Iran plans suing Hollywood over 'Argo'

[garbon]

http://news.yahoo.com/reports-iran-plans-suing-hollywood-over-argo-181213370.html

Iran is planning to sue Hollywood over the Oscar-winning "Argo" because of the movie's allegedly "unrealistic portrayal" of the country, Iranian media reported Tuesday.

Several news outlets, including the pro-reform Shargh daily, said French lawyer Isabelle Coutant-Peyre is in Iran for talks with officials over how and where to file the lawsuit. She is also the lawyer for notorious Venezuelan-born terrorist Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, known as Carlos the Jackal.

Following the 1979 attack on the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, 52 Americans were held hostage for 444 days, but six embassy staffers were sheltered by the Canadian ambassador. Their escape, using a fake movie as a cover story, is recounted in "Argo."

After its Oscar win in February, Iranian officials dismissed "Argo" as pro-CIA, anti-Iran propaganda.

The lawyer told the semi-official Mehr news agency that she will start a campaign to show that Argo is a lie, while pressing to stop distribution of the movie.
"We will be able to block distributors of the movie, force them to apologize and challenge them to confess that the movie is nothing but a sheer lie," the lawyer said.

Though the movie isn't showing in any Iranian theaters, many Iranians have seen it on bootleg DVDs and it set off a spirited debate that exposed a generational divide. Iranians who took part in the 1979 Islamic Revolution picked apart the portrayals of Tehran at the time but those too young to recall the events were eager for a different view on what had happened.

The decision on the lawsuit came after a group of Iranian cultural officials and movie critics screened the film in a closed audience in a Tehran theater late Monday.

The gathering, titled "The Hoax of Hollywood," discussed various legal aspects of filing a lawsuit, media reports said, without providing details. It remains unclear what specific charges Iran could raise and what court Tehran could turn to if the action goes ahead.

Those at the meeting dismissed "Argo" as a "violation of international cultural norms." A statement issued after the gathering said that "awarding an anti-Iran movie is a propaganda attack against our nation and entire humanity."

The statement did not clarify how the movie was allegedly unrealistic, but officials have accused "Argo" of depicting Iranians as "too violent."

They have also said the movie's director did not refer to other documentaries on the embassy storming or discuss reasons for the crisis, which included simmering resentment against the United States for a CIA-aided counter-coup in 1953 that toppled democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh and restored the pro-Western monarchy in Iran.

This was not the first time Iran has claimed that Hollywood has pushed a distorted picture of the country.

In 2009, Iran demanded an apology from a team of visiting Hollywood actors and movie industry officials, including Annette Bening, saying films such as "300" and "The Wrestler" were "insulting" to Iranians.

In 2007, the hit American movie "300" angered Iranians who said the Greeks-versus-Persians action flick insults their ancient culture and provokes animosity against Iran.

The 1991 film "Not Without My Daughter" — the true story of an American women fleeing Iran with her young daughter, angered Iranians who accused it of casting Iranians as dirty, boorish and cruel, obsessed with Islam and misogynist attitudes toward women.

Iran's state-run film industry boycotted this year's Oscars in the wake of an Internet video clip made in the U.S. denigrating the Prophet Muhammad that set off protests across the Muslim world.

The affair wasn't related to "Argo."

[derspiess]

Onion?

[Valmy]

Glad to know every movie produced in Iran portrays the US in a 100% accurate manner.  Anyway nothing personal Iran the movie wasn't really about you.

[mongers]

Glad to know every movie produced in Iran portrays the US in a 100% accurate manner.  Anyway nothing personal Iran the movie wasn't really about you.

[canuck]

OR THE CANADIANS 

[/canuck]

[Sheilbh]

Glad to know every movie produced in Iran portrays the US in a 100% accurate manner.  Anyway nothing personal Iran the movie wasn't really about you.

Iranian cinema's terrific. Only portrayal of the west that I've seen in it has been by and of the diaspora though.

