cinema trust Parviz Noori wrote in Etemad newspaper: In the last one, two years, Iranian cinema has been badly affected by light and superficial comedies or, as their creators say, popular comedies, and of course, they have faced great acceptance by the audience and sales of billions. Most of these comedies are and are based on old Persian Benjal movies, with trivial themes and cute antics, apparently popular comedians with no sign of taste or intelligence.
I remember that in the olden days, comedy had a special grace and catchiness and would delight the audience and give them a happy and refreshing mood during two hours in the cinema. But what happened? Dariush Mehrjoui’s comedy The Tenants can be considered a model for smart Iranian comic cinema. A film with a very meaningful social theme and with biting humor, not only made the audience laugh and enjoy, but also taught him what is happening in life. Like renters, it rarely appeared in our cinema. There was neither a comedian nor a producer who could bring a pristine subject back to the picture. Therefore, the comedy cinema gradually went to waste, low comedies with boring and repetitive themes took the place of that kind of intelligent comedies. Comedies that were made by copying and taking from the old ones and only giving them a new color and glaze, but the subject was the same without the least taste and art being seen in them. When we go back to the old days and today I see some of those comedies again, I am amazed, what kind of things were really delivered to the public as comedies, under the pretext that they like them!
Of course, in some cases, they were right, because suddenly an unimaginable vulgar comedy would meet with staggering sales and leave a person in awe!
But why do the audience enjoy watching such worthless comedies? The reason may be due to his habits of superficiality and his interest in simple matters without thinking. This is not only the problem of Iranian cinema, but it exists everywhere in the world, look at today’s Hollywood comedies and the attitude of current comedy makers. Where did those intelligent creators like Billy Wilder or Blake Edwards go?
The most important problem in presenting comedies like this is the public’s acceptance of them, because no matter how much you push the audience to superficiality and intellectual style, they will get used to this kind of movies. Once upon a time, Iran’s comedies were in the hands of Parviz Khatibi or Hossein Madani, although that over time, their trivial creations were rejected by the discerning audience. From the late fifties onwards, comedy cinema took the path of progress.
Dariush Mehrjoui made “Mr. Halo”, Bahram Beizai created “Uncle Sabilo” with a catchy theme. Nasser Taqvai brought Iranian comedy to its peak with the wonderful series “Uncle John Napoleon” and later presented Iran’s comedy in an unusual atmosphere.
With this solution, comedy changed in the following years. Moviegoers showed a different desire for comedy, even though Saman Moghadam made the comedy “Max” about a character from Los Angeles who returned to Iran with a new perspective, but unfortunately, the film was pulled from the cinema screens at the very beginning of the show, despite its great reception.
As with his next film Centuries, the filmmaker later produced “Amber Whale 1 & 2” in exotic materials. Despite all these circumstances, comedy had not yet reached its current status.
At the same time, young Rambad made “No Gentlemen” in the Italian neorealist comedy style, which not only had cinematic value, but also received the attention and acceptance of the people.
But the most impressive of all was Kamal Tabrizi’s brilliant comedy “Lizard” which turned the eyes towards humor and humor. This filmmaker has already shown his skills in the type of clever comedy and used the war as a source of humor for the comedy “Lily is with me”. Even Rokhshan Bani-Etamad started his career with the comedies “Out of Bounds” and “Canary Yellow” and in the same way Tahmina Milani made “What’s going on at first” and then “Settlement”. His other two comedies “Ceasefire 1 and 2” broke the record.
Of course, it should be noted that in the last one or two years, a series of comedies with a “new look” have drawn a lot of viewers to the cinemas.
Among them, “Apparatchi” is the story of a construction painter who loves to make movies and constantly gets involved with problems. Another “Year of the Cat” comedy about the hilarious adventures of a man born in the year of the cat has become a hit. Also, the comedy “Breakfast with Giraffes”, which was prevented from showing for a while because of its subject. Also, a number of low-key comedies, such as Bloody Crocodile, Texas 3, Pressure Cooker, Hedgehog, Dynamite, captivated the public. These comedies show where the Iranian comedy cinema is going.