The Color of Pomegranates [Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray]

Director: Sergei Paradjanov Sergei Paradjanov

Overview

Director Sergei Paradjanov made a practice of making highly idiosyncratic films based on the folklore of regions in the former Soviet Union. In 1969 he made this film, based in part on the life of the 18th-century Armenian poet, Sayat Nova ('The King of Song'). Renowned for his writings and his religious lifestyle, Sayat Nova became a martyr when he grew too influential for the authorities to control. Seriously out of favor with Soviet governmental bureaucrats, this film was not seen in the international arena until 1977. Then, The Color of Pomegranates was widely acclaimed for its poetic and non-narrative blending of historical and biographical Armenian imagery.

Product Details

Release Date:	04/17/2018
UPC:	0715515213615
Original Release:	1969
Rating:	NR
Source:	Criterion Collection
Region Code:	A
Language:	English
Time:	1:18:00
Sales rank:	9,369

Special Features

New 4K digital restoration, undertaken by The Film Foundation's World Cinema Project in collaboration with the Cineteca di Bologna, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack; New Audio Commentary featuring critic, filmmaker, and festival programmer Tony Rayns; The Color of Armenian Land, a rarely seen 1969 documentary by Mikhail Vartanov featuring footage of Director Sergei Parajanov at work; New video essay on the film's symbols and references, featuring scholar James Steffen; New interview with Steffen on the production of the film; Documentaries from 1977 and 2003 on Armenian poet Sayat-Nova and Parajanov ; The Last Film, a 2015 experimental short documentary by Martiros M. Vartanov; New English subtitle translation ; Plus: An essay by film scholar Ian Christie

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Sophico Tchiaourelli	Poet as a Youth
Melkon Alekyan	Poet as a child,Actor
Vilen Galstyan	Poet as a child
G. Gueguetchkori	Poet as an Old Man
Spartak Bagashvili	Actor
Sofiko Chiaureli	le poète jeune,Actor
Georgiy Gegechkori	Actor
Avet Avetisyan	Actor
Medeya Dzhaparidze	Actor
Onik Minasyan	Actor
M. Aleksanian	Actor
V. Galstian	Actor
Tigran Mansuryan	Composer

Technical Credits

Sergei Paradjanov

Director

Editorial Reviews

When director Sergei Paradjanov asserts that directors are born and not made (in a documentary that appears on the DVD version of this, his acknowledged masterwork), he is clearly attempting to elevate filmmaking to the level of artistry that is enjoyed by literature -- literature such as that created by the poet Sayat Nova. In this film, Paradjanov presents Nova's life in a series of tableaux that are ravishing to look at and almost impossible to comprehend without at least a basic knowledge of the poet's work and the culture from which it sprang. Paradjanov is uninterested in conventional narrative, choosing to express the life of an artist as a poetic cycle. This can be seen as contempt for or, at best, indifference to an audience; the same might be said, for example, of Finnegan's Wake or "Le Sacre du Printemps," works whose artistic reputations far exceed their accessibility. For the uninitiated who see a glass half full of water, The Color of Pomegranates may be taken as an introduction to the life and times of Sayat Nova; for those who see the glass as half empty, the film will likely come off as a visual experience devoid of interest beyond its imagery.

All Movie Guide - Tom Wiener