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Arash returns home alone; he gives Hossein money, telling him to leave and take the cat with him. Arash takes Saeed's case of drugs and sells them; The Girl takes a bath. She has also said that "every piece of the story, every character, every costume, every bit of music" is something that she "love to the point of obsession."
Even though the scene contains no dialogue, it speaks volumes about The Girl. Its contrasting components divulge a multi-dimensional character who moves past the flat trope of the stereotypical horror movie monster. Instead, we get a vampire who puts on makeup surrounded by muted fairy lights and saves abused prostitutes, then brutally murders an insolent pimp. Through combining traditional and modern elements of Iranian culture, as well as including both Western and Eastern influences, Amirpour creates a masterpiece that transcends all previously drawn boundaries. “A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night” is a melting pot of influences, seen in the pairing of chador and fangs, seen in the Iranian tattoos on a crass pimp and, most importantly, seen in the soundtrack itself. In the Iranian ghost-town Bad City, a place that reeks of death and loneliness, the townspeople are unaware they are being stalked by a lonesome vampire.
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While there, she grows long fangs and first bites off his finger, then goes for his neck, killing him. As she leaves, she passes by Arash, who has come to offer the earrings for his car. He finds Saeed dead, and takes back his car keys along with a suitcase of drugs and cash.
Rockabilly, a gender-bending, minor background character who exists on the fringe of Bad City throughout the duration of the movie, acts as a silent observer to the events around them. Director Amirpour states that "If there's one political thing , it's not the chador, it's Rockabilly, because it's not okay to be gay in Iran." Farah’s lyrics — “she’s just a normal girl / dancing to her favorite song” — create a sense of intimacy and vulnerability at odds with the fantastical vampire nightmare.
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It wouldn't be unfair to say that this is an exercise primarily on style over substance. This doesn't bother me personally, as I enjoy films that embrace cinematic style. It's typified by great black and white cinematography with lovely widescreen framing. When you combine all of these disparate elements together in an American film shot entirely in Iranian, the result is a very odd film indeed. It also plays on the idea that the Hijab veil looks similar to the garb of those traditional vampires.
Still, it has to be praised for going somewhere new and it shows there is always a different way to approach old ideas. Distressed, he runs to the apartment of the woman and begs her to run away with him. As she is gathering up her things, the cat appears and Arash realizes that she had something to do with his father's death. Arash and the woman drive off together but he pulls off to the side of the road, angry and undecided about what to do. He eventually gets back in the car and the two continue their trip onwards. A young, hardworking Iranian man named Arash lives with and takes care of his heroin-addicted father, Hossein.
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Infuriated by his father, Arash gives him drugs and money and throws him out, telling him to take the cat with him. After Atti helps her dispose of Hossein's body, she tells the woman to take the cat and leave. Promoted as "The first Iranian vampire Western", it stars Sheila Vand, Arash Marandi, Mozhan Marnò, Marshall Manesh, and Dominic Rains. 70s era of Italian “Spaghetti Western” genres and, through this, allows “A Girl” to transcend cultural boundaries. Songs like “Sarcophagus” and “Black Sunday” feature dramatic orchestral declarations, bringing to mind the theatrical standoffs of iconic Old Westerns, while the underpinnings of folk melodies speak to conventional Iranian films. A spectral woman’s voice is often intermittently added as a glossy layer over the entire compilation; its echoing European opera sound traces the barren desert setting in fine lines of elegance.
The eclectic nature of the soundtrack is immediately noticeable – with the traditional accordion and Iranian crooning of Kiosk's 'Charkesh E Pooch' a clear opposite of Radio Tehran's punky and irreverent 'Tatilat'. Both creepy and eerie and fun and energetic with its mixing of traditional and alternative musical genres, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is an instant classic. The film is directed and imagined by Amirpour with cinematography by Lyle Vincent. Its style is clearly inspired by spaghetti Westerns like those of Sergio Leone, featuring a mysterious, lone, antihero with a vigilante streak.
