The Color of Pomegranates [Sayat Nova] ***** (1969, Sofiko Chiaureli, Melkon Alekyan, Vilen Galstyan) – Classic Movie Review 8113

Russian director Sergei Parajanov’s 1969 world cinema classic The Colour of Pomegranates [Sayat Nova] [Tsvet Granata] is his finest hour, an unforgettable feast of colour-drenched tableaux showing the spiritual growth of a boy into manhood.

Parajanov’s surreal and stylised abstract art film is a painterly evocation of rural life in 18th-century Armenia as seen through the eyes of the peasant boy who grows up to be the Medieval Armenian troubadour poet Sayat Nova (King of Song).

The sensitive use of tone and composition has to be seen, and the slow, mesmeric pace helps to create a seemingly timeless feel, which makes this
non-narrative poetic film quite unlike any other movie.

Sofiko Chiaureli plays Poet as a Youth / Poet’s Love / Poet’s Muse / Mime / and Angel of Resurrection. Melkon Alekyan plays Poet as a child, Vilen Galstyan plays Poet in the cloister, Gogi Gegechkori plays Poet as an old man, Spartak Bagashvili plays Poet’s father, Medea Japaridze plays Poet’s mother and Onik Minasyan plays Prince.

Sergei Parajanov’s dialogue-free screenplay is based on the poems by Sayat Nova. It runs 79 minutes and 72 minutes in the Commercial Cut.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8113

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