Directing
Martiros Vartanov
Known for
Directing
Credits
2 titles
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
5.1Made 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- widely regarded as one of the greatest films of all time - then reveals the shocking request Parajanov sent him in unpublished 1974 letters from Ukrainian prisons.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
1992
8.5A film about a film where a film was made, but the lead actress vanished from celluloid.
The Last Film
2014
Behind the camera
5.1Made 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- widely regarded as one of the greatest films of all time - then reveals the shocking request Parajanov sent him in unpublished 1974 letters from Ukrainian prisons.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
1992
8.5A film about a film where a film was made, but the lead actress vanished from celluloid.
The Last Film
2014