Sergei Iosifovich Parajanov (January 9, 1924 – July 20, 1990) was a Soviet film director and screenwriter. His films are known for their poetic, non-linear and symbolic nature. Widely considered by filmmakers, film critics and film historians to be one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers of all time, he has been described as a "magician", a "master" and a "conjurer of cinematic worlds".
Parajanov was born to Armenians parents in Georgia. He studied in Russia at Moscow's Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography under the tutelage of Ukrainian filmmakers Igor Savchenko and Oleksandr Dovzhenko, and began his career as professional film director in 1954. Parajanov became increasingly disenchanted of his films as well as the state sanctioned art style of socialist realism, prominent throughout the Soviet Union. His film Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, his first major work which diverged from socialist realism, and gave him international acclaim.
Parajanov was said by Soviet authorities to be a closeted Bisexuality, which exposed him to increased legal scrutiny from Soviet authorities over his personal life, his films, and political involvement surrounding Ukrainian nationalism.
Biography
Parajanov was born to artistically inclined Armenians Iosif Parajanov and Siranush Bejanova on January 9, 1924, in Tiflis (known by
Tbilisi since 1936), Georgia, then part of the Soviet Union. Iosif was a merchant who owned an antique shop, trading jewelry and valuables. Due to the Soviet Union's ban on financial
speculation, Iosif's business was frequently subjected to arbitrary searches by authorities, who often raided his business and seized many of his valuables. Because it was impossible for his father to get his trading business legalised, a young Parajanov was often forced to swallow small jewelry pieces and defecate them once authorities withdrew from their search.
Parajanov attended a local railway college before running away to attend the Tbilisi State Conservatoire. He was later transferred to the Moscow Conservatory in 1945, where he studied alongside soprano
Nina Dorliak.
Parajanov left the conservatory to enroll at the directing department at the S. A. Gerasimov All-Russian University of Cinematography; he studied under the tutelage of directors
Igor Savchenko and Alexander Dovzhenko.
Parajanov was accused by Soviet authorities of being a closeted Bisexuality.
In 1950, Parajanov married Nigyar Kerimova, who came from a Muslim Tatars family, in Moscow. After Nigyar converted to Eastern Orthodox Christianity, she was murdered by her relatives, who disapproved of the marriage. Parajanov subsequently moved to Kiev, Ukraine, where he produced a few Russian and Ukrainian language documentaries ( Dumka, Golden Hands, Natalia Uzhvy) and a handful of narrative films: Andriesh, The Top Guy, Ukrainian Rhapsody, and Flower on the Stone. He became fluent in Ukrainian and married Svitlana Ivanivna Shcherbatiuk (1938–2020) in 1956. She gave birth to his son Suran (d. 2021) in 1958[ The wife of the legendary director Sergei Parajanov has died , Glavcom (6 June 2020)]
In a 1988 interview, he stated, "Everyone knows that I have three motherlands. I was born in Georgia, worked in Ukraine and I'm going to die in Armenia."
Break from Socialist Realism
Andrey Tarkovsky's first film,
Ivan's Childhood, had an enormous impact on Parajanov's self-discovery as a filmmaker. Later the influence became mutual, and he and Tarkovsky became close friends. Another influence was Italian filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini, whom Parajanov would later describe as "like a God" to him and a director of "majestic style".
In 1965 Parajanov abandoned socialist realism and directed the poetic
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, his first film over which he had complete creative control. It won numerous international awards and was well received by the Soviet authorities, who praised the film for "conveying the poetic quality and philosophical depth of Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky’s tale through the language of cinema," and called it "a brilliant creative success of the Dovzhenko film studio." Authorities allowed the release the film with its original Ukrainian soundtrack intact, rather than redub the dialogue into Russian for Soviet-wide release, in order to preserve its Ukrainian integrity.
[RGALI (Russian State Archive of Art and Literature), Goskino production and censorship files: f. 2944, op. 4, d. 280.] (Russian dubbing was standard practice at that time for non-Russian Soviet films when they were distributed outside the republic of origin.)
