tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3737915053829470554.post1105954592326026027..comments2023-06-18T05:29:35.488-07:00Comments on Soviet and Post-Soviet Visions: Sergei Paradjanovgiuvivrussianfilmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11779445150205481262noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3737915053829470554.post-493239623932362262010-04-05T23:57:23.090-07:002010-04-05T23:57:23.090-07:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.Roopahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14290956329095815058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3737915053829470554.post-43038375362884232932010-03-26T08:55:35.433-07:002010-03-26T08:55:35.433-07:00Have you visited NIIK in Moscow? I recommend that ...Have you visited NIIK in Moscow? I recommend that you do so if you haven't already. They have a good library, and the staff was very friendly when I did research there. They could also give you some tips on archival research. Probably you could get permission to do some work at NIIK if you can provide institutional affiliation (where you lecture at in England) and show them some of your publications. <br /><br />The Soviet sports and media topic sounds like something worth pursuing - it would be a fascinating window into Soviet culture. Actually, "Pervyi Paren'" was the biggest box-office hit of Paradjanov's career - more so even than "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors," which was an art film and thus had a more limited audience despite its critical acclaim. The Soviet critics didn't care for "Pervyi Paren'," but it's still fun to watch.James Steffenhttp://www.jamesmsteffen.netnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3737915053829470554.post-82979416416208035242010-03-26T07:25:25.534-07:002010-03-26T07:25:25.534-07:00Thanks very much for this comment too. Your posts ...Thanks very much for this comment too. Your posts are real gems of information for me. I will definitely read the Golovskoy book when I get back to the UK as, I'm sure it will fill in a number of holes in my knowledge of that time. The Fomin book I have heard of and hope to find it this time while I'm here in Moscow. I tend to move from one area of Soviet film to the next & haven't yet settled on one area I'd like to concentrate on. I guess that's because I have got to know Soviet film here in Moscow and it was a question of being able to watch a large amount of films from different periods at Moscow's Cinema Museum (when it was running) and now and again at Ilusion which shows films that tend to have been popular classics but not necessarily always artistically significant films. <br /><br />I am hoping at some point to do some research in the archives though without as yet any major links with an academic institute I find myself concentrating on a rather more eclectic approach to Soviet film with mainly secondary material and simply try to slowly improve my general knowledge of Soviet film and Soviet culture. <br /><br />RE: anecdotal evidence about archive material I heard that some files had been declassified recently at RGASPI relating to Mezhrabpom documents- this is obviously 1920s/1930s material but I guess it is one positive sign. <br /><br />One area of study I would like to concentrate on more at one point is on several Mezhrabpom directors- specifically Barnet of whom surprisingly little seems to have been written possibly due to the fact that he left so few written documents. I know that recent scholarly articles on Barnet have been written by Evgeny Margolit but otherwise there seems to be only the Locarno retrospective booklet and the Kushnirov book to go by. An alternative line of study is a study of sports films that was suggested by a Sport and Media Professor acquaintance at Brighton University. In that connection Paradjanov's 'Pervij Paren' would most definitely be a film I'd like to find out more aboutgiuvivrussianfilmhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11779445150205481262noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3737915053829470554.post-19170354907592964252010-03-25T19:29:31.311-07:002010-03-25T19:29:31.311-07:00You're welcome!
I have no doubt that Paradja...You're welcome! <br /><br />I have no doubt that Paradjanov knew Anatoly Slesarenko, since the studio wasn't that large and all the filmmakers knew each other. They regularly commented on each others' works in the studio's Artistic Council meetings. Also, there was undoubtedly a great deal of socializing among the members of the Union of Cinematographers at the Dom Kino in each republic and at places such as the studio dining hall. <br /><br />You raise a good question about literature on the "politics" of film studios in the USSR. There isn't that much which is really systematic, as far as I can tell. Valery Golovskoy's _Behind the Soviet Screen_ is a good, if anecdotal, account of Soviet film production during that period. For film censorship during that period, I recommend V. Fomin's _Kino i vlastʹ: sovetskoe kino, 1965-1985 gody : dokumenty, svidetelʹstva, razmyshleniia_ and other, similar collections of documents published Materik. That's how I learned about the Goskino production and censorship files which I was able to access at RGALI. I'm not sure if the actual files are open to researchers any longer, since things have changed a great deal in the last few years. Generally, I'd like to find out more about the everyday culture of the film studios in the USSR and how that shaped production practices. There's still a great deal room for research in such areas, I believe.James Steffenhttp://www.jamesmsteffen.netnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3737915053829470554.post-22588747111157286512010-03-25T14:58:03.148-07:002010-03-25T14:58:03.148-07:00Thanks very much for the comment on this and my ot...Thanks very much for the comment on this and my other post. You filled me in on a lot of information about which I hadn't known. Although I had seen Paradjanov's 'Colour of Pomegranates' a number of years ago and 'Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors' more recently, I was surprised just how interesting his early films were too (I have just watched his 'First Lad' and also found some fascinating aspects to this film). I remember watching his 'Ukrainian Rhapsody' at the Moscow Museum of Cinema five or six years ago and would like a fresh look at this film too. <br />I didn't know much of the story behind the making of the film 'The Flower on the Stone' (in fact at the Symposium very little was said of the early Paradjanov) but I noticed doing a quick serach that Slesarenko worked on Taras Shevchenko (which I remember Ian Christie saying was also Paradjanov's first significant cinematic experience) so it appears that Pardjanov must have known Slesarenko. <br />It seems that Paradjanov could be deemed 'fortunate' in working at studios outside Moscow or Leningrad where I imagine the pressure would have stopped any 'Sayat Nova'-type project in its tracks much earlier. The actual 'politics' of film studios in the USSR is an interesting subject which I know very little about. I would love to know if there any good accounts (whether studio by studio or more general historical studies of the Soviet film bureaucracy in the 60s and 70s)in either English or Russian. <br />Thanks again for filling me in on some important aspects of Paradjanov films.giuvivrussianfilmhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11779445150205481262noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3737915053829470554.post-38215442718308208702010-03-24T17:44:50.455-07:002010-03-24T17:44:50.455-07:00Thanks for the account of the symposium! I wanted ...Thanks for the account of the symposium! I wanted to attend but was unable (I live in the US). <br /><br />I agree that "The Flower on the Stone" is a visually striking film, even though it's anti-religious propaganda. From what I understand, he did not shoot all the footage for it. The film's first director Anatoly Slesarenko was jailed after the lead actress Inna Burduchenko was killed in a fire during the shoot. She played the young woman whose father is head of the religious cult. Paradjanov agreed to take over the film and finish it. So the question I still have is how much of it is Paradjanov and how much is Slesarenko's<br /><br />One of the main reasons why Paradjanov was able to make "The Color of Pomegranates" was because it was about the poet Sayat-Nova, whose 250th birthday had just passed. The Soviets widely celebrated him as a symbol of internationalism and the brotherhood of the three Transcaucasian republics, since he wrote poems in Armenian, Georgian and Azeri Turkish. (Actually, the largest number of his poems are in Azeri, though his Armenian poems are usually considered the greatest artistically.) Goskino USSR supported the project on the grounds that it was supposed to educate peole about the poet; Paradjanov went in a very different direction and got in trouble for it.<br /><br />The Armenfilm studio officials allowed Paradjanov to do practically whatever he wanted during the shoot. I believe this was because they were hoping he would create an international success like "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors," which raised the profile of the Dovzhenko Film Studio in Kyiv.James Steffenhttp://www.jamesmsteffen.netnoreply@blogger.com