THE COLOR OF POMEGRANATES (Armenian, Նռան գույնը) -- AKA "Sayat Nova", Viewed at 2014 Yerevan Golden Apricot IFF Director, Sergei Parajanov, 1968. RT 79 minutes. Languages of the poetry: Armenian, Geogian and Azeri Turkish 32E0CC90-FBBD-4A04-9EF6-1C87A431AD42
Generally regarded as one of the greatest masterpieces of the 20th century, the "Color of the Pomegranates" is a dazzling pictographic biography of the famous 18th century Armenian troubadour Sayat Nova (King of Song) revealing the poet's life more through the visualization of his poetry than a conventional narration of the events of his life. Or, one might even say that Parajanov simply used the poetry of Sayat as a launching pad to trip out on his own kind of unique cinematic poetry. However you look at it the result is a memorable film experience.
The eleventh annual installment of the Yerevan International Film Festival opened last night with a grandiose red carpet invitational gala at the Yerevan opera house and the screening of a digitally restored print of this magnificent but all too rarely seen film, a one of a kinder that resists classification. The Color of Pomegranates is in structure a metaphoric biography of the many sided prolific Armenian poet, musician, courtier, and eventually monk, Ashug Sayat-Nova, (King of Song) revealing the stages of his fantastic life visually and poetically rather than literally. The film is presented as a virtually silent movie with active tableaux depicting Sayat's life in eight chapters: Childhood, Youth, The Court of the prince, The Monastery, The Dream, Old Age, The Angel of Death and Death. There are sounds and music and occasional singing but almost no dialogue. Each chapter is indicated by a title card and framed through both the director's imagination and Sayat Nova's poems. Georgian actress Sofiko Chiaureli plays six roles in the film, both male and female.
Among other things this film celebrates the survival of Armenian culture in the face of oppression and persecution. Sayat was executed and beheaded when he refused to renounce his Armenian Christianity before conquering Persian invaders. Visually luscious with many images that are highly charged such as blood-red juice spilling from a cut pomegranate onto a cloth and forming a stain in the shape of the boundaries of the Ancient kingdom of Armenia -- dyers lifting planks of wool out of vats in the colors of the national flag, and so forth ... This film is on many critical lists of the greatest films of all time. A dazzling festival opener. Parajanov, who was a maverick Soviet film director working often in the Ukraine and Georgia was constantly hounded by the Soviet establishment, but he is a national hero here in Armenia with a museum devoted entirely to him alone. His abstract non- linear films were regarded as provocations by the Soviet censors who couldn't even understand them but assumed that they must be subversive because Parajanov himself absolutely refused to toe the party line in his private or artistic life. As a result he had to spent much time in Soviet jails which limited his total output, but all of his films are regarded as landmarks of one kind or another and will all be shown here, an unusual opportunity to catch up with the rarely seen works of a little known cinema master.
Generally regarded as one of the greatest masterpieces of the 20th century, the "Color of the Pomegranates" is a dazzling pictographic biography of the famous 18th century Armenian troubadour Sayat Nova (King of Song) revealing the poet's life more through the visualization of his poetry than a conventional narration of the events of his life. Or, one might even say that Parajanov simply used the poetry of Sayat as a launching pad to trip out on his own kind of unique cinematic poetry. However you look at it the result is a memorable film experience.
The eleventh annual installment of the Yerevan International Film Festival opened last night with a grandiose red carpet invitational gala at the Yerevan opera house and the screening of a digitally restored print of this magnificent but all too rarely seen film, a one of a kinder that resists classification. The Color of Pomegranates is in structure a metaphoric biography of the many sided prolific Armenian poet, musician, courtier, and eventually monk, Ashug Sayat-Nova, (King of Song) revealing the stages of his fantastic life visually and poetically rather than literally. The film is presented as a virtually silent movie with active tableaux depicting Sayat's life in eight chapters: Childhood, Youth, The Court of the prince, The Monastery, The Dream, Old Age, The Angel of Death and Death. There are sounds and music and occasional singing but almost no dialogue. Each chapter is indicated by a title card and framed through both the director's imagination and Sayat Nova's poems. Georgian actress Sofiko Chiaureli plays six roles in the film, both male and female.
Among other things this film celebrates the survival of Armenian culture in the face of oppression and persecution. Sayat was executed and beheaded when he refused to renounce his Armenian Christianity before conquering Persian invaders. Visually luscious with many images that are highly charged such as blood-red juice spilling from a cut pomegranate onto a cloth and forming a stain in the shape of the boundaries of the Ancient kingdom of Armenia -- dyers lifting planks of wool out of vats in the colors of the national flag, and so forth ... This film is on many critical lists of the greatest films of all time. A dazzling festival opener. Parajanov, who was a maverick Soviet film director working often in the Ukraine and Georgia was constantly hounded by the Soviet establishment, but he is a national hero here in Armenia with a museum devoted entirely to him alone. His abstract non- linear films were regarded as provocations by the Soviet censors who couldn't even understand them but assumed that they must be subversive because Parajanov himself absolutely refused to toe the party line in his private or artistic life. As a result he had to spent much time in Soviet jails which limited his total output, but all of his films are regarded as landmarks of one kind or another and will all be shown here, an unusual opportunity to catch up with the rarely seen works of a little known cinema master.