Parajanov Triptych (With post-screening lecture)
About the screening
Three shorts, made in Armenia, Ukraine and Georgia, underlie the transnational aspect of Parajanov’s filmmaking identity. Hakob Hovnatanyan is a wordless documentary portrait of an Armenian portrait painter, dubbed the ‘Raphael of Tiflis’, while Arabesques on the Theme of Pirosmani presents a tableaux inspired by the famous Georgian naïve painter. A bricolage of screen tests from a film that was unmade, Kyiv Frescoes reveals Parajanov’s poetics in embryonic form.
This screening will be preceded by an introduction by Daniel Bird, followed by a post-screening lecture and Q&A session. More information about the talk can be found below.
About the speaker
Daniel Bird worked with the World Cinema Project on restorations of The Colour of Pomegranates and Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors. He produced Parajanov Triptych, and devised Temple of Cinema #1: Sayat Nova Outtakes. You Are Fire is a live performance developed from the installation Temple of Cinema #1: Sayat Nova Outtakes.
About the short films
Hakob Hovnatanyan (1967)
4K RESTORATION
Original Title: Հակոբ Հովնաթանյան
Director: Sergei Parajanov
Runtime: 10 mins
Country: Soviet Union
Language: Armenian with English Subtitles
Rating: G
Synopsis
A poetic short film about the work of the leading Tbilisi Armenian portraitist of the 19th century. Sergei Parajanov’s impressionistic film was commissioned to revive the culture and colour of the city of Tbilisi at that time.
Kyiv Frescoes (1966)
4K RESTORATION
Original Title: Киевские фрески
Director: Sergei Parajanov
Runtime: 14 mins
Country: Soviet Union
Language: No dialogue
Rating: M18
Synopsis
Parajanov’s distinct tableaux style can first be found in this short film, consisting of a bricolage of film tests that hints at a longer feature film that was eventually aborted due to state oppression. Eschewing clear narrative and embracing experimentation, Kyiv Frescoes is an innovative attempt at capturing the life in Kyiv and the legacy of World War II.
Arabesques on the Theme of Pirosmani (1985)
4K RESTORATION
Original Title: არაბესკები ფიროსმანის თემაზე
Director: Sergei Parajanov
Runtime: 19 min
Country: Soviet Union
Language: No dialogue
Rating: PG
Synopsis
Often seen as a companion piece to Hakob Hovnatanyan, this short documentary focuses on the works of celebrated Georgian naif painter, Niko Pirosmani (1862-1918), through the unique lens of Parajanov’s distinctive vision.
Post-film Lecture: Parajanov’s Poetics
Parajanov’s cinema is one of invented rituals, the creation of myths and surrealistic dreams, woven into the everyday of Soviet life in Ukraine and the South Caucasus.
Born to Armenian parents in Tbilisi, Georgia, educated in Moscow, Russia, and employed primarily in Kyiv, Ukraine, Parajanov’s work brought out the cultural diversity of what were once considered borderlands.
Drawing inspiration from genres in painting, Parajanov favoured the poetic over the prosaic, and, in art and life. He favoured, both figuratively and literally, a direct means of expression that brought him into conflict with the Soviet authorities, resulting in his imprisonment for much of the 1970s.
Like his Italian contemporary, Pier-Paolo Pasolini, Parajanov battled against modernity, exalting folk traditions, revelling in the spiritual, even if, like Pasolini, he was never a believer himself.
Andrei Tarkovsky championed Parajanov both as an artist and as a victim of political suppression, and like Tarkovsky, Parajanov’s influence has transcended cinema.
In his mature work, beginning with Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, Parajanov made contributions in film montage. Outside of film, he excelled at collage and bricolage, making works on paper and assemblage that were thought to bear parallels with Western avant-garde traditions.
This talk examines Parajanov’s major contribution to cinema through his poetics, which were facilitated by an approach towards film composition.
This film is part of the programme Retrospective: Sergei Parajanov. For more screenings, please click here.
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