In 1969, Parajanov moved to Armenia to work on his next film; this was the first time he had visited the country and instilled in him the influence to direct Sayat Nova.[ Sergei Parajanov – Interview with Ron Holloway, 1988 ] Unlike Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, Sayat Nova was not well received by Soviet authorities, who were quick to intervene and ban the film for its allegedly inflammatory content and lack of socialist realism. Parajanov re-edited the film and renamed it The Color of Pomegranates.
Imprisonment, career hiatus, and other artistic ambitions
Since the early 1960s, Parajanov increasingly became the subject of attention by the
KGB, for a variety of political activities related to his affinity towards Ukrainian nationalism. He was an active protester following the 1965–1966 Ukrainian purge. In 1969 a report by the Committee for State Security to the Central Committee of the Ukrainian Communist party indicated their belief that Parajanov is a negative influence on his younger colleagues, as well as a key purveyor of ideologically harmful opinion. He was also deemed as someone with a desire to defect if he were to travel abroad.
In December 1973, he was arrested in Kyiv, and was accused of homosexuality, sodomy, and propagation of pornography. He was sentenced to five years in a hard labour camp.
Parajanov served four years out of his five-year sentence, and later credited his early release to the efforts made by the France Surrealist poet and novelist Louis Aragon, Aragon's wife Elsa Triolet, and the American writer John Updike.
In February 1982 Parajanov was once again arrested on charges of bribery, which happened to coincide with his return to Moscow for the premiere of a play commemorating Vladimir Vysotsky at the Taganka Theatre, he was released in less than a year, with his health seriously weakened.
Short return to cinema
In 1985, the slow thaw within the
Soviet Union spurred Parajanov to resume his passion for cinema. With the encouragement of various Georgian intellectuals, he directed the multi-award-winning film
The Legend of Suram Fortress, along with
Dodo Abashidze, based on a novella by
Daniel Chonkadze. This was his first return to cinema since
Sayat-Nova fifteen years earlier.
In 1988, Parajanov and Abashidze directed Ashik Kerib, based on a story by Mikhail Lermontov. It is the story of a wandering minstrel, set in the Azerbaijani culture. Parajanov dedicated the film to his close friend Andrei Tarkovsky and "to all the children of the world".
Death
Parajanov died of
lung cancer in
Yerevan, Armenia on July 20, 1990, aged 66. His final work,
The Confession, was left unfinished. It survives in its original negative as
, created by his close friend
Mikhail Vartanov in 1992.
Federico Fellini,
Tonino Guerra,
Francesco Rosi,
Alberto Moravia,
Giulietta Masina, Marcello Mastroianni and Bernardo Bertolucci were among those who publicly mourned his death.
They sent a
Telegraphy to Russia with the following statement: "The world of cinema has lost a magician. Parajanov’s fantasy will forever fascinate and bring joy to the people of the world…”.
Legacy
Parajanov's films are ranked among the greatest films of all time by
Sight & Sound. He won prizes at Mar del Plata Film Festival, Istanbul International Film Festival,
Nika Awards, Rotterdam International Film Festival, Sitges - Catalan International Film Festival, São Paulo International Film Festival and others. A comprehensive retrospective in the UK took place in 2010 at
BFI Southbank. The retrospective was curated by Layla Alexander-Garrett and the Parajanov specialist Elisabetta Fabrizi who commissioned a Parajanov inspired new commission in the
BFI Gallery by the contemporary artist Matt Collishaw ('Retrospectre'). A symposium was dedicated to Parajanov's work, bringing together experts to discuss and celebrate the director's contribution to cinema and art.
[Fabrizi, Elisabetta, 'The BFI Gallery Book', BFI, London, 2011.]
Parajanov was highly appreciated by Andrei Tarkovsky himself in the biographical film "Voyage in Time" ("Always with huge gratitude and pleasure I remember the films of Sergei Parajanov, which I love very much. His way of thinking, his paradoxical, poetical... ability to love beauty and the ability to be absolutely free within his own vision"). In the same film Tarkovsky stated that Parajanov is one of his favorite filmmakers.
Italian filmmaker Michelangelo Antonioni stated that “The Color of Pomegranates by Parajanov, in my opinion one of the best contemporary film directors, strikes with its perfection of beauty.” Parajanov was also admired by the American filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola. French film director Jean-Luc Godard also stated that "In the temple of cinema, there are images, light, and reality. Sergei Parajanov was the master of that temple".
