and imagination. The combination of these elements together defines the character of Kiarostami's cinema, which is, in fact, the nature of his cinema. Kiarostami's cinema is a general and qualitative phenomenon that cannot be reduced to any of its features, such as ordinary human communication, without losing its true nature. Thus, in Kiarostami's cinema, different dimensions of the landscape come together to create a distinct environment and a special feeling for the audience.The combination of these elements together defines the character of Kiarostami's cinema, which is, in fact, the nature of his cinema. Kiarostami's cinema is a general and qualitative phenomenon that can not be reduced to any of its elements, such as ordinary human communication, without losing its true nature. Thus, in Kiarostami's cinema, different dimensions of the landscape come together to create a distinct environment and a special feeling for the audience.

Lecture-performance is a hybrid form consisting of a lecture and a performance part that together act as a unity. In this form, although the lecture part is trying to give a specific meaning to shed light on a subject, the meaning is not solely produced by the lecturer, but through the cooperation of the lecturer and the performance using different theatrical signs, the presence of audience as meaning creators. The important point here is that this form tries to activate the audience participation in meaning-making and challenge them to question the surrounding world. To show how this meaning formation process works in this form, About Truth has been analysed. This lecture-performance is about the concept of truth and how it is perceived throughout history and among people from different groups. Rhetorical Criticism is the suitable method for analysis since it shows the relation among the lecturer/performer, the lecture/performance, and the audience, and aims at finding how meaning is produced in different texts to affect the audience. Rhetorical analysis in the lecture-performance is done in three steps, 1) finding the aim of the text, 2) how that aim is fulfilled, and 3) the aesthetic analysis of the lecture-performance. This is the first academic study on the subject of lecture-performance with a focus on rhetorical criticism and the results are as follow: the aim of the work was to highlight the concept of ‘truth’ and challenge it. It was done using different tools, such as stage prompts, colour coding, genders, dancing, acting, irony, and of course, lecturing. Without understanding the relation of different parts of the performance to the topic, the meaning would not be clear. Audience needs to decode the visual and vocal signs to make meaning for themselves. This artistic force renders meaning in different levels which helps audience to challenge themselves and have a critical view. It is opposite of the passive role of audience in conventional lectures in which they just receive the fixed information. Aesthetically speaking, this production is appealing as it has used artistic mediators and through them, has put the meaning in subtext and made an atmosphere in which its audience creates meaning using whatever they can hear and see.

The relation between film and philosophy is one of the relations that has always been considered by film theorists and philosophers. In other words, the film's ability in displaying philosophical concepts and philosophical thinking through films is one of the most significant case studies in this field. Martin Heidegger can be considered as the greatest philosopher of the twentieth century. His interest in art and its usage to indicate concepts such as Existence, makes Heidegger a distinguished figure among his contemporaries. But his thoughts about death and non-being versus existence are very interesting and worthy of attention. Heidegger considers death to be one of the most important abilities of Dasein and believes that it is only with death that Dasein can think of itself as a whole. Abbas Kiarostami is one of the directors who has received diverse readings on his movies and each of them has demonstrated the richness of his works more than before. Death is one of the concepts that apears in Kiarostami's most important works. It can be clearly seen in movies such as Koker Trilogy and Taste of Cherry. Kiarostami's different outlook and point of view, unique use of stylistic and thematic elements, the way of narrating the story and the way in which characters confront death have led this concept to go beyond its apparent meaning in his movies.This research by examining the most important and fundamental elements of understanding the concept of death in Heidegger's philosophy, namely Dasein, anxiety or fear-consciousness, fall and authenticity, death and the meaning of life in Abbas Kiarostami's cinema, indicates that all the elements related to death in Heidegger's philosophy can be traced in Kiarostami’s exemplary movies, Taste of Cherry and The Wind Will Carry Us; and a reading of Kiarostami's works through Heidegger's philosophy can be offered. In other words, the concept of death in Kiarostami's works is completely applicable to the concepts of Heidegger's philosophy. Taste of Cherry depicts the movement towards death and the diret encounter with it through the character; on the other hand, in The Wind will Carry Us, all the elements related to death in Heidegger’s philosophy appear gradually through the progress of the plot.

