I have just finished writing a review of “Tall Shadows of the Wind” where I stated that of all the films that were part of the “Iranian New Wave: 1962-79” sidebar that played at this year's MIFF, it was my favourite. I was torn between that film and director Nasser Taghvai's “Tranquility in the Presence of Others” but chose the former due to it being a larger scale movie with bigger ambitions, but Taghvai's film is just as great even though it takes place on a much smaller canvas. The other thing that may have swayed me (which is no fault of either film) was while “Tall Shadows of the Wind” was shown via a lovely digital restoration, sadly the print quality of “Tranquility in the Presence of Others” was very poor, and definitely the worst of all the films of this sidebar. I guess it is a testament to the film's quality that I was able to look past the presentation problems and see the quality of the film underneath which at its most basic is what you would call a family drama.
The first thing that I loved about the film was its wonderfully poetic title: “Tranquility in the Presence of Others”. It is so beautiful and lyrical, and yet I am sure that it is used ironically as the tranquility of the title is very rarely seen, with a lot of angst evident in its place. Besides being a family drama, the film can be seen as a generational drama as we see the differences between the two generations, the father's and his daughters, as neither seem to approve of the other's traditions and beliefs. When the film begins and we meet the two girls, they are carefree and frivolous with their time. They enjoy going out and spending time with their boyfriends and they make no attempt to hide it from their maid when these men spend the night over. However as soon as the father arrives (and he shows up in a weirdly agitated state), that all changes as they are forced to hide that they have boyfriends at all, let alone that they may be sexually active, since they are not married and their father would disapprove. Losing this part of their life depresses the girls as they start to feel the oppression their father's arrival brings.
When the girl's father, a former army colonel, arrives to Tehran he brings along with him his new wife, who is much younger than himself. There is no malice between the wife and her husband's two daughters but they are genuinely interested in how she married a man that she does not love and who is so much older than herself. Being from a newer generation, the girls believe in marrying for love, and they do not understand how anyone could be happy in an arranged marriage, which is something the father wants to organise for his own girls. They question the wife and she happily explains that it is what she believes, that a woman is there to help the man out, and hopefully in time she will love him. Until then she has security, and is financially looked after by her husband, while she looks after the household chores. The girls tease the wife about how they would hate to live a life without sex or to have sex with a man they didn't love. She smiles, but does not engage in this type of talk. Her husband, on the other hand, almost immediately seems to struggle with the modernity of Tehran, and with the fast paced life his daughters lead. He also misses the structure, discipline and stature of being an army colonel; he used to be somebody that deserved to be respected, where now people even barely make eye contact with him. This sends the poor man into a deep depression, who even attempts suicide by jumping out of the window before his family grab him just in time.
My favourite scene of “Tranquility in the Presence of Others” is the long party sequence, when the girls organise a party at their house in an attempt to introduce their boyfriends to their father. Many people arrive, and with the drinking and loud modern music, it is all too much for the father who heads to bed barely meeting the men in question. However the father's new wife decides to stay up, enjoying the conversation and energy in the room. From memory, she does not touch any alcohol but does engage in many conversations and even catches the eye of a young man who starts to flirt and wants to dance with her. It sets up a moral dilemma about whether the wife will stay true to her ideals and her husband, or will she follow her sexual desire (which is obvious she has for this stranger). The answer is she stays true to her husband, where on the other side of the coin, one of the daughter's boyfriend's ends up leaving the party with another girl and thus unexpectedly breaking up with the daughter in the process, which sends her into a downward spiral of depression similar to her father's. So while the girls feel high and mighty that marrying for love is the better decision, when push came to shove, one of them was left empty handed, while the wife with her old school values still went home to her husband (but was that what she really wanted?), so which does end up being better?
The thing that impressed me most about “Tranquility in the Presence of Others” was just how modern it felt. It is very sexually frank, with a number of sex scenes (although with no nudity) and the girl's regularly walk around in various states of undress, totally free in their own home. There is no shame in this either, it is just a part of every day life and every day life to them is fast paced, which the film itself mirrors. Unlike a lot of Iranian films which often have a very deliberate pace, Nasser Taghvai's film always feels on the move. The film starts with a burst of energy from the daughters and continues this way until the very surprising and tragic finale. Speaking of the end of this film, I must admit I was shocked by how graphic it was in it's reveal. Whilst absolutely tame compared to today's standards, the fact that it was shown rather than implied startled me a bit. As sad as it is, I thought that the ending was brilliant.
With the quality of the print that we watched being in such bad shape it is hard to make a proper judgement on the visual quality of the film, but I thought that the black and white cinematography was outstanding, and would really love to one day see “Tranquility in the Presence of Others” restored to its original glory, but from all reports, that seems very unlikely. Much like everything else in the film, the cinematography also felt really modern.
Overall, I thought “Tranquility in the Presence of Others” was outstanding and an interesting look at the pros and cons between the beliefs of two generations of the same family. Whilst the film begins with fun and frivolity, it ends with angst, sadness and tragedy which you may not see coming. Sexually frank and thoroughly modern feeling, this is another pre-revolutionary Iranian film that exposes just how different their world was before the events of 1979 took place.
4 Stars.
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