Actor, The
Sorry, no blogs are active for this topic.
The cast of Brothers & Sisters celebrated the series’ first season DVD release at Disney’s Sept. 10 event at the San Antonio Winery in Los Angeles.
To celebrate Docurama’s Air Guitar Nation, Borders in Long Beach, Calif., hosted an in-store appearance by the film’s star, Björn Türoque (aka Dan Crane).
American Idol Bo Bice sang the Blades of Glory anthem at DreamWorks and Paramount’s DVD launch event in Venice Beach, Calif.
» VIEW ALL GALLERIES
» VIEW FEATURED GALLERY
-- Video Business, 5/28/2001
FOREIGN-LANGUAGE COMEDYColor, NR (mature themes, language), 88 min., VHS $29.95, Farsi with English
subtitles
Street: May 29, Prebook: now
Video Premiere
Cast: Akbar Abdi, Fatemeh Motamed-Aria, Mahaya Petrossian
Director: Mohsen Makhmalbaf
FACETS 800.331.6197
Story Line: A popular Iranian actor (Abdi), revered for his comedies but desirous of success in "serious" films, faces a more serious problem at home: His frustrated, infertile spouse (Motamed-Aria) wants him to take a second wife, a mute gypsy (Petrossian), who can be paid to bear his child and then depart.
Bottom Line: Occasionally uproarious but unaccountably poignant in spots, this 1993 Iranian film will be a pleasant surprise to the open-minded viewers adventurous enough to rent it. The Actor boasts production values and comedic techniques worthy of Hollywood. Writer/director Makhmalbaf employs fluid cinematography and precise cutting on his comic set pieces, and his sense of timing is exquisite. One sequence, in which the ignorant gypsy is terrorized by the numerous Rube Goldberg-type contraptions in Abdi's high-tech home, is a side-splitter that bears comparison to the best work of Chaplin and Keaton. The Actor's point of origin, subtitles and unfamiliar stars will prevent the film from being embraced by mainstream consumers, but it's a sparkling gem that deserves an audience. --Ed Hulse
