Host: Bahman Maqsoudloo Guests: Anthony Quinn, Andrew Sarris, Houshang Kavousi, Ahmad Mahmoud, and Marco Grigorian Music: Seven Servants and Manhattan by Gato Barbieri Dinner Menu: Cattle The host of this program is Bahman Maqsoudloo. Mr. Maqsoudloo has been active in various cinematic fields for over forty years, and his documentaries about the greats of literature and art in Iran, including Ardshir Mohasses, Ahmad Shamloo, Iran Doroudi, Abbas Kiarostami, and Ahmad Mahmoud, have been influential in introducing these figures. His latest documentary, "The Edge of the Blade," is about the legacy of Iranian actresses. Mr. Maqsoudloo has also produced several feature films in the United States, including "Seven Servants" starring Hollywood legend Anthony Quinn and "Manhattan by the Numbers" directed by Amir Naderi. He has several research works, including "Iranian Cinema," published by New York University in 1987, "Freedom and Love in Cinema," and his latest book about the documentary film "Grass," which recounts the story of three Americans traveling to Iran over ninety years ago and how this film was made. Mr. Maqsoudloo holds a Ph.D. in Cinema from Columbia University in New York and lives in the same city.
About Bahman Maqsoudloo: Bahman Maqsoudloo has been active in various cinematic fields for over forty years, and his documentaries about the greats of literature and art, including Ardshir Mohasses, Ahmad Shamloo, Iran Doroudi, Abbas Kiarostami, and Ahmad Mahmoud, have been influential in introducing them. Mr. Maqsoudloo lives in New York City.
Mr. Bahman Maqsoudloo, thank you very much for participating in the host program. Please tell me who you would like to invite to your party?
Greetings and thanks to you and your listeners. My first guest is Anthony Quinn. My second guest is Andrew Sarris, the American film critic. The third is Houshang Kavousi. The fourth is Ahmad Mahmoud, the writer, and the fifth is Marco Grigorian, the painter and sculptor.
I will later ask you to explain to our audience why you are interested in these five people. But before that, tell me what music you would like to play for them?
The music I have chosen is by Gato Barbieri, the famous jazz musician and composer of Argentine origin. He was one of my friends and composed music for two of the films I produced, one being "Seven Servants" and the other "Manhattan by the Numbers," directed by Amir Naderi. Sony released the soundtracks of these two films on DVD, and I would love to play them at the party as they are beautifully composed for my films.
Now let's return to your guests. The first you mentioned is Anthony Quinn. He is, of course, a great actor and starred in one of the films you produced (Seven Servants). Why are you interested in him?
Firstly, we were very close friends. Before I became friends with him, I produced two films, one being Seven Servants and the other Tolstoy, in which he acted. He was very eager to play the role of Tolstoy. Due to his advancing age, he wanted to play the roles of Picasso and Tolstoy before he died. I was very close to him. We would have lunch or dinner together once or twice a week. For ten years until his death, we saw each other. He trusted me a lot. He was a very distinguished person, Mr. Saba. He was a voracious reader, liberal, and free-thinking, with a very high character. He was honest, straightforward, and rebellious. The personalities I chose for the party all had a kind of rebellion, a kind of insurrection, and were followers of social justice.
Anthony Quinn (1915 to 2001): American actor and one of Hollywood's famous actors. Works: Viva Zapata, Zorba the Greek, The Last Tycoon, Barabbas, The Message, Omar Mukhtar, and others. Reason for invitation: We were very close friends. He trusted me a lot and was a very distinguished person. He was a voracious reader, liberal, and free-thinking, with a very high character. He had a good outlook on life and his children. He was someone who could discuss various issues with you for hours. He acted in over three hundred films. He was someone who fought against everything in Hollywood. He was of Mexican descent who came to America. Because he did not have blonde hair and his face looked very rough, he was often cast in roles of Native Americans or negative characters, and he did not find his place in Hollywood as he wanted. Although he was highly respected and won two Oscars for supporting roles. When he was nominated for the Oscar for his role in "Zorba the Greek," he was expected to win it. But just a week before the Oscars, a newspaper in New York revealed that he had an extramarital affair, which had a significant impact on the conservative American society at that time, and the Oscar was awarded to Rex Harrison for his performance in "My Fair Lady." Everyone thought Anthony Quinn would win this award, and at the post-Oscar party, Rex Harrison approached Anthony Quinn and placed his Oscar on his table, saying that this was your rightful award.
Now let's move on to Andrew Sarris, the New York film critic. Why are you interested in him, and do you know him personally?
Andrew Sarris (1928 to 2012): American film theorist and critic. Works: American Cinema, Confessions of a Cultist, The Early Cinema, Cinema and Politics, The Code of John Ford, and A History of American Cinema. Reason for invitation: He was one of the most influential film critics who played a significant role in transforming cinema into art in the 1960s and 1970s. I was his student during my Ph.D. program, and he wrote a preface for my book on Iranian cinema.
I know all these guests personally. When I came to America, Andrew Sarris was one of the most prominent and influential film critics. He played a significant role in transforming cinema into art in the 1960s and 1970s. He wrote a preface for my book on Iranian cinema, and I had a close relationship with him and his wife, and we would have dinner together.
Mr. Andrew Sarris is one of the pioneers of modern film criticism in America, right?
