The New Wave Cinema in Iran is a historical and analytical study of the Iranian New Wave Cinema (Mowj-e No) as an artistic and intellectual movement that came to its best early productions between 1958 and 1978. As the movement has a long history, Parviz Jahed focuses on the development and the early progression of the movement in the 1960s and explores its emergence and development in the context of the cultural and social conditions of Iran during this period.
Jahed first defines the term 'New Wave' in Iran's film culture, in order to identify the root elements that gave traction to this movement. He analyses the degree to which different elements and factors have contributed to the formation of this cinema, accounting for the different approaches of Iranian intellectual filmmakers towards modernity and a modern form of cinema in Iran. The book finishes by studying the works of three intellectual figures and influential filmmakers of the 1960s, Ebrahim Golestan, Farrokh Ghaffari, and Feraydoon Rahnama, who are arguably considered the forerunners of the New Wave Cinema in Iran.
Author(s): Parviz Jahed
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 248
Cover
Contents
List of figures
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1 The Iranian New Wave (Mowj-e No)
Recognition of and challenging Mowj-e No
2 The internal factors
Cinema and the negotiation of modernity in Iran
The emergence of national cinema
Nativism vs. Westoxication (Gharbzadegi)
The enablement and obstructionism of the state
The mechanisms of censorship
The establishment of cultural institutions and film centres
3 Looking for an alternative cinema in Iran
Status of critical film discourse in 1960s Iran
Intellectual cinema and challenging Filmfarsi
Mowj-e No, the lost identity and manifestation of utopian cinema
4 New Wave and the literary tradition
Adaptation from Persian classical literature
Later fantasy and folktales
Interaction between Mowj-e No and modern literature
5 The external influences
The footprint of Italian neorealism
The global impact of the French Nouvelle Vague
The French Nouvelle Vague and the Iranian Mowj-e No
Fereydoun Hoveyda, the auteur theory and Iran’s New Wave
6 The forerunners of the New Wave cinema in Iran
Ebrahim Golestan and writing with a camera
The legacy of Farrokh Ghaffari
Fereydoun Rahnema and his self-reflexive cinema
7 New Wave successors and new film aesthetics
Formalistic approach
Social realism and the street film genre
Afterword
Bibliography
Index of names
Index of films and books