Despite having many admirers of his art, his vision did not attract many followers. "Whoever tries to imitate me is lost", he reportedly said.
The Parajanov-Vartanov Institute was established in Hollywood in 2010 to study, preserve and promote the artistic legacies of Sergei Parajanov and Mikhail Vartanov.
In 2024, marking the 100th anniversary of Parajanov's birth, Ukrainian film maker Taras Tomenko made the documentary "A Sentimental Journey to the Parajanov Planet"
|title=Winners of the Audience Award at the 39th Warsaw Film Festival|website=WFF Official Website |access-date=2024-10-25
References in popular culture
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Parajanov's life story provides (quite loosely) the basis for the 2006 novel Stet by the American author James Chapman.
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Lady Gaga's video for "911" visually references The Color of Pomegranates through much of the video.
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Madonna's 1995 music video Bedtime Story restages some of the content from the movie (such as the scene of a young child lying in a fetal position on a pentagram on the floor while an adult covers it with a blanket, and another where a naked foot crushes a bunch of grapes lying on an enscribed tablet), among other artistic inspiration depicting dreams and surrealist artwork in the video.
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Without permission Nicolas Jaar released, in 2015, the album Pomegranates, intended as an alternative soundtrack for The Color of Pomegranates and was asked by the Parajanov-Vartanov Institute to cancel the performance in Los Angeles.
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The Color of Pomegranates also influenced the alternative rock group R.E.M.'s music video for "Losing My Religion".
Filmography
|
|
| 1951 | Moldavian Tale | In Russian language: Молдавская сказка
In Ukrainian: Moлдавська байка | Moldavskaya skazka
Moldavska baika | Graduate short film; lost |
| 1954 | Andriesh | In Russian: Андриеш | Andriesh | Co-directed with Yakov Bazelyan; feature-length remake of Moldavian Tale |
| 1958 | Dumka | In Ukrainian: Думка | Dumka | Documentary |
| 1958 | The First Lad (aka The Top Guy) | In Russian: Первый парень
In Ukrainian: Перший пapyбок | Pervyj paren
Pershyi parubok | |
| 1959 | Natalya Ushvij | In Russian: Наталия Ужвий | Natalia Uzhvij | Documentary |
| 1960 | Golden Hands | In Russian: Золотые руки | Zolotye ruki | Documentary |
| 1961 | Ukrainian Rhapsody | In Russian: Украинская рапсодия
In Ukrainian: Укpaїнськa рaпсодія | Ukrainskaya rapsodiya
Ukrainska rapsodiya | |
| 1962 | Flower on the Stone | In Russian: Цветок на камне
In Ukrainian: Квітка на камені | Tsvetok na kamne
Kvitka na kameni | |
| 1965 | Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors | In Ukrainian: Тіні забутих предків | Tini zabutykh predkiv | |
| 1965 | | In Ukrainian: Київські фрески
In Russian: Киевские фрески | Kyivski fresky
Kievskie freski | Banned during pre-production; 15 minutes of auditions survive |
| 1967 | Hakob Hovnatanian | In Armenian: Հակոբ Հովնաթանյան | Hakob Hovnatanyan | Short film portrait of the 19th century Armenian artist |
| 1968 | Children to Komitas | In Armenian: Երեխաներ Կոմիտասին | Yerekhaner Komitasin | Documentary for UNICEF; lost |
| 1969 | The Color of Pomegranates | In Armenian: Նռան գույնը | Nran guyne | Originally titled at Sayat-Nova |
| 1985 | The Legend of Suram Fortress | In Georgian: ამბავი სურამის ციხისა | Ambavi Suramis tsikhisa | |
| 1985 | Arabesques on the Pirosmani Theme | In Georgian: არაბესკები ფიროსმანის თემაზე
In Russian: Арабески на тему Пиросмани | Arabeskebi Pirosmanis temaze
Arabeski na temu Pirosmani | Short film portrait of the Georgian painter Niko Pirosmani |
| 1988 | Ashik Kerib | In Georgian: აშიკი ქერიბი
In Azerbaijani: Aşıq Qərib | Ashiki Keribi | |
| 1989–1990 | The Confession | In Armenian: Խոստովանանք | Khostovanank | Unfinished; original negative survives in Mikhail Vartanov's [Schneider, Steven. "501 Movie Directors" London: Cassell, 2007, ] |
Screenplays
Partially produced screenplays
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Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors ( Тіні забутих предків, 1965, co-written with Ivan Chendei, based on the novelette by Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky)
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Kyiv Frescoes ( Київські фрески, 1965)
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Sayat Nova ( Саят-Нова, 1969, original production screenplay of The Color of Pomegranates)
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The Confession ( сповідь, 1969–1989)
