43 of 43 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A lavishly beautiful film-poem, May 12, 2000
This review is from: The Color of Pomegranates [VHS] (VHS Tape)
Sergei Paradjanov's THE COLOR OF POMEGRANATES (1969) is easily among the most remarkable films produced in the former Soviet Union. Every conceivable aspect of filmmaking-mise-en-scene, color, editing, acting, music and sound effects, settings and costumes-is exploited to create a sensuous and dense film-poem. The film's tragic vision is balanced by the director's quirky sense of humor, which comes through in his editing (objects playfully appear and vanish as if by magic, reminding one of Méliès' trick films) and the childlike wonder through which the world is depicted.
The film is not a literal biography of its subject, Sayat-Nova (ca. 1712-1795), but an attempt to evoke the "inner world" of the poet and the environment in which he lived. Sayat-Nova was born in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia (which has traditionally contained a sizable Armenian population). The film evokes popularly accepted notions about his life, adding imaginative details of its own along the way. Born Harutiun Sayadian ("Sayat-Nova" is a pen-name supposedly meaning "King of Song"), he was raised by a family of Armenian carpet weavers in Tbilisi. As a young man, he made his mark as an "ashugh," a kind of troubadour poet peculiar to the Transcaucasus. He wrote in the three main languages of the region: Armenian, Georgian and Azerbaijani. Appointed court poet by King Irakli II, he was eventually banished, as legend has it, for falling in love with the Princess Anna. He then retired to the Haghpat monastery in northern Armenia before reputedly dying during the sack of Tbilisi in 1795.
The visual style of the film is influenced by Armenian medieval miniatures and the 19th-century Tbilisi folk painters Pirosmani (something of an artistic saint in Georgia) and Hakob Hovnatanian (a fellow Tbilisi Armenian, like Paradjanov and Sayat-Nova). In a drastic stylistic break with the director's previous film, SHADOWS OF FORGOTTEN ANCESTORS (1964), the camera rarely moves; rather, Paradjanov creates precisely composed tableaus in which his characters stand motionless or perform ritualized pantomimes. Paradjanov himself was a gifted artist, creating hundreds of collages and sketches, most of which are on display at the Sergei Paradjanov Museum in Yerevan .
Like Fellini, Paradjanov had a talent for finding remarkable faces to populate his films. Most notable among them is the popular Georgian actress Sophiko Chiaureli, who played several roles, including: both the young poet and his beloved the Princess Anna, the "Nun in White Lace," and the "Poet's Muse." She is ravishingly beautiful both as a male and female, mesmerizing in a wordless performance that relies entirely on stylized gestures and facial expressions.
Although the film is renowned for its unique imagery, the soundtrack is equally stunning. Fragments of poems and songs by Sayat-Nova are interwoven with Armenian and Georgian traditional music and sound effects to create a dense audio montage. Paradjanov, it should be noted, studied music before entering film school. Also significant is the rich display of material culture of the Transcaucasian region, including carpets and fabrics, metalwork, and religious relics. Ancient Georgian, Armenian and Azerbaijani works of architecture are used as settings, most notably the Haghpat monastery in the second half of the film
The film and its director have had a rocky history. Upon its release in Armenia, the film was refused distribution in the rest of the Soviet Union until it was trimmed of several minutes, re-edited and given new Russian intertitles. (The videotape, fortunately, contains the original "director's cut.") In 1973, as part of a political campaign against intellectuals in Ukraine-where the director had previously worked and where his wife and son still lived-Paradjanov was arrested and charged with various crimes. Convicted of homosexuality, he was sentenced to several years of prison in Dnipropetrovsk, a camp of "severe regime." A bootleg copy of the film was screened at various film festivals and a campaign was launched in the West to have him released from prison. Its supporters included film scholar Herbert Marshall, a group of French film directors and John Updike. After four years in prison, he was released thanks to international pressure. He was not able to make another feature until THE LEGEND OF SURAM FORTRESS (1984). He passed away due to lung cancer in 1990.
Kino's video transfer is identical to the version previously released by Connoisseur Video. The picture is "windowboxed," meaning that there are black edges around all four sides of the image to present as much of the original image as possible, since transferring films to video usually involves cropping a bit of the sides. The colors are somewhat faded-prints I've seen of the Russian version have richer color, as does the Japanese videotape. This may be due to the condition of the print used. However, it's acceptable for now and if anything, Kino's tape looks slightly sharper than the old Connoisseur tape due to better quality duplication.
Included on the tape is a delightful 10-minute short, "Hakob Hovnatanian" (circa 1967) based on the 19th century Tbilisi-Armenian portrait painter. Paradjanov made this short while working on POMEGRANATES. Through details in the paintings themselves as well as costumes, architcture, etc., Paradjanov evokes the colorful atmosphere of old Tbilisi.
To be sure, this film is not for everyone. Some will be completely baffled, others bored. However, there is no question that Paradjanov is a true original. Although some will prefer SHADOWS OF FORGOTTEN ANCESTORS (1964), which has a stronger storyline and dazzling camera movements, I feel that THE COLOR OF POMEGRANATES is his masterpiece. Along with Tarkovsky, Paradjanov was the greatest Soviet director of the post-WWII era.
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