"Take me away - and you will go far"

In the AIARTUN Armenian Cultural Center, a film festival was opened in Tbilisi in honor of the 90th anniversary of the famous Armenian-Georgian director Sergei Parajanov. As part of the festival, there is an exhibition of photographs from the archive of Yuri Machitov, a mining engineer by education, a personal photographer, friend and associate of Parajanov - in the last 11 years of the artist’s life they practically did not part

Sergey Parajanov. Photo by Yuri Mechitov

How did you meet Sergey Parajanov?

This was in 1978, a year after his release from prison (Parajanov was convicted of 5 years on charges of sodistiness with the use of violence. - The New Times). Then I myself began to engage in cinema, and they told me that I needed to see Parajanov. But then I did not even know his films and did not see. There was no cassettes, no disks, nor the Internet then. I should just believe that he was a genius, and this was not difficult.

Ordinary genius

How do geniuses behave?

Geniuses are unpredictable, they are sometimes absurd, they have tremendous energy. They are extravagant.

And you understood this from the very beginning of your acquaintance?

No, during our acquaintance I thought I was a genius. I showed him my film, and he, by the way, liked him. It turned out that quite by accident, the heroine of my film, created in the style of Cinema-Attor, was his teacher of the Russian language. And this was a good moment for our acquaintance. And I began to go to him, he attracted people to him, he had a strong field. But at the same time he sucked blood. I think that he will not reduce his honor if I say that he is also “vampire”. After all, a person then just left after the prison and he probably had problems with energy. Our acquaintance lasted 11 years until his death.

You wrote a book about Parajanov. And not one.

Yes, all this is described in my book “Sergey Parajanov. Chronicle of dialogue ". Now in Istanbul, I just printed the abbreviated version of this book in three languages. This is a photographic version. Not just the confession of a person who knew him closely, but the confession of the photographer, who managed to remove him.

Yuri Mechitov - photographer and author of books about Parajanov

Your work with him was that you documented him in photography?

It so happened that I became his freelance biographer. Look, even such great personalities as Fellini, Antonioni, did not have a man who would shoot them every day. There is no such book as my “chronicle of dialogue”.

Is it true that he himself told you that you will be famous for these photos?

Yes, he said: "Take me away - and you will go far." Indeed, I went far, I was with my exhibitions twice in America alone, not to mention the "small" countries like England or Germany (laughs). But the funniest: now I say the same thing to my students: “To become famous, you must shoot the great. And in order not to walk, start with me. ” This is, of course, joking.

From dry leaves

How did the years of imprisonment affect his work?

There, no one would allow him to do filmmake. But he made a maximum of what he could do. He wrote stunning “letters from the zone”, which then became his book, he had a fantastic syllable. He painted a lot, he painted playing cards, he made our Margarita Pirosmani from dry leaves.

What was your relationship with him?

Complex. I met him when I was still zero in art. And that year he came to him as a real student. Then I made my first photographic exhibition. In those days, he could tell me a lot in art, which I did not know and did not hear. Then I realized that he needed a person who was more enchanted into his eyes. I understood this, when I created with friends a photo exhibition in the style of Andergund, these were portraits in a neo -realistic Italian style. But the beloved by Sergey Glamor was not there. But I still thought that he would praise me, be delighted, but he shouted: “Mechitov thinks that he is Parajanov! And Parajanov is me! " Apparently, he realized that I had some complaints about the art, and was offended. And because of this, I did not work in his second film ...

What is its genius?

She is not only that he created brilliant films. He was a brilliant person, humanity. There are many miserable people who have done something in art, they realized their complexes there. But Sergey had other motives. The most important: he deified the beauty. This was the only god to whom he was ready to serve. And he was very worried when someone did not understand this. Therefore, his whole task was that others also understand that it was beautiful. He had life energy very serious. And this energy, by the way, is always sexy. And all our religions are fighting this. And Sergey's happiness is that he was not religious. Here Tarkovsky, whom Parajanov, by the way, considered it very talented, but not brilliant (he was joking that this was not enough unconventional orientation and zone) - was tied hand and foot. Tarkovsky was not a human being.

In communication with him, one could understand who he considered himself: Georgian, Armenian, Soviet man?

He did not exchange such things. I don’t want to compare myself with Sergo now, but I also can’t find such a “cage” for myself. For me, a Georgian, Armenian and even Russian cage is very small.

Parajanov Museum

What did Tbilisi mean for Parajanov?

Tbilisi is the basis of its foundations, he came out of here. Parajanov could be born only in Tbilisi, Tbilisi created it. In another city, Parajanov could not have been. It’s just that now you will hardly find Tbilisi that Sergey at birth went. He was born in the theater Tbilisi, where the theater spilled out into the street. He was born in an Italian court, where everything was turned outward, where his father had a little brothel in the yard, and his mother cursed with his father because of this, but nevertheless put up with this because he earned money on it ...

This photo of Mechitov became legendary. A sketch of the monument to Parajanov, who is now standing in the old Tbilisi, was made from him

Did Parajanov's legacy in Georgia appreciated in Georgia? After all, the Parajanov museum is not in Tbilisi yet.

We are a strange country, we cannot evaluate ourselves, and we have a bad relationship with history. We are non -amicritical, we do not have the artistic process that could appreciate Parajanov. And the museum is not and will not be. It would have nothing to store in it (Parajanov’s museum is already in Armenia. - The New Times). It's like making a Museum of Shota Rustaveli. You can create a maximum of a memorial room. But I think that Tbilisi should create a cultural center. Sergei Parajanov, where you could see the paintings about him and his paintings. By the way, the quantity of the film about him is growing every year. There are already about eighty films. Last year, a feature film was released about him, shot by the Ukrainian Olen Fetisova and Sergei Avidikyan, a Frenchman of Armenian origin, who plays an acting role there.

You even introduced a new term - “Parajanization”. What does it mean?

By this term, I understand jokes, mockery, mockery, parody, playing. All in one. By the way, in my book this term is in three languages ​​- Russian, English and French.

What place does Parajanov occupy in world art?

He has seriously ensured this place. But the problem is that a new generation is coming now, which can no longer evaluate anything of this. Because what is happening in world art is an absolute disaster. Parajanov was the most striking representative of postmodernism. Now we have a postmodernism post. I compare this with a bottle of Tkemali sauce, where Tkemali ended, only on the bottom remained. So, we pour into a bottle of water, and I drink this water, for example, with the same pleasure with which I eat Tkemali. But then nothing can be poured there, the taste is over ...

The New Times previously published an interview with Serge Aediken about Sergey Parajanov and the film about him