The Colour of Pomegranates (Sayat Nova)
Similar to Godard’s Mépris, this film is much easier to appreciate when you understand what is happening. After reading 314’s essay about the use of colors in Le Mépris, the film became my second favorite Godard film. For Sayat Nova, you can guess quite a few metaphors (like the shell on the chest or the ‘blood’ of the pomegranates) but that is not enough to get anything in the film. When I started watching the film, I had absolutely no idea what was going on, even though I knew this was about Armenia being oppressed and it was a biopic of Sayat Nova. But it was only after I read a few articles on the internet actually explaining the film that I truly came to enjoy it. As this guy observed, such articles are quite hard to find.
Of course one may want to ask if this is the way the film should be viewed. Isn’t it enough to just take in the beautiful pictures? Well, one can certainly choose to, but I think it is much more interesting to discover and learn about the many layers the film has. Sayat Nova seems to be a fascinating character, having composed poetry in multiple languages and coming from a rich culture which has elements of Turkish, Persian and Russian culture. How can one not be fascinated by this amalgam? Another aspect is my personal interest for political meanings hidden behind poetry. In my last posting on Lee Chang-dong’s “Poetry” I claimed that I do not understand poetry (and thus most often do not like it), but I totally appreciate the point of using poetry to express a hidden meaning – forbidden love, political critique, buried feelings. In the spirit of “University of Laughs”, censorship can actually contribute to creativity and such poetry is its best example. Then, if there is an underlying meaning behind these beautifully composed shots, I definitely would want to know what these symbols and allegories mean. Just looking at the pictures is totally not enough for me and the possibility of understanding the film greatly contributes to my enjoyment of it, even if I may never actually understand it.
Speaking of beautiful pictures, Tarkovsky was a friend of Paradjanov’s. It makes a lot of sense, they both have an amazing feel for aesthetics and “Sayat Nova” is very reminiscent of “Andrei Rublev” in its theme and feel (also, the ending shot). But even more so, I see the similarity to the splendid picture compositions of Méliès. The beauty in these films is so strangely universal, you don’t even have to be into artsy films to see that. One could make a photography class about image composition with this film. I do not doubt the ‘poetic’ nature of this film for a second, and given the nature of the topic, I am doubly convinced this convoluted poetic style is exactly what the film needs – it is a biopic of a poet and the content was so controversial in Soviet Russia.
Looking past the beauty of the film, one could almost call this film propaganda for the Armenian culture. I have been wondering how the film even came to be when the filmmaker was prosecuted, it does not exactly look so cheap after all. It turns out that it was actually filmed in Armenia by Armenfilm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenfilm and can be considered an Armenian attempt to assert its nationalistic pride. If that is so, then “The Color of Pomegranates” may be the most artful and subtle piece of ‘propaganda’ ever – more than anything though, it’s an attempt to showcase and preserve a culture which is dying out, and the Armenian culture is lucky that Paradjanov did that so masterfully.
So, uh, this is a mostly boring art piece for which I have a certain personal fascination for. Its visuals are stunning and enjoyable, and I hope that they will bring out a better-looking version of it one day.