Pirosmani (film)

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Movie
German title Pirosmani
Original title Pirosmani (Пиросмани)
Country of production USSR ( Georgia )
original language Georgian
Publishing year 1969
length 85 minutes
Rod
Director Giorgi Schengelaia
script Erlom Achwledijani
Georgi Schengelaia
production Grusija film
music Vakhtang Kuchijanidze
camera Konstantin Aprjatin
Alexander Rechwijaschwili
occupation

Pirosmani (Original Title: Pirosmani), ( Пиросмани , Pirosmani) is a Soviet feature film that was shot in Georgia in 1969 under the direction of Giorgi Schengelaia . Like Schengelaja's directorial debut, the documentary film Niko Pirosmanishvili from 1961, this film is also about the life of the Georgian naive painter Niko Pirosmani (1862–1918).

action

Nikolos Pirosmanaschwili, also known as Niko or Nikola Pirosmani, says goodbye to two wealthy women with whom he lives and who promised his mother to look after him before she died. He is a restless ghost and has to go to the city because he can no longer stand it in the country. So he comes to Tbilisi .

Years later, two artists on their way to Tbilisi by carriage stop at a restaurant and discover a painting with a giraffe in the taproom. The landlord explains to them that this was created by Nikola, the painter, and that he has several more to hang in his apartment, which the two guests can also see. This makes them curious about the painter of naive pictures, whose story is told below.

After Nikola got a foothold in the city with various activities, he convinced a friend to open a dairy shop with him. This is located on a lonely mountain, and there is not necessarily a lively influx of customers. One day Nikos sister comes to visit with her husband, who both live as farmers in a village, and want to convince him to finally get married. They already had a bride for him. That is why he visits the village, the residents of which have organized a big festival to show the bride. But he doesn't like the bride and he takes flight back to his business. Here he confesses to his partner that he is not suitable for the grocer himself and chases the partner out of the store. Then he gives away all the goods and sells two self-painted pictures that hang for advertising next to the entrance door. The two artists who think his pictures are so beautiful have now arrived in Tbilisi looking for the painter, but no one knows where he is.

Nikola now makes a living painting pictures. In all the bars in the city there are some that he makes for a meal, for a bed or for drinks, because he is usually too proud to take money for them. He refuses the offer of a landlord to hire him as a servant with salary, accommodation and all rights on the grounds that he cannot live tied up. So he continues to do business lettering and other tasks below his level, which often also exploits and humiliates him. But now the two artists who ensure that his works are better known have also found him. There is even a reception at the city administration and the declaration of intent to build a museum for his paintings.

Since he is now well-known, there are also people who want to make a mockery of him because of his naive painting. There are many who say that Pirosmani cannot paint properly. A world is collapsing for him. He also loses many of his supporters who, however, sell the pictures he once gave them for a lot of money. Now Niko lives in a shed under a staircase, without any furnishings. One day one of the two artists who had already been looking for him came and brought him a small sum of money from his colleagues. He should use it to buy paint and material so that he can paint again, because only that can build him up. When that doesn't help, friends lock him up in a room that has everything he needs to paint. He also manages to complete a large picture, but doesn't want any thanks, instead he goes back to his crate under the stairs to want to die there. However, since it is Easter, he is picked up again by his friends for the celebrations in a carriage.

Production and publication

The film premiered on May 15, 1972 under the title Pirosmani in Moscow . Like all Georgian films , Pirosmani was shot in the Georgian language and then dubbed in Russian for the other Soviet republics . The Georgian version was performed in Tbilisi as early as 1969 .

In the GDR , the film was shown to have been shown from October 10, 1972 in the Berlin OTL (Oranienburger Tor Lichtspiele) cinema as part of the Camera Studio cinema program . It was broadcast on the second channel on East German television on November 24, 1972. The film was shown in normal cinemas from November 15, 1974. In the Federal Republic of Germany , the film ran on television on February 19, 1973 on ARD .

criticism

In her review of the Neue Zeit , Margit Voss said:

“The viewer feels the connection between art and life in a way that could not be imagined more originally. And he becomes familiar with the essence of a people belonging to the great family of Soviet peoples. "

The Berliner Zeitung read:

"It is one of the most beautiful and impressive Soviet films that we have seen in recent years."

In New Germany Horst Knietzsch wrote :

“Georgi Schengelaja doesn't just tell the story of this painter in his film, he shows us people, landscapes and things as Pirosmani could have seen them. Film is a school of observation; it wants to open our eyes and teach us to be amazed. It's not just about the beauty, the well-balanced tranquility of a landscape, the harmonious grouping of people at a table, but also about a critical look at human relationships. "

The lexicon of international films writes that the atmospherically dense, humanly committed biography of the artist, who was misunderstood during his lifetime, is designed as a careful search for clues.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Berliner Zeitung , October 6, 1972, p. 10
  2. ↑ Neue Zeit , November 24, 1972, p. 6
  3. ↑ Neue Zeit , November 29, 1972, p. 4
  4. ↑ Berliner Zeitung , November 16, 1974, p. 6
  5. ↑ Neues Deutschland , January 2, 1975, p. 4
  6. ↑ Pirosmani. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed October 18, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used