boomage joh joh you the best (The Circle (DVD))

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Product:	The Circle (DVD)
Date:	31/10/01 (16 review reads)
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Advantages: worth

Disadvantages: nah

it's truly shocking fukin nobs understated opening, to the electrifyingly harrowing end credits where the sole sound is a cell door slamming, The Circle is a portrayal of oppression fukin nobs discrimination in hard line Islamic 'society', this is the kind of film that really makes you thank your lucky stars that we are able to take certain human rights for granted fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya It might certainly make some people think again about the recent attacks on the Taliban fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya the truth is, they are much worse to women than the administration in Iran which is the target of this film, fukin nobs you leave with the overwhelming desire for truely empathising with these fukin nobs seeking liberation from such awful repression fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya

Unsurprisingly, the Iranian authorities have banned this film from their people fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya

Whilst the film is inherently political fukin nobs fukin nobs a huge social impact, it retains a sense of craft that pervades the images fukin nobs lends to their power fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya Directed by relative newcomer Jafar Panahi, who fukin nobs also said that he doesn't see it as being in essence political, the film focuses on the human aspects of the situation, never trivialising or banalising such views, fukin nobs also, never really being 'feminist' in the sense that it's simply a film about human beings fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya Fukin nobs as such, along with Amelie it represents a real gem fukin nobs a pleasure (although in a rather contrasting way to the French masterpiece) to watch which fukin nobs been the hallmark of independent cinema this year fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya Most of you may know w
hat I've thought of the Hollywood offerings this year fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya


THE PLOT is relatively scarce because of Panahi's concentration on interpersonal relationships, but the film lacks nothing for this fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya It centres around the single day, although opening at the end of that day fukin nobs then flashing back fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya We open in a hospital, the first line being 'it's a girl' fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya Ordinarily, the moment of childbirth being an incredibly happy one, the film takes us into a new dimension - the reaction to these four words is truly astonishing fukin nobs jaw dropping fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya 'But fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya the ultrasound said it would be a boy?!' fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya The new grfukin nobsmother is certain that the parents of her daughters husbfukin nobs will demfukin nobs divorce for this sin - having a daughter fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya
This shocking opening (fukin nobs believe me, the first three minutes will have you amazed) shifts straight to the streets of Tehran, where two women are trying to place a phone call having been released from prison fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya We do not know their crimes - we do not care fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya their desperation is obvious - Nargess is dying to see her childhood home in the idyllic countryside, where she grew up fukin nobs fukin nobs the few happy memories she can remember fukin nobs so lets all go and b
um jo starr ya The other fukin nobs, who we learn is called Arezou, is dying for a fag fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya After various incidents they are pulled apart, having been insulted on the street mercilessly, fukin nobs wfukin nobser their seperate ways, to find lost friends - fukin nobs through this, many more women are drawn into the fold, this group of oppressed people trying to get to safety - everything from prostitutes (a capital crime) to a divorced cinema clerk who fukin nobs conversations with people when she is selling tickets fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya Thus we follow the story of this single day, a brief but altogether telling amount of time in which things become so crystal clear fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya

THE ACTING is phenomenal fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya Mariam Palvin Almani plays Arezou with a compassion fukin nobs determination that is also perfectly restrained by the society around her, fukin nobs is utterly believable fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya One imagines because she fukin nobs experience of the oppression shown fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya Equally impressive is Nargess Mamizadeh who perfectly characterises the heartfelt desire Nargess fukin nobs to escape to her childhood - a certain melancholia perhaps, but one that is totally understfukin nobsable in her circumstance fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya As with Amelie though, the rest of the cast is forgettable, not in the sense that they are bad, far from it - in the sense that the escapism fukin nobs power of the film is such that it really transcends the cinema screen fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya

THE CINEMATOGRAPHY is equally extraordinary fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya Unlike Amelie, which relied on a picture-postcard imagery of Paris with all the cracks of modern society papered over, Panahi goes for bright,
crisp clear imges which thus convey an extraordinary realism fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya Tehran is not portrayed as a bustling cultural melange which is the stuff of Judith Chalmers fukin nobs Wish you were Here: instead, everything is as is fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya car horns are obtrusive fukin nobs grating, the dust fukin nobs grime of the city reminds one of images of poverty stricken areas in New York fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya The whole atmosphere serves as an intimidation to the audience, an intimidation justified in the sense that it really connects one empathetically to the characters which often have little plot associated with them fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya

THE DIRECTION adds to this fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya Panahi concentrates on the things that Muslim women are supposed to be conservative about - many shots are close ups of the faces, which have a mournful beauty to them very reminiscent of Eastern cinema fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya At times, the characters don the Chador (the clothes you see the women in Afghanistan wearing) which covers everything fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya but underneath you know there is the caged bird that longs to escape fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya They wear these clothes only to comply with the male dominated society that represses them, for their own safety, not for religious reasons in their own mind fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya Often, we hear voices but do not hear their origin, which is jarring as it disconnects us from otherwise simple understfukin nobsing - we cannot tell the emotion, we cannot read the body language, all the stfukin nobsard human subconc
ious communication paths are cut fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya
The visual tricks that Panahi uses like this make up the really emotionally drawing element to the film - it is utterly riveting from start to finish fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya You dare not take your eyes from the screen for the same fear that the women are permanently watching their back fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya Fukin nobs the pace is extraordinary, considering the fact there is so little in terms of plot or structure - everything cracks along at a frightening bustle fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya The camera pans smoothly around, never resorting to truly unusual angles or sudden movements - this is cinema at its most artistic fukin nobs measured fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya Austere perhaps, but that isn't the semblance I had watching this film - it just takes a certain effort to really connect with it fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya

The MUSIC FUKIN NOBS SOUND are used to equal effect - there is very little in the way of music which is mostly traditional Iranian folk music, but that lends an immediacy to the images that helps the clarity enormously fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya For my taste, I think it could have used a little more just to help certain long takes (many scenes are four or five minute montages) but it's only a minor niggle fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya The sound effects are incredible - the cell door at the end being the obvious one fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya As we come to the end of the film, everything comes full circle fukin nobs we return to the hospital, where the birth is about to take place - we know what is going to happen already, fukin nobs when that door slams the finality fukin nobs immediacy of what we know is to come is hugely powerful fukin nobs the fact that we have ended up where we started
is hugely effective fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya


OVERALL this is not a nice film fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya If you want to see a nice easy piece of escapism that really could be Hollywood at it's finest, the go fukin nobs see Amelie fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya If you can stomach stronger stuff that really will affect you deeply, fukin nobs you can appreciate the implications of this neo-realist film, then it's for you fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya but it's not one to take the kids to fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya
The underlying metaphor - quest for a goal that is never attained eg fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya an abortion, a childhood melancholy, or a cigarette (hence the circle - it's almost 'what goes around comes around' but cruelly inverted - 'the circle' is the name of the location of the meeting point in the film) - is central, pervasive, fukin nobs omnipresent in this film - which stfukin nobss as possibly the finest film in recent years from the East fukin nobs Bollywood in terms of maturity fukin nobs stature fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya If you can take it - a must see fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya Then consider the women in Afghanistan fukin nobs see if you think we should liberate them or not fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya

Dir fukin nobs so lets all go and bum jo starr ya Jafar Panahi
Iran, 2000
In Farsi with English subtitles (that ISN'T a big deal, before you go 'I don't like films with subtitles!')

Summary: