By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.25 cats
Director: Ana Lily Amirpour
Starring: Arash Marandi | Dominic Rains | Marshall Manesh | Mozhan Marnò | Rome Shadanloo | Sheila Vand
Country: iran, united_states
Year: 2014
Running time: 99
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2326554/combined
Kyle says: “Every year in late March, the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art co-produce a festival called New Directors/New Films. Screenings take place at the FSLC’s Walter Reade Theater, and at MoMA’s Ray and Niuta Titus Theaters, from March 19 to March 30. Because of a widely acknowledged unpleasantness of film attendance at MoMA, due to poor people skills on the part of staff, cineastes invariably choose the more pleasant and professionally administered Lincoln Center venue for their screenings. Opening Night presentations and receptions are held at MoMA, so a positive mental attitude is advisable. Especially for someone like me who finds the experience of film going at MoMA challenging: This year’s opening night trial was having to ask three times in my most polite and smiling manner if the Titus 1 was the correct theater for the 7:00 screening, the issue of professional competence versus linguistic comprehension remaining shrouded in secrecy. Of particular interest in this year’s roster is the fact that out of 27 titles, only one is shot on 35mm film: 24 are DCP and 2 are HDCAM.
“Shot in gorgeous high contrast widescreen black-and-white digital, A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT is a Persian vampire story in Farsi with English subtitles. It is set in an imaginary Iranian small town called Bad City, for which is substituted a ghostly southern California industrial wasteland whose principal activities are drug dealing and prostitution. It joins a long and (if you’re a genre maven) honorable tradition commencing with F.W. Murnau’s NOSFERATU in 1922, a stunning Blu-Ray restoration of which was released last year, through the numerous Universal and Hammer horror films, the TWILIGHT SAGA and various TV series, and continuing with indie godfather Jim Jarmusch’s ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE, a personal favorite from last year’s New York Film Festival which opens commercially in April.
”This is in every way an impressive debut, from director Ana Lily Amirpour’s control over the narrative flow and story details, to the casting and acting of Sheila Vand as a morality-driven Chador-clad vampire who flies or shape-shifts when not traveling on a skateboard, and Arash Marandi as a Persian James Dean who meets her at a party dressed as Dracula on drugs and falls in love with her, while arousing in her human feelings of warmth and intimacy. Cineastes will delight in the clear influence of David Lynch on the outstanding sound design and Ennio Morricone in musical references to his scores for various Spaghetti Westerns. But the eccentric modernity of this dark and delicious fairy tale in no way detracts from the fact of director Amirpour observing virtually all the conventions of cinematic vampire lore. Highly recommended. 4 cats
“Wednesday, March 19, 2014, Opening Night of New Directors/New Films at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.”
Jason says: “I don’t know that I necessarily buy the ‘western’ part of how A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT is billed as ‘the first Iranian Vampire Western’, even if there is occasionally some Morricone-sounding music on the soundtrack. At least that description gives someone at the ticket counter an idea of how enjoyably odd this movie is.
“It takes a while before we are introduced to The Girl (Sheila Vand); first we’re introduced to Arash (Arash Marandi), who works odd jobs to pay for his classic car and the drug habit of his father Hossein (Marshall Manesh). That is supplied by local dealer Saeed (Dominic Rains), who also has an arrangement with hooker Atti (Mozhan Marno). But just as Arash is about to steal from his boss’s pretty daughter Shaydah (Rome Shadanloo) to pay off Saeed, the dealer invites that harmless-looking girl back to his place.
“Even taking into account that the movie’s ‘Bad City’ seems like a pretty modern place, this story is less of a Western and more a film noir or youth-oriented drama; the setting is industrial, with oil derricks busy working in the background, the problems seeming locked in place rather than just passing through. Lyle Vincent’s black-and-white cinematography is crisp and urban, sharp contrasts instead of natural grays. Writer/director/producer Ana Lily Amirpour, of course, isn’t trying to represent just one genre, though, and she and her team build this world in clever, intriguing ways, from the quarry in the middle of town that is half Boot Hill and half mass grave to how the girl’s hijab often makes her a formless shadow even as the stripes on her shirt indicate a hip young woman inside.
