Product Description

SHADOWS OF FORGOTTEN ANCESTORS (1964) Shadows is a boldly conceived and astonishingly photographed blend of enchanting mythology, hypnotic religious iconography, and pagan magic. And although its unsentimental depiction of the harsh realities of Russian regional history forced visionary director Pararadjanov into direct conflict with bureaucrats then controlling the Soviet film industry, the film became an international sensation when it was released in 1964. THE COLOR OF POMEGRANATES (1969) His baroque masterpiece was banned in the Soviet Union for its religious sentiment and nonconformity to "Socialist realism"; its director, a tirelessly outspoken campaigner for human rights, was convicted on a number of trumped-up charges and sentenced to five years of hard labor in the gulag. A wave of protest from the international film community led to his release in 1978. Aesthetically the most extreme film ever made in the U.S.S.R., Pomegranates, his hallucinatory epic account of the life of the 18th Century Armenian national poet, Sayat Nova, conveys the glory of what a cinema of high art can be like. THE LEGEND OF SURAM FORTRESS (1984) Inspired by an ancient Russian folk tale and adapted from the novella by Daniel Chongadze, this is a dazzling film by visionary director Paradjanov. As the story opens, repeated efforts by the Georgian people to construct a defensive stronghold continually fail. The building they are laboring to complete collapses, but then a fortune teller remembers an old prophecy: In order for the fortress to stand, the son of her erstwhile lover must be bricked up inside the structure alive. The young man is faced with the prospect of sacrificing himself to save his homeland. Filled with vivid and unforgettable imagery, the film is a surreal ode to the Georgian warriors throughout the ages who died for their country. ASHIK KERIB (1988) A 19th century romantic tale evocatively brought to life. Lermontov s famous fable tells of Ashik Kerib, the wandering minstrel who is trying to earn enough money to marry the girl he loves. But when the father of his beloved spurns him, Ashik is forced to roam the land for 1,001 nights. In recounting the story, Paradjanov boldly dispenses with conventional storytelling devices. Ashik Kerib is a series of glorious tableaux, exquisitely composed, choreographed and photographed. In addition, Paradjanov combines intertitles with images of early Russian artwork, which are then overlaid with a haunting blend of traditional and contemporary musical forms. Ashik Kerib was Paradjanov s last completed feature film, and it was dedicated to Andrei Tarkovsky, the director s close personal friend, who had died just two years earlier. Stylistically stunning, it is a unique and
unforgettable cinematic experience.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #56893 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-02-05
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Box set, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Surround Sound, Widescreen
• Original language: English, Russian
• Number of discs: 4
• Running time: 399 minutes

Customer Reviews

The Kandinsky of Cinema
A visual and aural treat like nothing else in cinema. Not so much four films about pre-Industrial Age folk culture as four films by someone who is part of that culture: as if an early 19th-century peasant of the Caucasus somehow got hold of a movie camera and a master class in avant-garde cinema (Vertov to Brakhage), started filming, and turned out to be a genius.

All four films are as of this writing available separately at this site, and I've reviewed them individually on their pages. I've given each a sincere five stars.

With the exception of The Color of Pomegranates, the films are all well presented on DVD. Pomegranates is, bought separately, the most expensive of the bunch, possibly because it's an acknowledged classic - The BFI placed it at number ten on its list of all-time greatest films - but all titles are exceptional creations, and buying them in the boxed format represents a bargain.

Paradjanov once defined these four films as his mature work, when he arrived at the 'people's themes' of 'ethnography, God, love and tragedy.' (He dismissed the eight films he made before this as 'garbage.') The 'ethnography' tag is an unfortunate choice of words; these four films are all drawn from the folk culture of the Caucasus, but filtered through Paradjanov's highly individual style, formed out of experimental cinema and several currents of modern art.

So it's not so much that a filmmaker is portraying a series of cultures as that Paradjanov has become the artist of those cultures, and, like any great artist, by being part of a culture ('forging the uncreated conscience of his race', as Joyce's Stephen Dedalus puts it) has redefined it.

Or, as Paradjanov puts it: 'This is the truth I've created.'