Analysis of the Visual Structure of Farhadi’s Films (With analysis of About Eli, A separation and The past)

The visual structure of a film is a construction of connected visual elements of that film. This structure is used to progress the story, make the meaning and transfer the feeling of that film to audiences. So a good way for studying any filmmaker’s films is to understand his or her film’s visual structure and techniques. In this text, the goal is achieving this understanding about Asghar Farhadi’s films. This doesn’t mean that we want to understand the image in his films abstractly, but instead, we want to analyze the connection between images and story in his films. At first we describe the connection between images and story, and then we analyze Asghar Farhadi’s visual techniques in order to distinguish “why” this connection are impressive and effective. In this text also we emphasize on visual structure as a dynamic set which is completed in audiences. For this reason, in the first section of this article, we describe different parts of a visual story according to Boris Block’s theory and we try to reveal how the visual characteristics of a film change through these different parts. Then we study the relationship between semantic structure and imagery in films. Then, we analyze Asghar Farhadi’s films according to the connection between visual structure and story and we disclose Farhadi’s visual techniques in the process of storytelling.  The most important questions of this research are that how an image in a film can fulfill dramatic goals of that story, and how it transfers feelings and meaning of a certain film to audiences. For answering these questions we should go back and study films not from their imagery but from their storyline and multi-plots instead. We should grasp and understand the meaning of story and its structure. The image is a vehicle to transfer the story. So understanding a story structure is necessary for understanding the imagery selected by the director. But how can we understand a storyline better? A very effective way to do this, is to divide a story to three different parts; 1-Exposition; 2-Conflict; 3-Resolution. An Exposition means revealing the characters and story conditions. The Conflict is a situation in which the main character fights against antagonists or other obstacles. And the Resolution is the end of a film, when other story lines will be completed. And also there are several important points in a film, for example the beginning of a crisis and climax. Block believes that all these parts and points have equals in visual structure of a film. So we can talk about visual exposition, visual conflict and visual resolution. Any of these parts has its own visual attributes. So for analyzing visual characteristics of Farhadi’s films, we should study these different parts in his films. According to this study we deduce that Farhadi, with the use of visual realism, makes dramatic constructions of his films stronger and attracts audiences to his characters. For this reason, visual techniques like deep space, handheld camera, several points of views, limited color pallet, merging negative and positive spaces and high key lighting become main methods for cinematic expression in his films.