Friday, July 20, 2012

A Moment of Innocence


            A Moment of Innocence is an outstanding work of an Iranian filmmaker named Mohsen Makhmalbaf. The film has reflexive subject matter which renovated personal history and made it into an emotional making of film. The film is based on a real incident that took place in pre- revolution Iran when Mohsen Makhmalbaf was part of an anti Shah regime. The film portrayed a situation that occurred 20 years ago. An analytical description of the film will reveal the simple complexity of the director’s work.

The first scenes began with announcing the nature of the film with the opening credits  written on a green clapperboard and read aloud by the loader. Makhmalbaf held interviews for the young version of himself while the assistant director, Zinal, worked with the policeman named Mirhadi Tayebi to help cast his own version of himself. Makhmalbaf put together a group of young men and questioned them on their political point of view until he found one of them who displayed the same characters and a bold statement as himself as a young man. He quickly discovered his actor. On the other hand, the ex-policeman, in the meantime, arranged his possible actors in what looked like an army lineup. The ex-police officer passionately searched for the one who looked the most like him. In this scene, Makhmalbaf demonstrated the different approach between the artist and someone that used to being the audience. How the ex-cop eulogized on biopic performance. Director Makhmalbaf allowed the ex-policeman tell his story. He wanted to play a heroic figure but he did not want a basic cast selection and persisted to find an actor who filled with the cop emotion, not physically. This request blazed the tension between the ex-cop and the director. The ex-policeman stomped off and tried return to his hometown in Orumieh as Zinal chased after him. By this point, it became clear that we were not only watching footage of the filmmaking process. We were, in fact, watching the film itself. It was a little bit confusing to have an idea of where the film truly began. However, that is a part of it’s uniqueness. Makhmalbaf also used direct sound throughout the film. No one could catch the sound difference between the material he used in the studio from where he held auditions. By doing so, he gave it the feel of being realistic. By taking a true event and a little bit of fictionalizing, Makhmalbaf left it to the audience to figure out what parts that added to the narrative and which parts truly speak to history. That is something we see in Kiarostami work all most often. Zinal persuaded the policeman into thinking that could instruct the young actor chosen by director Makhmalbaf to realistically relate what happened to him. Moreover, the cop took the young boy and submerged him into his memories.
A Moment of Innocence is mainly focused on the memory and outlook. The policeman remembered every single detail of the confrontation, as it has ghosted or preoccupied him for 20 years. He wanted the young actor to understand everything about him, who he was and how he felt and made sure his story was told truthfully. The policeman taught the young actor how to play him on proper officer modesty, the environment of his old place of duty and the poignant process of him falling in love with a woman to whom he wanted to give a flower before Makhmalbaf stabbed him. In the other hand, Makhmalbaf, have only gross idea memories of the incident but not in detail. He admitted to know only what happened and the basic fundamental of why he did what he did. His approach to the young actor playing himself was totally different from the ex-officer. He spoke to the young man as if he were the young Mohsen. Makhmalbaf was unable to remember the incident clearly himself. Nonetheless, he shaped the young actor into himself in the wish of unveil the 20 years of memories he neglected. By doing so, he erase the line between himself and the young actor. Makhmalbaf brought together his aspiration to set things right and to connect his past to his present through cinema. A Moment of Innocence not only references itself throughout, it also integrated all of cinema into its structure.  Later, the ex- policeman took the young policeman to the tailor who used to make his uniforms. The old man energized when he found out they were making a movie. He remembered all the Western movies he watched back when the Shah regime was in power. He talked about Kirk Douglas and John Ford movies. He even made costumes for actors. A Moment of Innocence itself evoked the self-reflexive nature of Abbas Kiarostami's Close-Up. It involved personally Makhmalbaf as the director impersonated by a con actor. Kiarostami's movie accorded with the means art that can save humanity. Kiarostami seemed to have a closer range with cinema itself, his films are based in realism; however, by the end of most of his film we can sense the cinematic.  Makhmalbaf is more stylish; in addition, he also carried more powerful and colorful images to fill his scene. Nonetheless, he kept his characters simple and universal throughout. In A Moment of innocent Makhmalbaf attempted to construct a screenplay about the nature of movies, memory and regret. Though the filmed he also showed other themes about generation gap and the effectiveness of political violence. Nevertheless, he didn’t draw a line between the realms of fact and fiction quite as effectively as he tried.  