ScreenFish

where faith and film are intertwined

Adrien Brody

Septembers of Shiraz – Revolutionary Backlash

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“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I will meet you there.” (Jalal ad-Din Rumi)

Revolutions can bring great advancement, but they often bring pain and chaos in their wake. Septembers of Shiraz is the story of an Iranian Jewish family that must cope with the uproar of the Iranian Revolution. The film opens with a wonderful celebration of family and friends shortly before the Revolution. Isaac (Adrien Brody), the patriarch, is a prosperous jeweler. They are preparing to send their son to America to boarding school. Soon, however, the situation deteriorates. One day Isaac is arrested and taken to prison where he is questioned, tortured, and held without trial. His family has no idea if he is alive or not. His wife Farnez (Salma Hayek) must protect herself and her daughter. In time the family must sacrifice all they have to escape from Iran. (So, of course, there is a tense mad dash to get to the border.)

While we often think of the cruelty of these events as tied in some way to Islam, what we see is not based in religion. Rather it is class warfare. That plays out a bit in the relationship between Farnez and her housekeeper (Shohreh Aghdashloo). Farnez has considered their relationship to be one of friendship, but we see that the role of servant is not the same as a friend. The persecution Isaac faces is not because he is a Jew, but because he has prospered in the system under the Shah that has been done away with.

I think it needs to be noted that this is not an Iranian film. This is a film made by American filmmakers about a country with which we have a history of trouble. That is not to say I think the film sets Iran in a bad light. What struck me in the film is not how barbarous the Iranian Revolution was, but how similar it was to so many other revolutions. The ones that especially came to mind were the Russian and French Revolutions. In both, after deposing the ruler, it soon devolved into a kind of mob rule which took on the trappings of equality. In France, everyone was “Citizen”; in Russia, “Comrade”. Here everyone is addressed as “Brother” whether they are oppressor or victim. The goal here (and I think this is true of the French and Russian Revolutions as well) isn’t some ideological standard, but vengeance for past inequality—punishing those who profited from past oppression, even if they were not an active participant.

Always these kinds of revolutions claim to be acting in the name of justice. Yet often the new order, as it tries to right past wrongs, ends up creating its own injustices. Perhaps that is why the filmmakers open the film with the quotation from Rumi above. It is calling up to look beyond those things we believe are right or wrong (or even of righting wrongs) and meet not in a battle, but as community.

Manhattan Night – A Twisted Tale of Twisted People

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Manhattan Night is a trip back into the feel of classic noir. Based on the novel Manhattan Nocturne by Colin Harrison, this film has the hard-nosed, soft-hearted protagonist pulled into a world of twisted characters and a very twisted plot by a femme fatale. He must try to set things right without losing either all that he holds as valuable or his life.

Porter Wren is a columnist for a big newspaper who writes stories about terrible things, but often from a heart-tugging human interest side. Some time back, he made a name for himself by finding a missing girl that the police were unable to find. He has seen so much of the dark side of life that he has developed a cynical façade for protection. He says, “I used to think my stories mattered, but now I hope they make enough to feed my family.” He lives with his wife (Jennifer Beals) and children in a house hidden away from the world. He goes there to shut out all the evil of the streets, but soon that evil follows him there.

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When he meets Caroline Crowley (Yvonne Strahovski) he is immediately struck by her beauty. She asks him to investigate the unsolved death of her husband Simon (Campbell Scott), an eccentric filmmaker whose body was found in a demolished building. (That locked-door mystery is really only secondary to the rest of the plot.) As he gets immersed in the mystery of Simon’s death, he also becomes entangled with Caroline, emotionally and sexually. When his new boss asks him to investigate Caroline, the whole plot begins circling on itself—not unlike classic noir films such as The Maltese Falcon. Each twist in the plot allows us to see more of the twisted lives of the people involved. The depravity deepens scene by scene. Porter may think he is immune from the darkness he is encountering, but how can he not be defiled by it all?

The perversion that grows around him threatens all that he holds dear. In part, that is represented by his secluded home. It is a haven filled with love. It is literally walled off from the outside world. But what if he begins to bring the darkness he is encountering home with him?

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What made Porter so interesting is his belief that he is cynical. Although he tries hard to be, underneath there is a foundation of romanticism and optimism that propels him through the story. He still wants his stories to make a difference. He is in it for more than feeding his family. He has a sense of morality, although he often fails to live up to it. It is because he really isn’t as cynical as he thinks he is that he can be used by the others in the story. He wants to bring harmony to this convoluted situation, but how can that be possible when so many of the people he is dealing with care only for themselves? His supposed cynicism is only a veneer that covers over his vulnerability. Others seem to sense this and take advantage of his nature.

At the heart of this and most noir films is the conflict within human nature. Are we basically good or evil? Porter has seen plenty of the bad things of life to know that terrible things happen—often done by monstrous people. But he has also seen people who have acted heroically and selflessly for others. He wants to be the latter type of person, but when surrounded by the evildoers, how can he stand against them? Is the basic goodness he wants to claim enough to withstand all the world can throw at him? Is ours?

Photos courtesy of Lionsgate Premiere

American Heist: Two Brothers Walk Into A Bank…

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Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Two brothers commit a violent crime; one brother goes to jail and is completely tormented by life beyond bars, while the other tries to make amends (and finds love). Once released, the first/older brother urges the other/younger brother to do “one last job” to make things right, with disastrous results. If that doesn’t sound predictable or trite, please continue. Otherwise… I’ll tell you that Adrien Brody and Hayden Christensen give it their all as brothers Frankie and James.

It’s complete unfortunate that Armenian director Sarik Andreasyan made his debut with American Heist. His moody vibe gave the film a richness that it lacked otherwise, but the script just wasn’t strong enough to sell me on the crime noir presented here.

Rounding out the small main cast are Akon as Sugar, the gang leader who Frankie is in debt to, and Jordana Brewster as Emily, the cop James fell for. Unfortunately, Brewster, Brody, and Christensen have all had better, deeper roles, and that raised the bar for this one. Still, Brody’s portrayal of a man who has been broken by time on the inside of prison is heartfelt and moving. For those who have never been incarcerated, it’s probably impossible to understand the pain of that experience. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter whether you’re guilty or not; once you’re inside prison, it changes people.

One can only hope that people seeing movies like this recognize that crime doesn’t pay. Do the brothers ever get away? Do they ever get scared straight? Do we ever recognize the faults in someone else’s decisions and change our behavior? If anything, this is a moral tale of two brothers who repeat the same mistakes until they lead themselves down a path they can’t undo. Nathaniel Hawthorne might have been proud.