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Tickets will be available through the American Cinematheque website.
Hakob Hovnatanyan
Armenia, 1967
Made prior to the shooting of The Color of Pomegranates, this short documentary for the Yerevan Newsreel-Documentary Film Studio depicts the work of 19th century Tbilisi-based Armenian portrait painter Hakob Hovnatanyan. Sergei Parajanov is less concerned with a biographical precis and largely focuses on the artist’s luminous canvases which combine elements of illuminated manuscripts with European figurative art.
DCP, color, no dialogue, 9 min. Director/Screenwriter: Sergei Parajanov.
The Color of Pomegranates
Armenia, 1969
Parajanov’s best-known film signaled a major stylistic shift for the auteur. No longer interested in the weightless “emotional” camera of Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, Parajanov focuses on composing pure visual poetry. Across eight lyrical chapters, Parajanov envisions the life of 18th century Armenian poet Sayat-Nova from childhood to death through impeccably composed tableaus, trance-like pantomime and transportive music. Georgian actress Sofiko Chiaureli appears in no less than five roles, among them the young poet as well as his beloved Princess Anna. Heavily censored upon its initial release by Soviet authorities and shown in the West through bootleg copies, The Color of Pomegranates has been restored to the cut closest to Parajanov’s original vision.
DCP, color, in Armenian and Georgian with English subtitles, 78 min. Director: Sergei Parajanov. With: Sofiko Chiaureli, Melkon Alekian, Vilen Galustian, Georgi Gegechkori.
Restored by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project and the Cineteca di Bologna, in association with the National Cinema Centre of Armenia and Gosfilmofond of Russia and funded by the Material World Charitable Foundation.
