MANY ART LOVERS ENJOY UNSEEN FRAMES OF SERGEY PARAJANOV’S
"COLOR OF POMEGRANATES" AT YEREVAN STATE PICTURE GALLERY
AZG Armenian Daily #140, 27/07/2006
Culture
The unseen working materials of Sergey Parajanov’s "The Colour of
Pomegranates" were shown to a large number of art lovers, today. "The
manuscripts do not burn. The same thing concerns the films," Levon
Grigorian, film director, author of the film, said this at today’s
film session at the State Picture Gallery of Armenia. The new film
comprises of the unseen working materials of Parajanov’s film that
excluded by the Soviet censors. The famous film by Parajanov had quite
a tragic fate. The script to the film was approved in 1966, but later,
the CC of the Communist party accused Parajanov of the existence of
many mystical and erotic scenes in the film. The edited version of film
was given the IV category, which meant that the film crew were totally
deprived of their emoluments. The film was renamed from "Sayat Nova"
into "The Coulor of Pomegranates" and was issued in five copies. The
original version of the film existed for only 20 days, while the frames
excluded by the censors were considered lost till 1995. Only then
L.Grigorian learnt that a part of the working materials on the film
is kept in Armenia. "This is a genuine miracle! Till now I don’t know
who I shall be grateful to for that," Grigorian said, explaining that
he found the lost frames quite accidentally. The film by Girgorian
lasts 26 minutes and consists of 6 stories based on the original
script by Parajanov. After the film session. Grigorian said that he
is currently working on the next film based on the same materials.
By Melania Badalian