Martiros Vartanov
Directing
Biography
When Tarkovsky inscribed and sent his child's drawing to the imprisoned Paradjanov, who annotated and forwarded it to the blacklisted Vartanov for his son Martiros — Boy With A Movie Camera — he became their disciple. His first film, The Last Film, dedicated to them, was released by Criterion. A graduate of UCLA, he was a juror and a curator at festivals in Los Angeles, Busan, and DOC LA, and worked on the restoration of the masterpiece The Color of Pomegranates selected for Festival de Cannes
Known For
The life of the revered 18th-century Armenian poet and musician Sayat-Nova. Portraying events in the life of the artist from childhood up to his death, the movie addresses in particular his relationships with women, including his muse. The production tells Sayat-Nova's dramatic story by using both his poems and largely still camerawork, creating a work hailed as revolutionary by Mikhail Vartanov.
The Color of Pomegranates
Made in wartime and edited in candlelight, Vartanov's rarely-seen masterpiece tells about his friendship with the genius Parajanov who was imprisoned by KGB "at the height of his fame ". Vartanov resurrects the riveting scenes from his banned 1969 film The Color of Armenian Land, where Paradjanov concocts the chef-d'oeuvre The Color of Pomegranates - widely regarded as one of the greatest films of all time - then reveals the shocking request Parajanov sent him in unpublished 1974 letters from Ukrainian prisons. Vartanov's camera documents Parajanov's staggering last day at work in 1990 during the making of the unfinished Confession - which survives in The Last Spring - as Parajanov comments on this cherished autobiographical film. The foremost achievement of The Last Spring, emphasized by critics, is Vartanov's exquisite wordless montage that "evoked the very soul" of Parajanov and earned the praise of many of cinema's greatest masters, such as Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola.
Parajanov: The Last Spring
A film about a film where a film was made, but the lead actress vanished from celluloid.