Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Yellow and Orange Flowers

Yellow and Orange Flowers
By Ezzat Goushegir                          
                               

Green

A leaf, grass and sun
By Ezzat Goushegir
Dandelion
By Ezzat Goushegir

Mushrooms

Intimacy
By Ezzat Goushegir
A Mushroom and crushed Cigarette
By Ezzat Goushegir

Monday, May 27, 2013

BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN


"SERGEI EISENSTEIN'S BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN
With THE Original Meisel Orchestral Score
 From the Series "The Year 1905"
Odessa - 1905. Enraged with the deplorable conditions on board the armored cruiser Potemkin, the ship's loyal crew contemplates the unthinkable - mutiny. Seizing control of the Potemkin and raising the red flag of revolution, the sailors' revolt becomes the rallying point for a Russian populace ground under the boot heels of the Czar's Cossacks. When ruthless White Russian cavalry arrives to crush the rebellion on the sandstone Odessa Steps, the most famous and most quoted film sequence in cinema history is born.
For eight decades, Sergei Eisenstein's 1925 masterpiece has remained the most influential silent film of all time. Yet each successive generation has seen BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN subjected to censorship and recutting, its unforgettable power diluted in unauthorized public domain editions from dubious sources. Until now. Kino is proud to join the Deutsche Kinematek in association with Russia's Goskinofilm, the British Film Institute, Bundesfilm Archive Berlin, and the Munich Film Museum in presenting this all new restoration of BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN. Dozens of missing shots have been replaced, and all 146 title cards restored to Eisenstein's specifications. Edmund Meisel's definitive 1926 score, magnificently rendered by the 55-piece Deutches Filmorchestra in 5.1 Stereo Surround, returns Eisenstein's masterwork to a form as close to its creator's bold vision as has been seen since the film's triumphant 1925 Moscow premiere."





Scenes from the film.



Sunday, May 26, 2013

The Quiet American



"The Quiet American is an anti-war novel by British author Graham Greene, first published in United Kingdom in 1955 and in the United States in 1956. It was adapted into films in 1958 and 2002. The book draws on Greene's experiences as a war correspondent for The Times and Le Figaro in French Indochina 1951–1954. He was apparently inspired to write The Quiet American in October 1951 while driving back to Saigon from Ben Tre province. He was accompanied by an American aid worker who lectured him about finding a “third force in Vietnam”.





Graham Greene's allegorical novel about America's role in the Vietnam conflict, and how it was perceived by the rest of the world, is brought to the screen for the second time in this adaptation directed by Phillip Noyce. Thomas Fowler (Michael Caine) is a British journalist who in 1952 is covering the early stages of the war in Indo-China for the London Times, not a demanding assignment since few in England are especially interested in the conflict. When not filing occasional reports, Fowler spends his time with Phuong (Do Thi Hai Yen), a beautiful woman who shares lovemaking and opium with Fowler and is willing to accept the fact the married journalist will never make her his wife.

 Watch a scene of a movie based on the novel with the same title.


“He looked at the wet on his shoes and said in a sick voice, “What’s that?”
“Blood” I said. “Haven’t you even seen it before?”
He said, “I must get a shine before I see the Minister.”
P 212

“But what I remembered was the torso in the square, the baby on its mother’s lap. They had not been warned; they had not been sufficiently important.”
P 213

The Art of Observation



Above all the other arts
You, the actor, must conquer
The art of observation
Your training must begin among
The lives of other people.
Make your first school
The place you work in, your home,
The district to which you belong,
The shop, the street the train.
Observe each one you set your eyes upon
Observe the strangers as if they were familiar
And those whom you know as if they were strangers.

