Synopsis
The first lady of a noble house has died and now there is conflict between the remainders for taking over her heritage.
1976 ‘شطرنج باد’ Directed by Mohammad Reza Aslani
The first lady of a noble house has died and now there is conflict between the remainders for taking over her heritage.
Shatranje bad, Shatranj-e baad, 더 체스 게임 오브 더 윈드, The Chess Game of the Wind, 风之棋局, Rüzgarın Satrancı, L'échiquier du vent, 바람의 체스
I cannot believe a film that looks this good was discovered in an antique shop; I hope the inevitable World Cinema Project Blu-ray shows some pre-restoration images. The film itself rightly bears comparisons to Visconti in its opulent view of a dying aristocracy, but the gradual escalation of tensions result in a final act turn that feels oddly close to giallo, a highly chromatic dive into dream-logic horror that masks a jugular-ripping burst of class politics. (Oddly, the final 20 minutes made me think of Knives Out if it committed to its insurrectionist view of servants vs masters rather than settled for liberal reassurance.) A major rediscovery that is going to smash its way into the canon with shocking speed.
The goldfish in the glass bowl hanging in the atrium becomes suspended among the household vitriol which surrounds it; gilded cages, etc. Here though, the glass presents the delicacy of the situation, the familial matters a microcosm of the sociopolitical environment they're situated in. It sits, burbling, bound to a life of splendor overhanging its death, the sword of Damocles inverted.
The acid in the bottomless jars piled up in the basement become the antacid to the vitriol, out of sight and out of mind for things that must leave but can't leave the house they're in. One wonders why there are so many, if many were used, how many goldfish who've left this way. A household built on glass graves and as such less a house than a mass grave. When the glass shatters and the spectres break free it will be a haunt not just personal but historic, politic.
Extraordinary. A lost jewel burnished and presented to the world anew through The Film Foundation, Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna and original director Mohammad Reza Aslani's beautiful 4k restoration.
In terms of the core story, it bears a striking resemblance to Les Diaboloque but it's also culturally specific. Made in the mid-70s and set in the 20s, in the aftermath of the Iranian Constitutional Revolution, it's ideologically charged. So much so that it was banned only a couple of years after its very limited release during the purging of cultural artifacts deemed to be intellectually corrupt by the anti-Western theocracy. It's not hard to see why it would've been seen to as a provocation, a challenge to the Goverance of the…
Elegant camerawork always seems to conceal a secret. Especially loved the feverish orange sequence.
thought we were gonna get a case of Chekhov’s suspended goldfish bowl but that little guy endures better than just about every other character here
Power ranking of props:
1) wooden-wheeled, wicker-backed wheelchair
2) hanging aquarium containing one (1) indifferent goldfish
3) pistol bayonet thingamajig
4) golden nunchuck
5) world’s most fragile chandelier
Fun to lose my mind yet again at film forum
Immersive. So often the characters talk of dust, and indeed the whole film has a veil over it. The camera moves through the ornate mansion like an intruder (making a sex scene feel especially voyeuristic and well, hot). You can feel the tension of pre-revolution Iran bubbling around the family, closing in on the family and the viewer. The lore of the film being rediscovered in an antique shop is the cherry on top; I can just imagine the negatives sitting amongst beautiful furniture and rugs just like the ones that adorn each set in the film.
This formally banned film is like one of those four-leaf clovers that somehow finds it’s way into the light via a small crack in the concrete…. And for that, I’m grateful. 🎥☘️
However, I also believe I’d have a much greater appreciation for this work of art if someone smarter and more cultured than me was sitting here patiently explaining everything that was obviously flying over my head…. Checkmate indeed.
BONUS POINTS for the hanging fishbowl that's so groovy even my small and uncultured brain could appreciate it! 🐟
A lesbian-inflected gothic humming with Iranian political context and a razor sharp sense of when to utilize genre and when to dispose of it. I audibly gasped a half dozen times.
Chess of the Wind is a beautifully shot, intricately designed movie that exists in a death-haunted world. Made in pre-revolutionary Iran, Chess of the Wind centres on an aristocratic family fighting over possessions and misdeeds. Their house has a seething underbelly, with its occupants often showing resentment, nastiness, and selfishness. Chess of the Wind acts as an examination of flawed souls, who bicker and betray, then build up pain. The final act is incredibly atmospheric and delirious, becoming a tinted ghost story in a way, a film of terrors within the mind. The camerawork can become complex and swirling, going for elegance rather than minimalism. At times the music is loud and alarming, instilling a sense of dread that permeates the picture. Chess of the Wind is brilliantly executed and a thorough experience. It is cinema made with style and sophistication.