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The Cinema of Sergei Parajanov
Sergei Parajanov (1924–90) flouted the rules of both filmmaking and society in the Soviet Union and paid a heavy personal price. An ethnic Armenian in the multicultural atmosphere of Tbilisi, Georgia, he was one of the most innovative directors of postwar Soviet cinema. Parajanov succeeded in creating a small but marvelous body of work whose style embraces such diverse influences as folk art, medieval miniature painting, early cinema, Russian and European art films, surrealism, and Armenian, Georgian, and Ukrainian cultural motifs. The Cinema of Sergei Parajanov is the first English-language book on the director's films and the most comprehensive study of his work. James Steffen provides a detailed overview of Parajanov's artistic career: his identity as an Armenian in Georgia and its impact on his aesthetics; his early films in Ukraine; his international breakthrough in 1964 with Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors; his challenging 1969 masterpiece, The Color of Pomegranates, which was reedited against his wishes; his unrealized projects in the 1970s; and his eventual return to international prominence in the mid-to-late 1980s with The Legend of the Surami Fortress and Ashik-Kerib. Steffen also provides a rare, behind-the-scenes view of the Soviet film censorship process and tells the dramatic story of Parajanov's conflicts with the authorities, culminating in his 1973–77 arrest and imprisonment on charges related to homosexuality. Ultimately, the figure of Parajanov offers a fascinating case study in the complicated dynamics of power, nationality, politics, ethnicity, sexuality, and culture in the republics of the former Soviet Union.
eBook
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors
Judging solely by the films Parajanov had made so far, no one could have predicted what would happen when he was given his next assignment. At the urging of Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky’s daughter, the Dovzhenko Film Studio agreed to produce an adaptation of the Ukrainian writer’s masterpiece Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors to commemorate the centenary of his birth. Renata Korol, a member of the studio’s Script-Editorial Board, gave the project to Ivan Chendei, who accepted it and agreed to postpone adapting his own novel, The Bridge.¹ As a noted writer from the Transcarpathian region of Western Ukraine, Chendei was uniquely suited
Book Chapter
Internal Exile
As new details continue to emerge about Parajanov’s 1973 arrest, it has become clear that the Ukrainian KGB, both on its own and likely under direction from Moscow, played the main role. According to one report by the Ukrainian KGB, Parajanov had fallen under scrutiny by the agency since 1962 due to “his meetings and correspondence with foreigners from capitalist countries.”¹ Vitaly Nikitchenko, the chair of the KGB in Ukraine, sent a report dated April 4, 1969, to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine about problems at the Dovzhenko Film Studio. This report detailed numerous complaints by
Book Chapter
Silent Years
During this period Parajanov wrote some of his most significant scripts, among them The Demon (Demon), Confession (Ispoved’), and The Slumbering Palace (Dremliushchiidvorets). Three projects Intermezzo, Inga, and A Miracle in Odense (Chudo v Odense went into preproduction. He was unable to realize them because of conflicts with the authorities that came to a head with his December 1973 arrest and subsequent imprisonment on politically motivated charges of homosexuality. This chapter describes the most significant projects undertaken during this period and their place within his work as a whole. It also offers a detailed account of his increasing conflicts with
Book Chapter
An Artist’s Origins
The story of Parajanov necessarily begins with Tbilisi, also known historically as Tiflis. The city’s rich history and lore laid the foundations for his eclectic artistic sensibility and his outlook on life. Nestled in a picturesque valley of the Mtkvari (or Kura) River, Tbilisi is divided by a steep gorge. Although the region has a long history of human settlement, the city proper was established in the late fifth century by the Georgian king Vakhtang I (Vakhtang Gorgasali), who according to legend was attracted to the hot sulfur springs in the area. (In Georgian, tbili means “warm.”) Already by the
Book Chapter
The Color of Pomegranates
However exotic Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors must have seemed to Soviet viewers when it was first released, it nonetheless represented a clear synthesis of three major stylistic paths in Soviet cinema: Kalatozov and Urusevsky’s virtuoso camerawork, Dovzhenko’s poetic tableau imagery, and Tarkovsky’s surreal dream sequences. As an adaptation of Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky’s novella, Shadows also used a relatively straightforward, folklore-based narrative to anchor its visual flights of fancy.
The Color of Pomegranates (Tsvet granata, Armenfilm 1969) in contrast, seduces us with ravishingly composed tableaux that are often startling and cryptic, in effect throwing down a gauntlet before the viewer. It is
Book Chapter
Epilogue
Parajanov’s experimental film language and challenging, at times subversive, subject matter place him squarely within the global art film tradition. The question of his influence within the countries of the former Soviet Union remains complicated. Younger Soviet filmmakers such as Roman Balaian (Ukraine), Artavazd Peleshian and Mikhail Vartanov (Armenia), and Rustam Khamdamov (Russia) were undoubtedly influenced by their friendship with Parajanov, though they have retained distinct stylistic identities. Another of Parajanov’s close friends, the Odessa-based Kira Muratova, has acknowledged that he served as a source of inspiration for what she calls “ornamentalism” (dekorativnost’) in her visual style, starting with her
Book Chapter
Kyiv Frescoes
Kyiv Frescoes (Kievskie freski, Dovzhenko Film Studio 1965–1966), the aborted project that Parajanov had planned as his follow-up to Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, represented a major turning point in his career. It marks the first systematic articulation of his mature tableau style associated with The Color of Pomegranates, but it is also of great interest for its unusual perspective on contemporary life in Kyiv. Work on Kyiv Frescoes lasted a little over one year, from late 1964 or early 1965 to early 1966. Although Parajanov never received approval to begin shooting it due to conflicts with the authorities, he
Book Chapter
The Legend of the Surami Fortress
In late November 1982, only weeks after Parajanov’s release from jail, Rezo Chkheidze, the head of the Georgia Film Studio, offered him the opportunity to direct a new film: The Legend of the Surami Fortress (Legenda Suramskoi kreposti, Georgia Film Studio 1984), based on a script by Vazha Gigashvili. The proposal came with the support of Eduard Shevardnadze, the first secretary of the Communist Party of Georgia.¹ Together with the production of Tengiz Abuladze’s television film Repentance (Pokaianie, Georgia Film Studio 1984, released 1986), this gesture marked the beginnings of glasnost in Georgia and in the Soviet Union as a
Book Chapter