The documentary centers on the resulting filmed
interviews with the artist. “And to put your mind at ease, I will tell my
life story myself, so that every idiot doesn’t write my biography the way it
suits him,” he says early on. And he is immediately likeable. He actually
tells the filmmaker how to make the film. “Put this over the image of the
sea,” he instructs, and indeed we see an image of the ocean. And in voice
over he begins to tell us of his life. It’s such an interesting way of
presenting a subject and constructing a film. “I was born on the first of
March, 1931, to the south of the Caspian Sea, in the city of Rasht.”
A phone call interrupts his narration, but his side of
the call is left in the film. He talks a bit about some of his more recent
work, telling the filmmaker which pieces to include in the movie. And we are
treated to images of some incredible and original work, some of it in response
to political and social situations. He continues to instruct the filmmaker as
he lights a cigarette (despite his doctor’s warning): “Make sure you put
this in. Make it a wide angle.” And when one day he’s not feeling good
enough for conversation, he suggests things for her to shoot instead and tells
her then how to use that footage. And yet he never comes across as domineering.
He’s endearing, really, with a very particular laugh, which you’ll hear often.
(It’s sort of like Ernie’s laugh, from Sesame Street.) But it’s also the
little trivial things he says directly to the filmmaker that make him
endearing. At one point he gets up, saying: “I won’t give you any coffee.
Otherwise I won’t have any for tomorrow morning.”
He talks about destroying much of his own work. And,
coughing, he says, “Immortality and all that nonsense.” He has an
interesting perspective on today’s attitudes toward homosexuality. “The most
devastating thing they’ve done is to eradicate the forbidden character of
homosexuality. All its beauty was in the prohibition.” And he talks about
his own homosexuality.
Director Mitra Farahani gets Mohassess a commission to do
a large oil painting, with the idea that she can then film him at work. Again,
this is one more thing making this a rather unusual documentary. She films the
meeting between the artist and the two men who commission the work. The
director interferes in an odd way, trying to get the men to ask for a bigger
piece, trying to get them to ask Mohassess why he depicts fish so often. Why
doesn’t she ask him herself? And why leave that in the film?
The film, by the way, is named after one of his
paintings, which hangs on the wall behind him during the interview. It’s a
painting he’s always kept with him.
Special Features
The DVD includes The Eye That Hears, a 1967 short
documentary on Bahman Mohassess, in which he talks about his art and his views
on humanity. We do see the “Fifi” painting at the beginning. And the man’s
laugh was the same back then. This is approximately eighteen minutes.
The trailer for Fifi Howls From Happiness is also
included.
Fifi Howls From Happiness was released on DVD on
December 2, 2014 through Music Box Films.
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