The screenplay’s opening scene is a significant part of the film`s narration, which reflects the screenwriter’s technique in setting off the story by shaping its opening scenes. This expressive method of the opening scenes and the exposition depend hugely on the screenwriter’s style, which shapes the conceptual aspects of the film. In a screenplay, opening scenes have a narrative and a visual aspect and thus make up the exposition’s main elements. The expression method used by the screenwriter to begin his narration creates various opening scenes. This research aims to study structural and narrative elements in addition to visual aspects or stylistic systems in the exposition and opening scenes that create concepts and meanings. In other words, the present research aims to highlight that expressive and visual elements could be analytical in screenwriting. Archival studies along with a descriptive/analytical method are used in our analysis. This study’s main issue is how expressive and semantic features of the exposition and the opening scenes are explained based on the study or by the stylistic and narrative system extracted from the Neo-Formalist approach. The theoretical framework is based on the Neo-Formalist approach, which examines the narrative and stylistic structures of the films. The stylistic system is related to all elements that form the image, which is called, as Thompson puts it, ‘cinematic material’ and includes mise-en-scène, graphics, sound, camera, and editing. To implement its theoretical findings into practice, this research studies the narrative structure of exposition and opening scenes in the screenplay of The Past (2009), written by Asghar Farhadi. The analysis of The Past indicates that exposition and opening scenes, due to stylistic and narrative system analysis, encompass meanings and an expressive function. And they can be analyzed separately. The analysis of The Past shows that the screenwriter can use most cinematic materials to create stylistic elements. Analysis of the work’s stylistic and narrative systems reveals specific characteristics of the writer’s style, which shows how Farhadi employs both systems to create an appropriate opening scene that serves to convey the story’s underlying themes. In The past, a specific implied meaning could be inferred through stylistic and narrative elements that originate from both stylistic and narrative systems.

In this study, in order to achieve another definition of the hero, first the concept of the tragic and tragic hero is described in contrast to the Trauershpiel hero, then three plays The Death of Yazdgerd by Bahram Beizaei, Sleep in an Empty Cup by Naqme Samini, and Qalandarkhone by Iraj Saqiri are analyzed based on the concept of Trauershpiel hero from Walter Benjamin's point of view. In Benjamin's interpretation of Trauershpiel, there are three heroes (tyrannical ruler, conspirator, and martyr) who are like the three vertices of a triangle. A tyrannical ruler is a symbol of a powerful person in history who is unable to make decisions. The character of the conspirator is a symbol of power and politics that leads the martyr to death with conspiracy.The research method is in the form of data collection and through a library study, which examines the concept of the hero of Trauershpiel in the three mentioned plays with a descriptive and analytical method. The analysis of The Death of Yazdgerd shows that the character of the despotic ruler sometimes complements the face of the conspirator and sometimes the upside-down face of the martyr, and also due to the narrative nature of the drama, the character of the conspirator is implied. The analysis of the drama Sleep in an Empty Cup indicates that the characters of the conspirator, the tyrannical ruler and the martyr are in repetition and rotation compared to the three objective characters of the present time and the three mental characters of the past time. The analysis of the Qalandarkhone demonstrates that due to the linearity of the dramatic narrative, the three Trauershpiel characters are not complementary and opposite to each other, and they do not cross the three vertices of a triangle. As a result, the characters of the two The Death of Yazdgerd and Sleep in an Empty Cup are the most compatible with the hero component of Trauershpiel play, because in addition to the alignment of the historical narrative with the dramatic text, the characters through the representation of the role, the repetition of the character, and the rotation of time from the past to the present, cross the three vertices of one triangle and the only difference is in the way the three vertices of a triangle are traversed by the play’s characters. Based on the study done, it is possible to find another hero for writing dramatic texts because the three heroes of Trauershpiel reflect the rulers on the stage and depict the powerlessness of the government and the power of the conspirators.

