3 - Funhouse Noir: Escapist Expressionism in Samuel Khachikian’s Delirium

Summary

To a good number of genre cinema fans to whom pre-revolution Iranian cinema has mostly been swathed in mystery, the mini-retrospective on Samuel Khachikian’s films at Il Cinema Ritrovato in 2018, titled ‘Tehran Noir’, was a thrilling revelation. Although Khachikian’s career survived the 1978 revolution and the ensuing sea-changes, even in Iran he was chiefly regarded as a historical figure and his reputation was founded foremost on pictures he made at the peak of his career in the mid-50s to early 60s, the same period on which the ‘Tehran Noir’ retrospective focused. The eclipse of Khachikian’s cinema in later years, however, gives no excuse to understate his instrumental role in formation and evolution of Iranian cinema. He was probably the first Iranian filmmaker who turned the director’s name into a recognisable brand, which could draw throngs into the theatre. Most of this was achieved through a group of films that were at the core of a historical cycle of crime films in Iranian cinema of the early 1960s. Indeed, this cycle was instigated by Khachikian’s films, the lucrative box-office receipts of which prodded other fellow filmmakers to tread the same territory, although with technically inferior results. In 1963, crime films constituted one-third of output of Iranian cinema (Omid 1995: 352). This phenomenon, however, died off shortly after. New trends forced Khachikian out of his habitual zone into territories that proved damaging to his cinema.

For all their technical bravura – despite shortages of means – and cinematic zest that earned the director popularity and plaudits, Khachikian’s crime films have consistently been panned for being removed from the realities of the country – this predominant touchstone of film criticism in Iran – and therefore guilty of an underlying escapism. A review of Anxiety/Delhoreh (1962) – one of Khachikian’s best achievements, even by director’s own admission – for instance goes as far as claiming that the box office returns of Khachikian’s film are analogous to the grosses of foreign films since the film, due to its imitative nature, does not qualify as laying the foundation of a national film industry (quoted in Omid 1995: 349). This quality, which can clearly be seen across the career of Khachikian, is probably best exemplified by Delirium/Sarsam (1965), a film ending Khachikian’s contribution to the abovementioned cycle of crime films on a note of failure (though by no means did it remain his last exercise in the genre).