[Valmy]

Iranian cinema's terrific. Only portrayal of the west that I've seen in it has been by and of the diaspora though.

Really?  They have never even made one film about the 1953 coup?  Or anything about the Russians and the British?  I guess timepieces are not really their thing.

and color me skeptical  their cinema is really that terrific.  I am sure they have a few really good films but come on.

[The Larch]

Iranian cinema's terrific. Only portrayal of the west that I've seen in it has been by and of the diaspora though.

Really?  They have never even made one film about the 1953 coup?  Or anything about the Russians and the British?  I guess timepieces are not really their thing.

and color me skeptical  their cinema is really that terrific.  I am sure they have a few really good films but come on.

They're actually a staple of the festival circuit, you can't shake a stick in one of those events without hitting a couple of directors of Iranian intimist dramas. You'll never find one of those movies in a multiplex, though.

They have also said the movie's director did not refer to other documentaries on the embassy storming or discuss reasons for the crisis, which included simmering resentment against the United States for a CIA-aided counter-coup in 1953 that toppled democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh and restored the pro-Western monarchy in Iran.

Actually they do, before the movie itself begins a short intro on pre-revolutionary Iran is included, mentioning both Mossadegh's deposal after the nationalization of oil companies and the Shah's lavish lifestyle.

[Admiral Yi]

I saw an Iranian movie about some chicks trying to sneak into a fodbol match.  It was OK.

I did however learn that Iranian cops dress in olive drab and wear baseball hats with *gigantic* brims, like the repair dudes in Brazil.

[Sheilbh]

Really?  They have never even made one film about the 1953 coup?  Or anything about the Russians and the British?  I guess timepieces are not really their thing.

Not that I've seen. The nearest is uncle Napoleon which is a series of comedies. The main character's uncle is an old man who apparently participated in every nationalist movement and sees a dastardly British plot behind everything.

There may be some films that deal with it. But even then I imagine because of cost it would be on a small scale, not like China's current trend of creating blockbuster historical narrative.

and color me skeptical  their cinema is really that terrific.  I am sure they have a few really good films but come on.

No it seriously is, though obviously they're the films that can sell outside Iran. I remember seeing an interview with one of the directors saying that while dealing with censorship was often absurd it forced him to be a bit more creative in how he represented things - to sneak it past.

A Taste of Cherry is a superb film - a man wants to dig a grave and commit suicide and he drives around Tehran picking people up and trying to convince them to bury him once he's done.

There's a loose trilogy of films by Kiarostami that's also outstanding set in rural Iran. The first is a beautiful story told from the perspective of a child - Where is the friend's home? The second film is a sort-of fictional film about characters returning (as Kiarostami did) to the region after a devastating earthquake looking for some of the children from his first film. The third film's another reflection on the earthquake. Close-up is another brilliant Kiarostami based on a true story about a film-maker who conned a family into believing they were going to star in his film - it features the real people.

The Apple, which is again based on a true story and features the real people, is about a couple who locked up their daughters for eleven years until they were reported to social services. The Day I Became a Woman is also decent.

Channel 4 did an outstanding season of Iranian (and Persian) cinema a while ago which got me quite into it. Sadly there's nothing recent that I've heard of that's been interesting. Most of them were made in the late 80s through to early 00s. Now I think the majority of the directors and writers are in exile.

[Sheilbh]

I saw an Iranian movie about some chicks trying to sneak into a fodbol match.  It was OK.

That's a fun film.

[The Larch]

I saw an Iranian movie about some chicks trying to sneak into a fodbol match.  It was OK.

That's a fun film.

That's "Offside", by Jafer Panahi, a Kiarostami disciple. Try to watch his debut film "The white balloon", it's pretty good.

Not many new films are coming out recently because authorities are clamping down hard on directors. Panahi himself spent some time in jail in 2010 and got sentenced to a 20 year ban on film-making since then.

[grumbler]

For perhaps the first time, I pity the Iranian government types.  They hired a lawyer!