This study concentrates on the form of mockumentary and its relation to its content; focusing on its ability to represent the reality, in order to describe and analyze Mockumentary. In this study, the effect of the medium of cinema, is analyzed on mockumentary films through analyzing four successful mockumentaries, which all had achieved a considerable rating in IMDb and Metacritic. First, mockumentary is introduced and its features are described. Its relation to documentary cinema and fiction cinema is mentioned, their common features are considered and the potential and capacities of this genre are presented. Mockumentary as the name implies, has a very close correlation with documentary. In the first glance, mockumentary seems a copy which tries to get to the place of the reliable non-lying documentary, and waits until the documentary is made and then copies it, but in this research, it is emphasized that there are different philosophical perspectives about the Real and reality and its relation to the Truth, especially in contemporary philosophy. These discussions, challenge the authenticity and factuality of the mockumentary and documentary. According to Alisia Lebow, mockumentary might be the correct or more real form of documentary but through analyzing the theory of Alain Badiou in “Being and Event” we obtain the key concepts in his theory, which combines Set-Theory in mathematics and ontology. He suggests a kind of Meta-ontology based on Set-Theory. According to his definition of the Truth and the Real, and based on this duality (Truth/Real), a fair point for judging mockumentary can be found. Considering the relations and dualities between the key concepts in his ontology, a way of analyzing Mockumentary Cinema in recent years is offered; four successful samples in this genre have been analyzed, and meanwhile, some criteria for evaluating mockumentary films are achieved through them. A descriptive-analytic method is used to develop the argument. Initially, the definitions and presumptions about documentary are considered in order to clarify the different interpretations of this field, and then the different features in the form of mockumentary are studied. In Badiou’s words, Cinema of Mockumentary presents a void, which is an area for event to take place, which is made between documentary and fiction cinema. It is a void representing a lack of form. Mockumentary tries to fill this void by a new combination of fiction and reality. Mockumentary locates itself between documentary and fiction, and with the utilization of the techniques from both of them, makes a rearrangement in the boundaries of the documentary and fiction cinema. This new combination shows a new structure since it brings new dualities with the key concepts which mainly form the fiction cinema and the documentary. It suggests ways for finding better techniques in Documentary Cinema. The correlation between Documentary and Mockumentary, and their mutual influence on each other, results in the enrichment of both. In the present study, a variety of techniques and formal features in mockumentaries are identified through the analysis of four successful case studies.

With the advent of cinema in the digital age, this art has become the best medium to represent the advancement of technology. Many science-fiction films on the subject of machines and robots have taken on a more realistic form, and the scientific part of this type of film has dominated the imaginary part. One of the critical events in the science-fiction genre that underwent this transformation is the relationship between man and machine in this genre. At the same time, the advancement of scientists in the self-awareness of artificial intelligence has brought their biological structure very close to that of humans. On the other hand, in the world of technology, scientists have taken great strides in making machines more intelligent. According to many, the goal of artificial intelligence development is no longer to achieve human biological intelligence or robot-child simulation. For them, machine intelligence, along with improving the quality of human life and speeding it up, means experiencing human life with intelligent beings. Many human biological and cognitive features, both objective and subjective, were simulated for artificial intelligence. The result is evident in the representation of the machine-human interaction in cinema. Confrontation and the war between machines and man for survival gradually gave way to the Cold War for existence or friendship and emotional relationships. Suppose, in the past, artificial intelligence and intelligent machines were considered a competitor to intelligent human life in future scenarios. In that case, the theories of artificial intelligence scientists, the economic plans of technology investors, and the imagination of writers and filmmakers are the closest competitors to human aesthetic life. In the present study, using a descriptive-analytical method by examining the theories of prospective researchers in the field of artificial intelligence as well as scenarios predicted by scientists and represented in three works, "West World," "Ex-Machina," and "Devs," the effects of machine self-awareness theories on the representation of the human-machine existential confrontation is determined. It is concluded that the encirclement of artificial intelligence in the production of films and TV series can provide them with stories and images and also affect the aesthetic sense and emotions of the audience. Although this influence was initially evident in science-fiction films and their audiences, today, it can also be seen in other cinematic genres.