Cinema in 1939 and Metropol Cinema in 1945). Another emigrant entrepreneur, Sanasar Khachaturian established the most advanced film studio, Diana Film studio, in 1950.
The Aesthetic and Artistic Value of Popular Cinema: Form-Oriented “Tehran Noir” and Formless Filmfarsi
By the early 1950s, Iranian cinema had become a visible part of public life and the most popular and accessible visual art. Cinema had no serious competition in this period: Television was yet to be launched in Iran (TV was introduced to Iranians in 1958). The traditional Ta’zieh (religious Passion Play) was previously banned by Reza shah. Other conventional performing arts such as Naghali (narrating and performing stories of Shahnameh) were small-scale, neighborhood-oriented plays that could not compete with the cinema. Likewise, modern theater was performed for a selective audience, mostly at college amphitheaters and a limited number of public theaters in city centers such as Lalehzar Avenue in Tehran. On the other hand, movie houses were spread in different parts of urban centers in large and small cities. The feature films, film series, and news reels that were shown in theater houses represented a wide variety of European, Russian, Indian, Turkish, Egyptian, and American narratives. The number of Iranian films now being produced in a hybrid artisanal and industrialized mode were rising. According to Masud Mehrabi, in 1953, 20 films were produced in Iran (1985, 60). After that, the number of national productions increased every year. As the national directors and film crew became more experienced, pictures on the silver screen became more appealing for audiences. Cinema was the number one form of entertainment for Iranians.
As Iranians were becoming better acquainted with the film stylistics of other countries and cultures, their cinematic taste was developing. By the time Samuel Khachikian made his first films in the early 1950s, a rich cinematic culture had formed among Iranian filmgoers. Iranians had turned into a cinephile nation who had seen movies by Sergei Eisenstein, Federico Fellini, John Ford, and Alfred Hitchcock (see Khoshbakht 2017). They adored European, American, and Indian performances by actors and actresses such as Ingrid Bergman, Alain Delon, Raj Kapoor, and Dilip Kumar. The genre of “Tehran Noir” was born in this cinematic milieu (Khoshbakht 2017).
Samuel Khachikian, the son of a cultured Armenian refugee couple, was born in Tabriz in 1923. He became known as “Iran’s Hitchcock” and “The Master of Iranian Horror Movie” by the late 1950s. He was one of the most celebrated commercial film producers who made numerous best-selling action and thriller films in a span of 30 years (from A Girl from Shiraz in 1954 to Eagles in 1985). In order to advertise his second film, A Girl from Shiraz, he made the first film trailer in Iran by using daily raw footages of the film, known as “film rushes” in Iran. The trailer started with a montage of vibrant rushes, introducing the protagonists. The subsequent part had a mellow tone followed by another fast-paced segment to preserve the sense of anticipation in the spectator’s mind. His trailer stylistics were imitated by Iranian directors for many years thereafter.
In Crossroad of Events (1955), Khachikian set the main framework for making his Tehran Noirs. His camera is mobile, and at times, restless. Like American Noir movies of the time, the “impression of night-time photography with high-contrast lighting, occasional low-key lighting, deep shadows and oblique angles” (Hayward 2006, 149) create a sense of anxiety and thrill. The film opens in a busy crossroad, showcasing Tehran’s urban ambience. The main character, played by the charismatic Naser Malek Motiei, is shown crossing the road. The voice-over talks about life’s crossroads. The camera becomes more focused on the main character, implying that the audience is about to see just one life story among many, concurrently happening in Tehran. The call of prayers (Azan) is heard in the background. A subsequent scene of Tehran’s busy life is adorned with the sound of church bells, and another one with the sound of an Orthodox church choir. Modernized Tehran, with new and old buildings, is pictured as a place where multiple faith believers live side by side. Khachikian employed elements of Muslim Persian culture infused with Christian minority culture in a story that is narrated by using the aesthetic rudiments of German Expressionism and American Film Noir. The film is truly a crossroads between multiple aesthetic, artistic, and cultural sensibilities.
