num_pages: 326
description: Sergei Parajanov (192490) flouted the rules of both filmmaking and society in the Soviet Union and paid a heavy personal price. An ethnic Armenian in the multicultural atmosphere of Tbilisi Georgia he was one of the most innovative directors of postwar Soviet cinema. Parajanov succeeded in creating a small but marvelous body of work whose style embraces such diverse influences as folk art medieval miniature painting early cinema Russian and European art films surrealism and Armenian Georgian and Ukrainian cultural motifs. The Cinema of Sergei Parajanov is the first English-language book on the director's films and the most comprehensive study of his work. James Steffen provides a detailed overview of Parajanov's artistic career: his identity as an Armenian in Georgia and its impact on his aesthetics; his early films in Ukraine; his international breakthrough in 1964 with Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors; his challenging 1969 masterpiece The Color of Pomegranates which was reedited against his wishes; his unrealized projects in the 1970s; and his eventual return to international prominence in the mid-to-late 1980s with The Legend of the Surami Fortress and Ashik-Kerib. Steffen also provides a rare behind-the-scenes view of the Soviet film censorship process and tells the dramatic story of Parajanov's conflicts with the authorities culminating in his 197377 arrest and imprisonment on charges related to homosexuality. Ultimately the figure of Parajanov offers a fascinating case study in the complicated dynamics of power nationality politics ethnicity sexuality and culture in the republics of the former Soviet Union.
language: English
title: The Cinema of Sergei Parajanov
publisher: The University of Wisconsin Press