-       Poems on the Theatre, Bertolt Brecht

Moses and Shepherd



A beautiful piece based on Rumi’s poem: Moses and Shepherd, sang by Saeed  Jafar Zadeh (Shepherd) and Soli (Moses)

Shepherd: Tell me then Moses
Who is more bewildered?
You or I?
I do not fear myth or Satan
Nor blasphemy nor faith
Nor flames nor separation
Nor tomorrow nor death
Nor drinking from a cup of wine
I know God better than you
I know you better than God
God is different than you think
God never wants to be God
God doesn’t want to be a playing in your hands
He never wants to inspire fear
Fear Of him I do not have
Fear Of him I do not have
Fear from such thoughts I do not have
Oh God I fear only
To harm another
I do not have quarrel with anyone
Nor does have anyone with me


نه از افسانه می ترسم نه از شیطان
نه از کفر و نه از ایمان
نه از آتش نه از حرمان
نه از فردا نه از مردن
نه از پیمانه می خوردن
خدا را می شناسم از شما بهتر
شما را از خدا بهتر
خدا از هرچه پندارم جدا باشد
خدا هرگز نمی خواهد خدا باشد
نمی خواهد خدا بازیچه ی دست شما باشد
که او هرگز نمی خواهد چنین آیینه ای وحشت نما باشد
هراس از وی ندارم من
هراسی را از این اندیشه ام در پی ندارم من
خدایا بیم از آن دارم
مبادا رهگذاری را بیازارم
نه جنگی با کسی دارم
نه کس با من
بگو موسی بگو موسی
پریشان تر تویی یا من
نه از افسانه می ترسم نه از شیطان
نه از کفر و نه از ایمان
نه ازدوزخ نه از حرمان
نه از فردا نه از مردن
نه از پیمانه می خوردن
خدا را می شناسم از شما بهتر
شما را از خدا بهتر
دید موسی یک شبانی را به راه........کو همی گفت ای خدا و ای اله 
تو  کجائی تا شوم من چاکرت؟...........چارقت دوزم ،کنم شانه سرت؟
دستکت بوسم  ، بمالم پایکت............وقت خواب آید  ،  بروبم جایکت 
ای خدای من ،فدایت جان من............جمله فرزندان و خان و مان من
ای فدای تو همه بزهای  من..........ای به یادت هی هی و هیهای من
گر تو را بیمارئی آید به  پیش .......من توراغمخوارباشم همچوخویش
گفت موسی:حال خیره سرشدی!......خودمسلمان ناشده کافرشدی!
این چه ژاژاست وچه کفرست وفشار.....پنبه ای اندردهان خودفشار!
گفت:موسی،دهانم دوختی..................از پشیمانی تو جانم سوختی
جامه را بدرید و آهی کرد تفت...................سر نهاد اندربیابان و برفت
وحی آمدسوی موسی ازخدا :  ...................بنده ما را زما کردی جدا
تو برای وصل کردن آمدی.........................نی برای فصل کردن آمدی
ما برون را ننگریم و قال را........................مادرون را بنگریم و حال را
ملت عشق ازهمه دینهاجداست.......عاشقان راملت ومذهب خداست
لعل راگرمهرنبود،باک نیست...........عشق دردریای غم غمناک نیست
چونکه موسی این عتاب ازحق شنید.........دربیابان، درپی چوپان دوید
برنشان پاک آن سرگشته راند.......................گرد از پربیابان برفشاند
عاقبت دریافت و او را بدید..................گفت مژده ده که دستوری رسید
هیچ آداب و ترتیبی مجوی...................هرچه میخواهد دل تنگت، بگوی

Shirin and Salt Man





Shirin and Salt Man by Nilofar Shidmehr


Nilofar Shidmehr was born and raised in Iran, and has lived in Canada since 1997. She holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of British Columbia and is currently working on her PhD at the Center for Cross Faculty Inquiry in Education. Her work has been featured in both Iranian and Canadian literary magazines, including Descant, A Room of One’s Own, West Coast Line, Galleon, and the Shahrvand, a widely-read Iranian newspaper published in Toronto and Vancouver.

Saturday, May 25, 2013

Cactus Fruit (Prickly Pear)

Cactus Fruit (Prickly Pear), hard outside, tender and sweet inside!
By Ezzat Goushegir