In her debut performance, Vida Ghahremani plays the role of a young woman who has to forsake love for her family’s economic concerns. Her performance recalls the stylistics of method acting. Her role is not substantial but her artistic performance documents one of the best performances of the 1950s national cinema. Her acting and her looks recall an Anna Karenina-like character. Technically speaking, Crossroad of Events had deficiencies, as admitted by the director as well. The dialogue is at times deductive and tedious. The dubbing was not done professionally, either. They had to change a few parts of the narrative, since Malek Motiei had to join the mandatory military service (Omid 1996, 263–264). On the other hand, the editing of the film—done by the director himself—is masterful. Like most of his later films, he used western and Iranian music scores. The musical scores by the female singer Elaheh (mentioned as “unknown”) and the Armenian male singer Vigen added to the charm of the melodrama. This melodramatic thriller was screened in multiple theaters in Tehran for 66 nights in a row (Omid 1996, 264). However, Diana Studio did not make any profit. Nonetheless, Khachikian became known as a director who could make technically sound movies in the genres he loved deeply, Horror Film and Film Noir.
In his subsequent movies, such as Storm in Our Town (1958), and The Strike (1964), Khachikian developed his Noir stylistics. Storm in Our Town focuses on an ensemble of characters, including a madman, a rich pervert, a chivalric young man who works in a print shop, a naïve girl, and a homeless mother and her son. In making the film, Khachikian faced difficulties including lack of sufficient raw film and the lead actor’s (Daneshvar as Saeed) travel to Europe. The end result, in Houshang Kavousi’s words, was a film that “lacked narrative unity, continuity, and proper cinematic rhythm” (quoted in Omid 1996, 303). Faced by such problems, the director had to shift between different genres of semi-documentary, melodrama, musical, horror, fantasy, and Sci-Fi. In each segment, one of the characters becomes the lead figure. Storm in Our Town is a film that harbors mini narratives, each emerging out of the previous story, recalling the “Matryoshka Doll” structure of the stories of One Thousand and One Nights. The overall unity of the film seems to be its loyalty to the Noir elements of the film.
The semi-documentary shots at the beginning of the film shows Pari (played by Vida Ghahremani) and her friends in modern Tehran streets. They carefreely march in the urban space, enjoying their time. There is a sense of bliss and vitality in this sequence. It embodies the positive aspects of a modernized culture. Men and women are liberally interacting in the urban space. A mobile camera that rehearses the observational style of cinéma verité, displays attractive shops and cafés, ready to serve people. Soon after, the city space becomes a threatening space for characters, especially for women. Khachikian was a meticulous observer of cultures, traditions, and the process of modernization in Iran. He depicts the positive and negative aspects of urban life. His point of view toward religion and spirituality remains respectful. Intellectual film critics such as Kavousi and Karim Emami distained Khachikian’s “mishmash” horror film. The director was equally dissatisfied with the end result, but filmgoers loved it. The first production of Azhir Studio, which was founded by Khachikian and Josef Vaezian, became a box office success.
In films such as Anxiety (1962) and The Strike (1964), Khachikian continued to represent the modern urban lives of the elite Tehrani society, as well as the middle-class and working-class. His camera projects an honest and realistic view of human nature, zooming into the darker depths of our psyche, so to speak; at times exaggerated for theatrical purposes. His contribution to the public aesthetic values of Iranian cinema was creating the distinctive genre of Tehran Noir, where tradition and modernity, as well as mainstream and marginal cultures cohabit one narrative space. He mastered horror film sensibilities within a quintessential Iranian cinema, introduced female agency, and made the idea of happy endings not too far-fetched in Iranian stories. This last element, i.e., the happy ending, is a missing element in the “more serious” art-house cinema that followed Khachikian’s