“It’s one of the most clever ways of depicting someone supernatural so that they both fit into and jump out of the real world that I can recall seeing on film, instantly iconic. It’s not immediately obvious that Amirpour stakes out any other symbolism for her vampire rather than just dropping her into this mash-up world; there’s a part of me that wants to jump to the conclusion that a single young woman in Iran (or a similar place) must become this sort of shadow creature to survive if she doesn’t have the privilege of a Shaydah or wish to sell herself like Atti, although that seems somewhat presumptuous. Even looking at the film through that prism, it makes Sheila Vand’s nameless girl more intriguing than anything – Vand is great at mischief and shy cool, and while she does what she can when asked to be scary, the thinness of the story means there’s no reason why she’s threatening people.
“Given that she’s mostly targeting Bad City’s lowlife population, it’s a bit curious that she seldom seems terribly conflicted toward Arash, who at the very least seems willing to seize questionable opportunities as soon as they appear in front of him. Still, Arash Marandi does manage to project just enough reluctance and balance his namesake character’s anger at the world’s unfairness with appreciation when it drops something good in his lap to make him an entertaining anti-hero. He and Vand play off each other well even without a lot of words.
“Is that quite enough to add up to a movie? If not, a nifty soundtrack, occasional amusing background gags, and a supporting cast where everyone has at least one good, often funny scene (Dominic Rains’s absurd but still threatening Saeed being a standout in that regard), gets it over the hump and into territory that’s a lot of fun. And that’s before mentioning the cat, who is expressive and responsive enough in certain scenes as to make one wonder if he’s a puppet or other bit of effects wizardry, because what cat looks where you want him to on cue?
“That and a number of other things make A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT a unique movie (well, unique considering it’s a feature version of something Amirpour previously did as a short). It’s often rather loose, but there’s something exciting about that – like putting a Persian-American spin on genre tropes has made them feel full of potential, rather than just harnessed them to make a specific point. 4 cats
“Seen 3/4 January 2014 in Coolidge Corner Theatre #2 (first-run/@fter Midnite, DCP)”
Thom says: “It was sweet that Ana Lily Amirpour was able to propel her win as Best Short Film Award from the 2012 Noor Iranian Film Festival (who knew?) with A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT to international acclaim with the full feature version from last year. The black & white cinematography is so snazzily spooky that it nabbed a Chlotrudis nomination for best of the year in that always thrilling department. It’s often compared to the better LET THE RIGHT ONE IN, and there is some truth to that. Like ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE the film deglamorizes the vampire genre with a startling dash of feminism to attend the thrills.
“The setting for this chiller is crime-ridden Bad City, somewhere in Iran, where decent values have vanished, corruption, misogyny, & oil & money are the calling cards of the evil town. I’m not certain why the story takes place in Iran, other than the director’s nationality, but perhaps that’s reason enough. With the chador used as the vampire’s cape she sneaks through the squalid atmosphere tracking down purveyor’s of violence towards women and presenting them with her own sense of bloody retribution. Sheila Vand scores as the slithering vampire and the story is generally memorable, other than a few slow periods. 4 cats”
Julie says: “Excellent cinematography, direction and would have nominated this for best use of music. (I agree with Michael that MOMMY also had some great use of music), but between the two I would vote on A GIRL Especially loved the acting by ‘The Girl’ and the evil pimp dude. The little boy and cat were great as well. Loved the juxtaposition of the hijab w/arty/60’s striped t-shirt and the hijab and skate board scene was brilliant …..there is a great extended deleted scene if you get the dvd that includes the skate board…
“Ana Lily Amirpour’s first full length feature film is pretty amazing. 4.85 cats”