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The Colour of Pomigrantes
Sergei Parajanov  1969
 
 

     This avant-garde film by Russian director Sergei Parajanov in 1969, is a poetic story about the life of the Armenian poet and musician, Sayat Nova, and it is based on the writings from the 18th century.

       Style of melodramatic poetry is characteristic of that time and literature is strongly tied with Orthodox church theology.

Life is seen as a constant struggle and the soul resides in the place of constant struggle between earthly and heavenly life.

In a series of scenes and precisely composed frames, the static camera shoots a loosely connected series or surreal, poetic images that tell the life story of the poet.

Young poet growing up , the poet's love, a nun with white lace, the angel who has risen from the dead and the mime. The director uses several other players to convey the various stages of the poet's life, and involves them in a series of rhythmic, symbolic scenes. As a boy, for instance, the poet is seen crouched awkwardly on a bed, as his parents throw blankets to cover him. He appears surrounded by open books, their pages flapping in the wind very noisily. He watches a priest sacrifice a chicken. He stares at a woman whose left breast is covered by a seashell.

There are constant references to the church, and more frequent glimpses of angels wearing black or white wings as the poet grows older and approaches death.

The story may be a simple one, but it certainly was not presented as a model of simplicity and imagery. It is full of imagination, beautiful colours and theatrically staged scenes.

Like religious icons come to life, Paradzhanov’s images are filled with old symbols of religious poetry.

The Colour of Pomegranates is a mixture of styles and ideas, both archaic and modernist and visually a stunning film.

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