As the policeman sadly remembers the woman he thinks about on a daily basis, Makhmalbaf exposed the truth about the woman, she was an accomplice in trying to steal the police gun but also Makhmalbaf cousin. Makhmalbaf and the young actor played himself traveled to the cousin's house; however, she refused to be a part of the film. She was ashamed to relive this incident. Makhmalbaf asked to use her daughter as her youngerself; again she refused and didn’t want anything to do with the film. The daughter, on the other hand, walked out to give tea to the young man. The young man politely refuses. Unexpectedly, she dived into the role of her mother and she and the young man begun to discuss plans to get the cop's firearm. After a while of watching, A Moment of Innocence might give the impression of overwhelm. Why? It’s because every time a scene seemed to be settled but failed at the last minute.  As the cop coached the young policeman how he held the flower and told about how he fell in love with the girl, a girl passed by and asked for the time. Later, we audience found out that the girl was the one who played the young cousin of Makhmabalf. She accidentally asked the other actor the time without knowing who he was. The ex-policeman and the young policeman were unacquainted of what just happened. It was unreal to them. When it was time to shoot the scene of the film, the policeman found out that the real woman related to Mohsen. The ex-police officer got upset when the young actress approached and asked the young police officer for time and knowing she was with young Makhmalbaf.  By that time, he filled with rage and anger. He faced the young actress playing the woman as she was the real woman. He learned that she never loved him she was just a part of Mohsen plain. Suddenly, he changed the scene and told the young man to draw his firearm and shoot the woman when she approaches. In this scene we could feel the motion of revenge and realism. The ex-cop felt by killing her in the film might rewrite the past and erased 20 years of pain he suffered. But in the young officer mind was a different picture. This tense moment of confrontation added realism to the film and showed how our past can challenge our future. Makhmalbaf always scoop ways of keeping things interesting; he drew a story line of fretfulness from behind the scenes structure. A funeral passed by the ex-policeman, young officer and Zinal. The ex-policeman and Zinal walked with funeral. The young officer also went along. He set down the flower under a beam of sunlight. When he returned, the plant was gone. He ran with panic down the passageway looking for the person who took it. They used a long shot show his movement and surrounding. Through the film victims of the incident tried to convince the actors how they felt. But, the actors didn’t want to exhibit the feelings of the director nor the ex- cop; yet their feeling and current mindsets. Mohsen Makhmalbaf wanted the young man to reflect his old drastic antagonism. On the other side, the ex-police officer still filled with anger wanted to know what would happened if he did ask that girl to go out on a date. Nevertheless, the young policeman hesitated between the flower and the gun, as the ex-policeman did. In the other end of the passageway, the young Makhmalbaf could not excepted the fact that he had to stab the young man, he broke down and cried; he howled that he cannot kill the young  man and  he could save the indigent people of Iran some other way.
The film ended in the scene of the incident that defined both Makhmalbaf and the Ex-policeman’s live. However, as the pressure built among the young actors a close up shot of the young cop's hand on his handgun grip and a piece of bread cover over the knife in young Mohsen's hand from there something very strange about to happen. But not what the audience was expected. At the last moment, both actors changed the scene, the cop handed the flower to the girl instead of shooting her; furthermore, the young Mohsen handing out the bread instead of the knife. The film froze in a close-up shot that showed the entire head of the girl, the flower and the bread. They used the shot to show detail and emotion within the picture. It is a symbolic image. It exhibited the true desires and emotions of the real people involved. It also pictured a compensation for past and present anger. This picture can be the most powerfully symbol of peace for mankind and humanity. It displayed future of the Iranian people beyond politics and nationalistic of individual. The stationary picture made peace between the two men; it brought Iran people together, pro and anti Shah Regime, in nonviolent, sympathetic way.

Mohsen Makhmalbaf might not be above the legendary filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami, but he at least equal in terms of eclecticism and have much more varied cinematic style. Makhmalbaf's films are about how cinema captures life and makes something valuable out of it. Makhmalbaf's style throughout the film was meticulous and organized. The camera was usually still and the takes were long. He maintained a distance from the characters. The analysis revealed exactly how simply complex the film was. The audience is able to view the film without the feeling of watching it.
  Written by student: Donald
Works Cited
AMoment of innocence  Dir. Mohsen Makhmalbaf. 1996. DVD. 8 November 2011.
            Watched DVD in class
AMoment of innocence  Dir. Mohsen Makhmalbaf. 1996. YouTube. 25 November 2011. www.youtube.com. 
AMoment of innocence  Dir. Mohsen Makhmalbaf. 1996. Vimeo. 26 November 2011.
            Vimeo.com 

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