Forough Farrokhzad's " The House is Black " Facets - Region 0

(aka "Khaneh siah ast" )

directed by Forough Farrokhzad
Iran 1962

THE HOUSE IS BLACK, poet Forough Farrokhzad's only film, is regarded as a chief influence for Iran's New Wave. It broke new ground in it's approach to documentary, even in international terms, despite not attracting worldwide attention. But they noticed in Iran. THE HOUSE IS BLACK created something all-new with it's use of rhythm, editing, and structure to fuse into a deeply, resonate form of screen poem. Even the sound alone is impactful. As a masterpiece, the 5 stars out of 5 I give it is an inescapably feeble gesture.out of

Fred Patton

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Theatrical Release: Never shown theatrically

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DVD Review: Facets - Region 0 - NTSC

Big thanks to Fred Patton for the Review!

DVD Box Cover		CLICK to order from:
Distribution	Facets Region 0 - NTSC
Runtime	21:56
Video	1.37:1 Original Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 6.36 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate
Audio	2-channel PCM
Subtitles	English
Features	Release Information: Studio: Facets Aspect Ratio: Fullscreen - 1.37:1 Edition Details: • Two short films by Mohsen Makhmalbaf: • THE SCHOOL THAT WAS BLOWN AWAY (8:06) 1996 • IMAGES FROM THE QAJAR DYNASTY (16:42) 1992 • Pooran Farrokhzad's (sister) interview excerpted from PBS TV special • Booklet with essays by Jonathan Rosenbaum and Chris Marker. DVD Release Date: February 22nd, 2005 Snap case Chapters 1

Comments

Having relied on a poor bootleg copy this film previously, this Facets transfer was a revelation. The addition of two short films by Mohsen Makhmalbaf is a nice bonus. IMAGES FROM THE QAJAR DYNASTRY recalls some of Alain Resnais shorts, with a twist that toys with reality and it's representation. There are two annoyances that should be mentioned, however. One, the white non-removable subtitles can be hard to read at occasionally. Two, there aren't chapter stops, but as it's a short film, this isn't so bad.

- Fred Patton

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