Journal of Art and Civilization of the Orient

Dialectic of Revelation and Concealment: A Representation of the Face as an Aesthetic Landscape in the Film Shirin (2008)

https://doi.org/10.22034/jaco.2024.415570.1350
Volume 12, Issue 44
Summer 2024
Pages 44-53
Journal of Art and Civilization of the Orient

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Alireza Sayyad 1
Javad Nematollahi 2

1 Associate Professor, Faculty of Cinema and Theater, University of Art, Tehran, Iran.

2 Ph.D. Candidate, Art Studies, Faculty of Art and Architecture, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract
In Shirin (2008), Abbas Kiarostami places several of Iran’s female cinema stars in the position of spectators and records their reactions to a hypothetical film through predominantly close-up shots. Kiarostami transforms these distinctive faces into objects of aesthetic contemplation and artistic reflection through his approach. This descriptive-analytic study, draws on the discussions of Tom Gunning and Giuliana Bruno regarding the significance of physiognomy in early cinema, and then examines the invocation of this aesthetics in Shirin. The research asserts that by positioning the film star as the audience of an imaginary film, and giving Shirin’s audience the opportunity to reveal her personality by means of reading her face, the film demystifies the status of the cinematic star. However, this relationship doesn’t remain one-sided, since both the mere fact that these close-ups, portray not the ordinary viewers but the film stars, as well as the recollection of cinematic memories associated with the films and characters they have shaped, once again ascends these stars to the status of myths. Moreover, the depiction of individuals who possess a high skill in adopting roles and masks, complicates the audience’s confidence in interpreting and penetrating their visual space, both in this instance and in the cinematic memories that are conjured. The interplay Kiarostami orchestrates between the viewer and these stars, alongside revealing and dismantling their previous relationships, compels the viewer to construct Shirin in their mind through a montage of fragmented moments encountered in this museum-like space and the collective-individual cinematic memories evoked. This mental film becomes a personal and distinct history of Iranian cinema, underscoring the importance and the impossibility of excluding Iran’s female cinema stars.

Keywords

Film Shirin (2008)
Abbas Kiarostami
Landscape of the Face
Physiognomy
Cinema and Museum
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