When attending the research symposium recently, I watched a presentation that heavily referenced the perceptions in a film known as the “Taste of Cherry,” presented by Viti Pathak. The title of this presentation was “Life Is a Highway: Taste of Cherry’s Emphasis on a Universal Message about Life.” This film is the first Iranian Film to win the Palme d’OR at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival. Essentially, this film follows the journey of a man finding someone who can bury him after he completes his intentions of committing suicide. The purpose of this presentation was to show the connections of the journey of life represented throughout this film. While the initial goal of the Pathak was to show short portions of the film to the audience and then restate conclusions and key points within it, when faced with these opportunities her video would not play when she started explaining her presentation. Therefore, instead of configuring alternative ways to ensure her presentation still goes according to plan, she began to verbally explain what went on in the video and connect those verbal points to her theme. I found this act inspirational, because a lot of times when we are preparing for a presentation we are always on edge and may feel defeated when things do not go our way. However, Pathak was able to just think of an alternative solution on the spot and not dwell on her limitations or setbacks.
A major theme Pathak had in her presentation were referencing metaphor landscapes and its relations to the point of life. For instance, the film would contain long view shots that would simulate and symbolize that life is like a road. In one example, Pathak explains how the protagonist of the movie is driving along a long road and then suddenly lands into a ditch. However, some nearby laborers helped the protagonist out of the ditch. This symbolized how life can be going smoothly and then suddenly can be disrupted with an obstacle or detrimental issue. Though despite this occurrence this analogy shows there are always people there to support and help us through our problems.
Another theme that Pathak analyzes is the point of view shots throughout the film. Point of view shots are those that are taken from the protagonists’ perspective or those that protagonists are directly interacting with. For instance, when the main character was talking with a taxidermist about his current situation while driving on a windy road, the audience was some times in the ‘passenger seat’ or the point of view of the taxidermist. This enabled the audience to better understand and be in the shoes of the protagonist. This action symbolizes empathy that the audience can develop for the protagonist through the film.
Overall, I found it interesting how Pathak was able to connect the camera angles and point of views throughout the movie to our perception of life. Pathak was able to uniquely capture the authors intent of authentically sharing the journey of life, which was the research question of this presentation. This presentation helped me realize that at times when watching movies, we may think certain scenes are irrelevant though they all help to unfold the moral plot or essential message of the story, to provide a realistic view.
Featured Image:
Valery, Jp. “Free Paved Road through Forest Photo – High Res Pictures.” Burst, burst.shopify.com/photos/paved-road-through-forest.