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Studies About Vrubel ( Этюды о Врубеле, 1989, depiction of Mikhail Vrubel's Kyiv period, co-written and directed by Leonid Osyka)
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Swan Lake: The Zone ( Лебедине озеро. Зона, 1989, filmed in 1990, directed by Yuriy Illienko, cinematographer of Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors)
Unproduced screenplays
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The Dormant Palace ( Дремлющий дворец, 1969, based on Pushkin's poem The Fountain of Bakhchisaray)
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Intermezzo (1972, based on Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky's short story)
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Icarus ( Икар, 1972)
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The Golden Edge ( Золотой обрез, 1972)
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Ara the Beautiful ( Ара Прекрасный, 1972, based on the poem by 20th century Armenian poet Nairi Zaryan about Ara the Beautiful)
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Demon ( Демон, 1972, based on Lermontov's eponymous poem)
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The Miracle of Odense ( Чудо в Оденсе, 1973, loosely based on the life and works of Hans Christian Andersen)
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David of Sasun ( Давид Сасунский, mid-1980s, based on Armenian epic poem David of Sasun)
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The Martyrdom of Shushanik ( Мученичество Шушаник, 1987, based on Georgian chronicle by Iakob Tsurtaveli)
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The Treasures of Mount Ararat ( Сокровища у горы Арарат)
Among his projects, there were also plans for adapting Longfellow's
The Song of Hiawatha,
Shakespeare's
Hamlet,
Goethe's
Faust, the Old East Slavic poem
The Tale of Igor's Campaign, but the film scripts for these were never completed.
Awards and recognition
-
There is a statue of Parajanov in Tbilisi.
-
There is a plaque on the wall of Parajanov's childhood home.
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The street where Parajanov grew up, Kote Meskhi street, was renamed Parajanov Street in 2021.
-
There is a house museum dedicated to Parajanov in Yerevan, Armenia.
-
Shevchenko National Prize (1991).
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National Legend of Ukraine (2024).
See also
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Art film
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3963 Paradzhanov
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Cinema of Armenia
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Cinema of Georgia
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Cinema of the Soviet Union
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Cinema of Ukraine
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Parajanov-Vartanov Institute
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Serhii Parajanov Museum
-
List of directors associated with art film
Notes
Bibliography
Selected bibliography of books and scholarly articles about Sergei Parajanov.
English language sources
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Dixon, Wheeler & Foster, Gwendolyn. "A Short History of Film." New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2008.
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Cook, David A. " Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors: Film as Religious Art." Post Script 3, no. 3 (1984): 16–23.
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First, Joshua. Sergei Paradjanov: Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors. London and Chicago: Itellect; University of Chicago Press, 2016.
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Jayamanne, Laleen. Poetic Cinema and the Spirit of the Gift in the Films of Pabst, Parajanov, Kubrick and Ruiz. Amsterdam University Press 2021.
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Kim, Olga. “Cinema and Painting in Parajanov’s Aesthetic Metamorphoses.” Studies in Russian & Soviet Cinema 12, no. 1 (March 2018): 19–36. doi:10.1080/17503132.2017.1415519.
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Nebesio, Bohdan. " Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors: Storytelling in the Novel and the Film." Literature/Film Quarterly 22, no. 1 (1994): 42–49.
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Oeler, Karla. "A Collective Interior Monologue: Sergei Parajanov and Eisenstein's Joyce-Inspired Vision of Cinema." The Modern Language Review 101, no. 2 (April 2006): 472–487.
