“fossil”; Success based on stereotyped formulas

Fars News Agency-Cinema Group: Since the outbreak of the Corona virus, Iran’s cinema has been in a precarious situation. The fear of the cinema lights being turned off due to people’s economic problems has progressed to such an extent that today many fans and cinematographers, regardless of the structure and content of a film, only because of the sales of more than 100 billion. They are excited.

A philosopher once wrote that “the market is a cemetery” and if art and artist are involved in its equations, they will be forgotten very soon.

Despite all this, the movie “Fossil” became 100 billion and at the same time won the prestigious title of the best-selling movie of Iranian cinema, not only in terms of artistic aesthetics and cinematic formalism, but also a trace of significant cultural content is not seen in the movie as the best-selling movie of Iran. Iran will become 100 billion just by entertaining and laughing in any possible way.

Accepting the rules of the market gives works like “fossils” a commodity character and causes the emergence of “culture industry”. The audience of this type of industry will always remain consumers and will not show any creativity in front of works of art.

Shahpour Azimi; The critic, translator and lecturer, in response to the question of what components are the sales equations in Iranian cinema based on, emphasizes: “Basically, no components!” In the cinema, we have a very good film that does not sell at all, on the other hand, we have a very bad film that has high sales. The time of production, social events before and after the screening of a film and other components that may be specific to our society affect sales.

In an optimistic view, “Fossil” with the intelligence of its creators has been able to make the most of the cultural, economic and even political conditions of the society and on the way to reach its goal of conquering the box office, it uses a simple formula and a back-tested test; On the one hand, the film takes part of the story to before the revolution, showing images full of color, light, dance and joy; Wide-legged pants, long beards, ties and bow ties, well-dressed men and beautiful women, the inclusion of “Shahram Shabpereh” and “Sivash Ghomishi” for no reason and a special excuse, in the amount of a few short shots to be used in the movie teaser and to attract a few more people to the theater Cinema and memory play and reviving the nostalgia of the 50s, and on the other hand, by putting the main character of the story, Esi Amoui, into a coma and creating his mental contradictions between the time before the revolution and after the revolution, he has managed to create funny situations.

Images from before the Islamic Revolution, which will never be seen in the tunnels of time

Is it possible to please everyone?

Although it must be said that when we compare these two eras in “Fossil” along with films like “Amber Whale” and…, it is quite evident that the makers of “Fossil” have done this very cautiously and away from political intentions.

Director Karim Amini said in an interview about the lack of a sharp look at the revolutionary forces and immoral jokes: “Based on the filmmaking experiences we had, such as “Dynamite”, which some people were upset about, we tried so that this time the film is not made in a way that leads to The discomfort of a certain class and we were careful from this point of view. All 80 million people are the audience of our film and it should not be in a way that suits anyone, but everyone should be satisfied and it should be a film that all people can relate to and if something is raised in the film, it should be fair.

The thing that can be said about these words of the director of “Fossil” is that: trying to please everyone leads to the discomfort and resentment of those interested in reality and truth because all these 80 million do not have the same views about everything. Some of them have an idea of ​​the pre-revolution created by the glamorous “Time Tunnel” programs of Man and To network, in which the images show no sign of shantytowns, villages without water, gas and electricity, and no social services for the marginalized. can’t

Inevitably, if someone tries to show the audience a picture of the pre-Islamic revolution that does not confuse the audience of the My and You network, it is inevitable that first of all the hearts of the affected strata from that era, whether from the political side (the country’s police and SAVAK, which is still The effects of his crime are on many lives) and women’s rights (behind the scary curtain of pre-revolutionary cafes) as well as the neglect of the rights of the oppressed (many of whom, according to the international organizations themselves, were suffering from a famine, but the lunches of the 2500-year-old monarchy celebration directly from to ignore Maxim France’s restaurant.

As mentioned, “Fossil” has a repetitive story with clichéd elements and characters and does not get an acceptable score from the point of view of artistic structure and expression, of course, it must be said that the filmmaker did not resort to vulgar and sexual jokes to make the audience laugh. Perhaps this is why Mohammad Saberi considered the vulgar comedy interpretation of the movie “Fossil” to be incorrect and said: “I do not agree with this expression; At least I don’t consider “Fossil” to be an example of vulgar cinema. As a journalist in the field of cinema, I emphasize that the sales of the films “Fossil”, “Infradi” and “Dynamite” have benefited Iranian cinema, and the economy of cinema cannot be ignored from its developments.

The filmmaker himself believes about using the right jokes and not using inappropriate words in order to make the audience laugh in this film: “The literature and tone of each person is determined according to his view of the society, and it is the filmmaker who decides what kind of jokes to use in the film. Have a comedy. I made “Fossil” with the view that every stratum of the society of any age can watch it with their families.

*When we introduce vulgarity, should we forgive vulgarity?

Not all critics are of the same opinion about helping to sell films like “Fossil” to the country’s cinema. Hossein Bahram, an art expert, says: “Vulgarity is triviality, clichéd behavior, avoiding thinking and rethinking, extreme simplicity that goes to the point of naivety, and finally comes with shameful ignorance.”

This cinema expert says: “Cinema” or “artwork” is trivial, it conveys a single meaning in an unthought-out way. “Vulgarity” is an escape from ambiguity, multiplicity, and resistance to ambiguity.

It is for this reason that although “Fossil” avoids vulgar language and sexual jokes, none of the recent and advanced Persian films go ahead in its expression and performance, from decoupage and mise-en-scène.

Abtishal in the word means working clothes, wearing old clothes, hence it became vulgar: “having a worthless quality, having an unfavorable condition”. Of course, you can’t stick to the root of the word because there are obvious contradictions in it. In fact, vulgarity and cliché are related, and stupidity is another relative of cliché and vulgarity. The last word is that in art and cinema, it is not the subjects but the “way of telling” that frees the work from the pit of vulgarity.

Hossein Bahram, a cinema expert, believes: “Perhaps if “Fossil” had a more solid structure and the filmmaker thought more about the depth of the story and its impact on the audience’s mind in addition to making people laugh, and for example, on topics such as the oppression of the imperial government on the people and the suffocating atmosphere. At that time, the artistic field or the crimes of the hypocrites were more maneuvered with Safa’s personality as the center, “Fossil” became a best-selling and at the same time lasting film in the history of Iranian cinema.

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