Subject: Sergei Parajanov Thu Sep 17, 2009 1:59 am
Sergei Parajanov (Armenian: Սարգիս Հովսեփի Փարաջանյան, Sargis Hovsepi Parajanyan; Georgian: სერგეი (სერგო) ფარაჯანოვი; Ukrainian: Сергій Йосипович Параджанов, Serhiy Yosypovych Paradzhanov; Russian: Сергей Иосифович Параджанов, Sergey Iosifovich Paradzhanov) (January 9, 1924 — July 20, 1990) was a Soviet Armenian film director and artist, widely regarded as one of the 20th century's greatest masters of cinema.
He invented his own unparalleled cinematic style. His oeuvre is extremely poetic, artistic and visionary and is acclaimed worldwide. But as it was highly unfit with the principal rules of socialist realism (the only sanctioned art style in the USSR) and his controversial stance and escapades to boot, cinema authorities regularly denied him permission to make films.
Although he started professional film-making in 1954, Parajanov later disowned all of his pre-1964 works as "garbage". After directing Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (renamed Wild Horses of Fire for most foreign distributions) Parajanov had become something of an international celebrity and simultaneously a target of attacks from the system. Nearly all of his film projects and plans from 1965-1973 got banned, scrapped or closed by the Soviet film administration, both local (in Kiev and Yerevan) and federal (infamous Goskino), almost without discussion until he was finally arrested in late 1973 on trumped-up charges of rape, homosexuality and bribery. Parajanov was imprisoned until 1977, despite a plethora of pleas for pardon from various esteemed artists.
Even after his release (he was yet to be arrested for the third and last time in 1982) he was a persona non grata in Soviet cinema. It was not until the mid-1980's, when the political climate started to supple, that he could resume directing. Still, it required the help of influential Georgian actor David Abashidze and other friends to have his last feature films green-lighted.
Subject: Sergei Parajanov 
Thu Sep 17, 2009 1:59 am