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Oeler, Karla. " Nran guyne/The Colour of Pomegranates: Sergo Parajanov, USSR, 1969." In The Cinema of Russia and the Former Soviet Union, 139–148. London, England: Wallflower, 2006. Book
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Papazian, Elizabeth A. "Ethnography, Fairytale and ‘Perpetual Motion’ in Sergei Paradjanov's Ashik- Kerib." Literature/Film Quarterly 34, no. 4 (2006): 303–12.
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Paradjanov, Sergei. Seven Visions. Edited by Galia Ackerman. Translated by Guy Bennett. Los Angeles: Green Integer, 1998. ,
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Parajanov, Sergei, and Zaven Sarkisian. Parajanov Kaleidoscope: Drawings, Collages, Assemblages. Yerevan: Sergei Parajanov Museum, 2008.
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Razlogov, Kirill. “Parajanov in Prison: An Exercise in Transculturalism.” Studies in Russian & Soviet Cinema 12, no. 1 (March 2018): 37–57. doi:10.1080/17503132.2018.1422223.
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Steffen, James. The Cinema of Sergei Parajanov. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2013.
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Steffen, James, ed. Sergei Parajanov special issue. Armenian Review 47/48, nos. 3–4/1–2 (2001/2002). Double issue; publisher website
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Steffen, James. " Kyiv Frescoes: Sergei Parajanov's Unrealized Film Project." KinoKultura Special Issue 9: Ukrainian Cinema (December 2009), online. URL: KinoKultura
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Schneider, Steven Jay. "501 Movie Directors." London: Hachette/Cassell, 2007.
Foreign language sources
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Vartanov, Mikhail. "Les Cimes du Monde." Cahiers du Cinéma" no. 381, 1986 (French language)
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Bullot, Érik. Sayat Nova de Serguei Paradjanov: La face et le profil. Crisnée, Belgium: Éditions Yellow Now, 2007. (French language)
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Cazals, Patrick. Serguei Paradjanov. Paris: Cahiers du cinéma, 1993. (French language) ,
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Chernenko, Miron. Sergei Paradzhanov: Tvorcheskii portret. Moskva: "Soiuzinformkino" Goskino SSSR, 1989. (Russian language) Online version
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Grigorian, Levon. Paradzhanov. Moscow: Molodaia gvardiia, 2011. (Russian language) ,
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Grigorian, Levon. Tri tsveta odnoi strasti: Triptikh Sergeia Paradzhanova. Moscow: Kinotsentr, 1991. (Russian language)
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Kalantar, Karen. Ocherki o Paradzhanove. Yerevan: Gitutiun NAN RA, 1998. (Russian language)
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Katanian, Vasilii Vasil’evich. Paradzhanov: Tsena vechnogo prazdnika. Nizhnii Novgorod: Dekom, 2001. (Russian language)
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Liehm, Antonín J., ed. Serghiej Paradjanov: Testimonianze e documenti su l’opera e la vita. Venice: La Biennale di Venezia/Marsilio, 1977. (Italian language)
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Mechitov, Yuri. Sergei Paradzhanov: Khronika dialoga. Tbilisi: GAMS- print, 2009. (Russian language)
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Paradzhanov, Sergei. Ispoved’. Edited by Kora Tsereteli. St. Petersburg: Azbuka, 2001. (Russian language)
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Paradzhanov, Sergei, and Garegin Zakoian. Pis’ma iz zony. Yerevan: Fil’madaran, 2000. (Russian language)
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Simyan, Tigran Sergei Parajanov as a Text: Man, Habitus, and Interior (on the material of visual texts) // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics 2019, N 3, pp. 197–215
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Schneider, Steven Jay. "501 Directores de Cine." Barcelona, Spain: Grijalbo, 2008.
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Tsereteli, Kora, ed. Kollazh na fone avtoportreta: Zhizn’–igra. 2nd ed. Nizhnii Novgorod: Dekom, 2008. (Russian language)
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Vartanov, Mikhail. "Sergej Paradzanov." In "Il Cinema Delle Repubbliche Transcaucasiche Sovietiche." Venice, Italy: Marsilio Editori, 1986. (Italian language)
External links
