Response for 8-24

Q: 1. What are the 5 areas in which art cinema generally distinguishes itself from Hollywood Cinema?
A:
· cinematic aesthetics and practices
· shows social and psychological realism
· disturb classic realist narrative codes and conventions, as well as temporal and spatial constructions
· display formal innovations
· affirm certain directors as auteurs

Q: 2. How does Tay suggest that Kiarostami’s reception in the West relates to these 5 areas?
A: Kiarostami is seen, in the West, as an art cinema director because he often addresses cinema aesthetics and practices, questions realism, and displays social issues in his films.

Q: 3. What was Ayatollah Khomeini’s attitude towards the cinema?
A: He was against cinema.

Q: 6. What was the significance of cutting the soundtrack during the school prayer in Homework?
A: Cutting the soundtrack allows the audience the no longer be distracted by the context of the event taking place and directs the attention to the behavior of children being children.

Q: 11. Write a 50 word (or more, of course) response to the excerpt of Homework screened on Wednesday.

A: I thought the film was interesting because it shows how the relationship between children and schoolwork is universal: they don’t want to do it. Children would rather be children and play and tease and wrestle. But the film also showed and insight in to Iranian schools where children are segregated by gender; no girls were seen.
Stylistically I found it interesting how Kiarostami would show an insert shot of the camera and cameraman while the children were interviewed. This was very peculiar to me because he would draw attention to the filming itself. However, I realized it could also be a tool used in the editing of the film to bridge a hole in the dialogue of the interviewed children. Kiarostami could use J and L cuts with the insert of the cameraman filming to bridge the dialogue and not show a jump cut of the children speaking.

Ex: Visual Child answers question > Cameraman > Child continuing to answer question
Dialogue Child answers question > * > Child continues to answer question

Where the > are cuts and * is a cut of unwanted dialogue and the two answers are spliced together seamlessly.