Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors - Film Impressions

director Sergei Paradjanov, 1964

This is going to be a short review, because describing this film is a rather futile gesture. Besides Paradjanov’s other films, there’s nothing out there that is quite like Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors. Right from its opening shot; a travelling shot in the snow as a boy calls for his brother, the viewer is subject to an incomparably feverish tone. The film is, ostensibly, a folk tale or a fairy tale; a story of star-crossed lovers in the Ukraine struggling against their families and the very forces of life itself...though its visualization (and “auralisation”?) of the Hutsul people of Carpathiais not only believably textured, but rendered with such vividness and vitality, imbuing the tough lives of these people; people to whom death comes often, with unparalleled beauty.

“Vivid” fails to describe this film. Shot almost completely in the Carpathian mountains, it depicts a simple people; sheepherders and woodsmen ekeing out a meager living in conditions so timeless yet ancient that the sudden appearance of muskets, about halfway into the film, is the only thing to clue us in to its occurrence some time in the last thousand years. It’s a simple story and there are no real thrills, but Paradjanov’s camera seems to be a soaring eagle for most of the film. The eye of the hand-held camera is constantly flying, pulsing, and wandering; constantly from one image to the next either by motion or by montage, and its still vibrant and seething when it isn’t...always celebrating life and existence, making this ancient fable feel not only timeless, but making the film itself feel ahead of our (not its, but our own) time. The film has some of the most frenzies montage in cinema, and often times we see fleeting images of trees or mountains in place of the faces of those who are speaking.

Paradjanov isn’t content to give us mere exotica; it’s a film of flesh and earth and boundless energy, and use of special effects is almost entirely limited to blazes of stylized colour done in camera. When it comes to the use of color in the film, using superlatives is an equally impotent gesture. Aside from making up the faces of the actors and perhaps an embellishment of costume colors (and there are periods where the people in the film put on celebratory costumes), all of the film’s vibrant images are taken directly and without manipulation from the bosom of nature. From the winter seasons, to the gorgeous spring, to the many embodiments of fire, water, the earth and the wind. Paradjanov was notably influenced by Andrei Tarkovsky (who had only made one feature at this time; so he was really influenced by Ivan’s Childhood); but the many shots of rain or water drenching the hair of the characters are among the only real visible links. It’s a film of its own power, and the passion and pain of Ivanko and Marichka seem to be bleeding right into the frame.

Along with Paradjanov’s three other features, there are precious fews films in cinema that can boast . Of course, there are films that have tried...Yeelen has a similarly otherworldly yet earthy spirit, and the Czech film Valerie and Her Week of Wonders boasts exquisite color and a similarly feverish style. Marketa Lazarova, a personal favorite, is similarly stylized; though its narrative far more complex. The Iranian film Gabbeh by Mohsen Makhmalbaf is notedly influenced by it, and is an admirable emulation of the film; though Makmmahlbaf’s film is (admirably) cultural and political in nature. Of course, some of Michael Powell’s films have moments of breathtaking lushness that match it, and I’m sure Werner Herzog must have been inspired, in part, by similar muses. But Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors is, from start to finish, a matchless feast for the visual senses; a narrative film that feels completely unbound to the chains of narrative cinema, and one of a handful of films that I would call absolutely perfect. It is not so much for one seeking a puzzle or a work of intellectual rigot, but for people who like explosions. Not of dynamite or nuclear weapons but of primary colors, of life, of nature.

100


Available on DVD from Kino in the states. Unfortunately, the disc is non-progressive, and taken from an unconverted PAL source. When you get past those limitations, it’s a gorgeous presentation of the film. The extras on the disc include a featurette entitled “Songs”, which I really don’t remember, and an awkward but illuminating documentary on the relationship between Tarkovsky and Paradjanov. Limitations aside, its an essential purchase for now. A Blu-ray would be sublime; I can think of few films which would benefit more.