Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1 Master of Science (M. Sc) in Cinema, Faculty of Art and Architecture, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
2 Assistant Professor, Faculty of Art and Architecture, Department of Cinema and Animation, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
In the world of communications, the influential Film media has an important role to play in changing societies and people’s attitudes and their life style. Therefore, successful cinematic representation of events and lives of the influential characters of a nation, has an important role in the self-assessment and evaluation of the society and finding the way to achieve human perfection. In the view of the aforementioned cases and the obvious weakness and inadequacy in film production and theoretical academic research in the field of cinema related to the “Ashura”, in order to examine the strengths and weaknesses of feature films based on this epic event, the movies Ambassador and Mukhtarnameh: The Road to Love are analyzed using a neoformalistic approach. The findings of this study indicates that the film Ambassador and to some extent Mukhtarnameh: The Way of Love have major problems in terms of narrative form and visual style. As a result, some of the types of meanings created in these films are in contrary to the historical facts or the influential figures in the history of Ashura.
Considering the importance of the narrative form and its associated visual style in creating affective meanings and defamiliarization from existing concepts, it is suggested that following topics get more attention: cinematizing of religious themes and events, harmony in mise-en-scenes, coherence and integration among narrative form system, visual style and semantic layers. Also, in this regard, extensive and in-depth sociological, psychological, anthropological studies on the land where the events and happenings of the film story world took place, are necessary. This way, a rich and detailed texture is created in the film’s formal system via designing subplots in the film narrative of the lives of ordinary people at the time of film events. Sociological studies and the design of subplots on the lives of indigenous peoples of the period related to the world of film story, lead to the formation of a good dramatical situation and visual diversity. The three main elements of the formation of the dramatic situation, namely place, time and character, in relation to the data inside the frame and the data outside the frame, must be well represented cinematically so that the dramatic situation, with which a narrative begins, should be properly and effectively created. One of the important points in the field of historical cinematic works about the events and lives of influential religious figures, is that the results and types of meanings derived from the concepts of dramatical situations that arise in the viewer’s mind should not be in contrast to the results and types of meaning derived from real historical situations. It should be noted that great care should be taken in designing cinematic narrative forms to avoid any superficiality, conceptual errors, excessive deviation from the real world life realities.
In the field of religious cinema, cinematic narratives from the contemporary world with religious themes can undeniably, and more cost-effectively, renew the viewers' perception of religious attitudes.
Keywords