Pomegranate & Mirror Mirror Mirror & Pomegranate Mirror & Pomegranate Works from the private archives of Andrey Tarkovsky and Sergei Parajanov three Flying Parajanov. (ca.1960s) Introduction Photo by Yuri Mechitov Meeting A New Cast Member. Beauty Henrietta Foster Photo by Layla Alexander-Garratt Andrey Tarkovsky is considered by many to be one of the greatest filmmakers the world has ever seen. Although he made just eight feature films before his life was cut tragically short by cancer, at the age of 54, each is an artistic masterpiece and a major landmark in world cinema. This exhibi- tion will present a portfolio of Polaroids produced in association with the Florence- based Tarkovsky Foundation archive, which is maintained by the filmmaker’s son Andrey Tarkovsky. Taken in Russia and in Italy between 1979-1984, ranging from romantic landscapes and studied portraits to private shots of the auteur’s family and friends – including late distinguished script- writer Tonino Guerra – all the photographs demonstrate the singular compositional and visual-poetic ability of this master image-maker. Many of the Polaroids that were created in Russia complement and extend the personal imagery of the film Mirror (1974). Equally rewarding cross-fertilization is apparent in the images that were taken in Italy while he was travelling with Tonino Guerra and preparing Nostalgia (1983). Indeed, from when Michelangelo Antonioni first gave Tarkovsky the Polaroid camera as a gift, in the 1970s, it rarely left his side. This show pairs Tarkovsky’s Polaroids and projected scenes from his movies with photo collages and other works by Sergei Parajanov, on loan from the Parajanov Museum in Yerevan, Armenia, founded in 1988 when Parajanov moved there from Tbilisi, Georgia. Sergei Parajanov is one of the most daring and visionary directors to emerge from the former Soviet Union. Legends such as Fellini, Antonioni and Tarkovsky crowned Parajanov with titles like “genius”, “magician” and “a master”. His unique, explosive cinematic language has no analogies in the world. In spite of his international acclaim, four five Parajanov with Tarkovsky. 1982 Photo by Yuri Mechitov Tarkovsky on Parajanov Zaven Sargsyan Two geniuses of Soviet film were bound with tender friendship. It’s really remarkable how highly they both were valued by their colleagues and film specialists in the West and what bouts of animosity and hostility they had to experience at home from cinema bureaucracy and their loyal and servile colleagues. I want to quote what Parajanov said about Tarkovsky when talking to young artists and scientists in Belorussia in December 1971. This talk cost him dearly and was in fact the reason of his first arrest and imprisonment. “I was shocked by the art of Andrzhei Wajda and could never think that I could become his mentor. In the same way I found a mentor in a very young and hugely talented director Andrey Tarkovsky. He himself is probably not quite aware what a work of genius his Ivan’s Childhood was and what incredible heritage he revealed to be plundered and his thinking to be copied and imitated on the way towards associative cinema”. Parajanov was a constant target for the Soviet system. No other director suffered such a This is a good evidence how tenderly the two geniuses treated each other, sharing fate as Parajanov; he was arrested twice on fabricated charges and as a result he spent their love and admiration without any embarrassment. five years in hard labour camps. After his release he wasn’t allowed to work for fifteen V. Katanyan in his book on Parajanov gave a very accurate assessment of Parajanov years. Deprived of the opportunity to make films, he dedicated his life to making collages, made by Tarkovsky: “He’s not doing collages, dolls, hats, drawings or anything else that can drawings and other art forms. Parajanov won countless awards, including the British be termed as design. No, it’s something else. It’s so much more full of talent and divinity. Academy Award for his film Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors. It’s real art. What is its beauty? In immediacy and directness. When an idea is born he’s Andrey Tarkovsky wrote about Sergei Parajanov: not planning, constructing or contemplating a way to make it better. For him there’s no gap “He makes collages, dolls, hats, drawings, or something that you may call ‘design.’ between the concept and its realisation, so he doesn’t lose anything. Emotion that was there There is much more to it, though: it is infinitely more talented and noble; it is real art. What at the outset reaches the final product in its pristine purity, immediacy, naiveté, without any is the secret of its beauty? The spontaneity. When an idea strikes him, he does not engage in single drop of it being spilled. That’s how it was in his film The Colour of Pomegranates. I’m planning, arranging, or estimating how to do it in the best possible way. There is no differ- not even talking about his independence and non-engagement. For us all he’s completely ence between an idea and its implementation; there is no time to lose anything between unreachable. We’re not capable of what he does. We’re just employees”. the cracks. The emotion that triggered creation turns into something finite without a single In one of the letters from prison to his wife Svetlana Parajanov writes that time would drop spilled. It gets through in its original pureness, spontaneity, and naiveté.” put everything in perspective. It looks like this time has finally come. The great friendship of Tarkovsky and Parajanov began in early 1970s, when they Translated by Alexander Kan met in Kiev (Ukraine) not long before Parajanov was imprisoned. They regarded each other as geniuses. When Parajanov was arrested, Tarkovsky along with many of his great contemporaries such as Lilya Brik, Federico Fellini, Vasily Katanyan, Vasily Shikshin, Yuri Lubimov, Kira Muratova and many others wrote letters to him and to the Soviet authorities. Tarkovsky wrote often to Parajanov; he also send him his own collages in exchange to the ones Parajanov made for him in prison. six seven Tarkovsky’s Letters to Parajanov Translated by Alexander Kan 18.10.1974 1153 Dear Seriozha, You’re right. Vasya’s1 death is just a link in that common chain that keeps us together. We all here love you very much, miss you and are waiting for you to come back. How’s your health? Are you able to get the books that you want? Please let me know (when you have a chance) whether there is anything I can do for you. Things in Moscow are same as ever. It’s taken them more than half a year to approve of my “Mirror” but at last it now looks that the film might be signed off one of these days. I’m really tired of all this senseless bureaucratic hassle. I will go the countryside on the Oka for the entire winter. You’re probably aware of what kind of shock your story caused in Moscow. How strange: to love and value each other, we usually wait for an extraordinary cataclysm, as a permission to do so. Right they say: “there is no prophet in his own land”! The only thing that gives me hope is your courage that is bound to save you. You’re a man of an incredible talent (that’s to put it mildly). And people of talent are usually strong. Let the best in your soul strengthen and help you now. Larisa says hello and Galia Shabanova sends her greetings. Hugs, Your friend Andrey Tarkovsky. 1. Vasily Shukshin (1929-1974) – writer, director, actor eight nine Moscow 22.1.1976 1155 26.3.75 1154 Moscow Dear Seriozha, Dear Seriozha, I haven’t written to you for a while, bearing in mind the possible change of your postal I’m really sorry – I haven’t written to you in a long while and I know it’s unforgivable. For address. (Mine, by the way, has also changed. See the envelope) more than six months I lived in the country with Larisa and Andriushka. I was getting I recently saw G.Kalatozov2 who had received your letter and found out that things ready for the “Hamlet” production that I will be staging at the Lenkom Theatre (Mark are the same with him. Zakharov) and was also writing a script on Hoffmann for Tallinn. (These days nobody I’m again without work. I submitted an application for “The Idiot” after Dostoevsky. really knows how to stage Hoffmann or what he really means). Nobody could stage him It’s been a few months now but there’s no movement whatsoever. All they say is “no”, better than Sergei Parajanov. and “don’t know”. “Mirror” was printed in a meagre number of copies and it’ll probably In the countryside I was mostly busy with the construction of a new barn. I managed be screened only very marginally. I hope I’ll manage to stage “Hamlet” in one of the to build a wonderful barn, 40 sq. metres, with an overhang and the slated roof. Unfortu- theatres. I feel it like a pressing urge. nately no pictures so far to send you. About a month ago I was in Tbilisi for a screening of “Mirror” and saw a lot of our We had a wonderful time there and I started feeling that I could probably live without friends. Of course we talked a lot about you. I also went with my wife to Leningrad and the God forsaken and long-abandoned art of cinema.