He was someone who was in France in 1954 and then went back to France in 1961, where he became acquainted with the French New Wave cinema and had friendships with famous directors like Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut. He stayed there for a year. After Truffaut wrote an article about auteur cinema, Andrew Sarris returned to America and wrote an article about auteur cinema in 1962, which he formulated and accepted by others. Based on that, he wrote a very important and influential book called "American Cinema: Directors and Direction 1929-1968," which completely revolutionized film studies in America. In this book, he categorized American directors based on the auteur theory.
Sarris influenced many critics who acknowledge it and created the possibility for film studies in American universities to grant bachelor's and doctoral degrees in cinema. He was one of the giants of cinema in America, and his perspective on cinema and the critiques he wrote were different.
The first critique he wrote in the "Village Voice" based on the auteur theory about Alfred Hitchcock's film "The Spirit" was very new and very noisy at that time. His impact on film criticism and American cinema and filmmakers worldwide is very important and undeniable. I can talk a lot about Sarris. He was a dear friend of mine from the 1970s until his death. I interviewed him about Abbas Kiarostami's film "Ten," and that report is in my film about Abbas Kiarostami, and I dedicated this film to him because he passed away in 2012 at the age of eighty-three.
Your third guest is Amir Houshang Kavousi. Please explain to us what interest you have in him?
Houshang Kavousi (1301 to 1392 SH): Iranian director and critic. Famous works: The Life Story, Seventeen Days to Execution, House by the Sea, and others. Reason for invitation: I read his articles from a young age and quickly became friends with him. He was a very distinguished person and wrote articles in all cultural fields, not just about cinema but also about literature and poetry. We know he translated the Rubaiyat of Khayyam into French.
I worked with Kavousi. He was a top-notch person. He came from a military family. He was very disciplined, and everyone thought he was a dictator, which was not the case. He had a lot of discipline. He was a very good friend, and I was very close to him. He had an extraordinary impact on film criticism in Iranian cinema and played a role in introducing cinema to the younger generation.
Mr. Kavousi may be said to have introduced modern film criticism to Iranian cinema and also made films himself. But it seems that his films are not that significant in the history of Iranian cinema. I don't know, maybe I'm wrong. What do you think?
You are correct. You see, someone who is a creator has a high level of creativity within them. These people establish and recognize themselves in the world of art. One weakness that Kavousi had was that he was more of a theorist and knew cinema, but the creativity we seek in cinema was somewhat weak in his work. However, when we look at his film "Seventeen Days to Execution" now, we see that it has no spelling mistakes. And if we compare it with films made at that time known as Filmfarsi, which were often vulgar and commercial, or even films that had values, we see that Mr. Kavousi's film was different from them. His film was structurally sound in terms of cinema. And now when we look at it, it is not a bad film, but we cannot find anything new in it.
So you want to say that a good critic is not necessarily a good filmmaker?
Exactly. Good critics around the world have not all become filmmakers and have not made good films. Not every good critic can necessarily become a good filmmaker.
Now let's talk about your fourth guest, Ahmad Mahmoud, who is a writer, and you made a documentary about him.
Ahmad Mahmoud (1310 to 1381 SH): Iranian writer. Works: The Neighbors, The Story of a City, Burnt Land, Zero Degree Orbit, The Fig Tree of Temples, and The First Man. Reason for invitation: Ahmad Mahmoud was one of the closest writers and intellectuals to me in my life. He was a very great writer who, in my opinion, is the best social writer after the Constitutional Revolution in Iran.
Ahmad Mahmoud was one of the closest writers and intellectuals to me in my life. I met this person during my student years. On Fridays, I would go to his house on Amirieh Street in Tehran. At that time, he had just come to Tehran from Ahvaz and was working in the Women's Organization, and our friendship continued.
He was a very great writer who, in my opinion, is the best social writer after the Constitutional Revolution in Iran. He confronted and fought against the dominance of two regimes. He did not remain silent and wrote. He struggled against both regimes that had censorship, artist persecution, restrictions, and lack of freedom of expression. He fought with pain, suffering, imprisonment, and torture in both regimes.
He was rebellious, noble, honest, free, and liberal. What can I say? He was a humanist and had a very high character outside of all these prevailing relationships. He was reclusive and did not promote his works. In my opinion, he is the best social writer after the Constitutional Revolution in Iran.
The themes of his works focus on social and human issues. He emphasizes the issues of the southern country and urban issues. His form is socially realistic. He pays attention to details and various dimensions and layers and different characters with different dialects, like Dostoevsky. In my opinion, he was an extraordinary person. I will never forget him in my life. In 2002, I spent a week with him filming for my documentary. He told me to come and make this film about him. I first suggested to Mr. Nasser Taghavi from America to make it, but he did not. I took it upon myself to go to Iran from America and filmed for a week. On the last day when I said goodbye to him and was about to return, he came to the door and said, "Bahman, I have something to discuss with you." But I had to leave Iran early for some reasons. Later, I spoke to him on the phone, but three months later he passed away, and I completed the film about him two years later, but unfortunately, I never got to see him.
What was he like personally?
He was a very quiet and humble person. He did not accept any statement without reason. He was not someone you could easily convince. He had his own beliefs and was experienced. He was calm. The nobility you saw in his face attracted you to his personality in any gathering.
Now let's talk about your last guest, Marco Grigorian, who is of Armenian descent and was a painter.