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She is the perpetrator, not the victim, and possesses agency and power that would not be typically reserved for her in an environment such as Bad City. Atti, a prostitute who worked for Saeed, is followed at night by the woman, and they retreat to the prostitute's apartment. They have a conversation during which the woman realizes that Atti no longer remembers what it is to desire. What it means to me as an Iranian woman, more than just as a good horror movie, more than even a movie empowering Iranian women, is that it celebrates the power of opportunity. It’s doubtful Amirpour would have been able to create a movie of this magnitude if her family had remained in Iran, instead of taking the chance to immigrate to Europe and, later, to California. The band allows the fictional Bad Town to exist within multiple spheres, blurring the lines between distinct movie genres and distinct cultures.
An Indiegogo campaign was launched in July 2012 to fund the feature-length version of the film. The project ended up with a total sum of $56,903 raised by 290 backers. Please note that items will be shipped together once all items in the order are in-hand and ready to ship, including pre-order products.
The woman with the chador spends her time listening to music alone in her apartment, skateboarding, or bedeviling pedestrians at night, until she comes across the lost Arash. He shows vulnerability and compassion, and she takes him to her home, where they listen to music, and she resists his exposed neck. They meet the next night, and she says that he does not know the terrible things she has done. He is unfazed, gives her the earrings and – at her request – pierces her ears with a safety pin, but she eventually leaves. Many of the artists featured on this soundtrack, though Iranian-based, produce and perform their music outside of Iran; the radical socio-political commentary found in the lyrics of songs from bands like Kiosk or Radio Tehran is explicitly forbidden in Iran. Instead of remaining silent, they chose to immigrate to Europe, Canada and the U.S, becoming the voice of a majority of Iran’s younger generation and permitting Iranian culture to continue to progress.
Amirpour has stated that graphic novels are a major source of inspiration for her. The visual language of the film is not unlike that of a comic book, with its "high-contrast monochrome aesthetic". Additionally, Bad City, the fictional location in which the film is set, may perhaps be a nod to Frank Miller's Sin City. The film's protagonist, The Girl, is a sort-of antihero vigilante with a taste for bad men. As a vampire, she is able to roam the streets at night without being concerned for her safety, subverting the implications of the film's title.
The film was adapted into a six part graphic novel series published by Radco in 2014. The series explores The Girl's backstory with art from Michael DeWeese. A limited edition vinyl pressing of the soundtrack, and accompanying album art, was released by Death Waltz Records in January 2014. The film was shot digitally with anamorphic lenses, which Amirpour and Vincent selected in an effort to emphasize the bleak, otherworldly atmosphere of the film. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night was shot over the course of twenty-four days, in the town of Taft in Kern County in southern California. This allowed Amirpour to not be constrained by the restrictions of filming in Iran, which include having to obtain a filming permit and facing content censorship, such as the prohibition of almost all depictions of physical romantic love.
I guess because of her heritage coupled with the tensions between America and Iran, many meanings seem to have been interpreted in this film. I think the truth is that this is a film with some minor political undercurrents but which takes its influences far more from cinema itself. Set in a bleak dusty place called Bad City, a settlement full of drug addicts, vice and despair, it follows a small group of characters one of which is a female vampire who roams the streets at night preying on the worst in her society.
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It is also distinctive for having bizarre details such as a prominent cat, a skateboarding vampire and a soundtrack that mixes Persian music with new wave influenced western pop. Many film music LPs both old and new come thick and fast, but Death Waltz Recording Company is very proud to release what is sure to be the soundtrack of 2015. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is a Western vampire noir set in a small Iranian town that has an effortlessly cool soundtrack featuring music from artists such as Kiosk, Radio Tehran, and Federale. From director Ana Lily Amirpour and Executive Producer Elijah Wood, A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT is a Western vampire noir set in a small Iranian town that has an effortlessly cool soundtrack featuring music from artists such as Kiosk, Radio Tehran, and Federale. With no solo composer providing a score, the sound of the film has instead been curated by Amirpour with a variety of tracks selected to supply a unique atmosphere, recalling less traditional vampire films such as NEAR DARK and ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE. Despite not being score, the music selected by the director nevertheless bears heavy influence from the film music world, particularly the electronically ethereal work of Tangerine Dream, and the inescapable Western sounds of Ennio Morricone.
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