Response for 9-9

2. What were the general restrictions of the “Rule of Modesty”? How does this relate to some of the stylistic decisions we saw in A Moment of Innocence? How did this lead to problems of realism for Iranian audiences when watching domestic interior scenes?

Women had to be veiled at all times and men and women could not make eye contact. In A Moment of Innocence the young cop and the young woman can’t make eye contact when they speak. The young woman covers her gaze and looks in a perpendicular direction as the young cop. Also, when the cop and young cop go to get a uniform the tailor is constantly yelling off-screen at someone to help out the two gentlemen. The “Rule of Modesty” is unrealistic to Iranian audiences in terms of interior scenes because in reality women do not veil themselves in interior spaces like their home, or in front of related men like their husbands. In film, women must veil themselves because the audience is watching the people on screen.

6. According to Mottahedeh, what function does the spectacle of color serve in Makhmalbaf’s Gabbeh, and how does this relate to the codes of realism and linear narrative?

Color in Gabbeh disrupts the temporal and spatial continuity of the film. Temporal and spatial continuity is the backbone of conventional narrative filmmaking. The color does not attempt to make the film appear more real, but it gives a new perspective on how to find truth in film other than through the conventional realistic narrative methods.