THE COLOR OF POMEGRANATES

Besides a little Maya Deren and a little Stan Brakhage here and there, I'm really unfortunately ignorant to experimental cinema history.

Today I checked out Sergei Parajanov's 1968 classic THE COLOR OF POMEGRANATES. Did not know too much about it going in, other than the fact that it's considered a masterpiece and was banned in the Soviet Union upon its release.

I would fail miserably at attempting to summarize the film myself, so here is a summary of the "plot" from the web:

Sergei Parajanov's "Color of the Pomegranates", a biography of the Armenian ashug Sayat Nova (King of Song), reveals the poet's life more through his poetry than a conventional narration of important events in Sayat Nova's life. The movie shows the poet growing up, discovering the female forms, falling in love, entering a monastery and dying. But these incidents are depicted in the context of what are images from Sergei Parajanov's imagination and Sayat Nova's poems, poems that are seen and rarely heard. Sofiko Chiaureli plays 6 roles, both male and female, and Sergei Parajanov, works on virtually every aspect of this film, void of any dialog or camera movement.

The most interesting thing to me about the film was how elusive it's creation seems. Every scene is an elaborate spectacle of sets, costumes and physical action. And yet it was almost impossible to extract a "meaning" from each individual scene. But because everything was so meticulously choreographed, it would seem that Parajanov was not operating stream of consciousness. It'd be interesting to hear his train of thought behind each scene.

The film was shot almost entirely in these front on, medium-wide shots that aren't very "cinematic" in the classical sense. Because of that it really feels theatrical, like you're watching a stage play. Parajanov frequently lets the action on screen clear out of frame before cutting as well, which totally feels like you're watching people exit stage left/right.

I learned afterward that Art Center alumni Tarsem was heavily influenced by THE COLOR OF POMEGRANATES in the creation of his new film THE FALL. Which is a movie I was not interested in, but it is cool nevertheless as I think it's easy to see that influence.

Anyway it's definitely a dense viewing experience, but an interesting one I'd recommend.