Word: paradjanov
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Dates: during 1980-1980
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There the matter has rested for the past half a century, and the hands of the Soviet film industry's "editors" (censors) can be heavy indeed. The two men who by international critical consensus are the heirs of Soviet film greatness-Andrei Tarkovsky and Sergei Paradjanov -have been harassed, cajoled and officially criticized. Tarkovsky, best known for the chilling sci-fi parable Solaris (1972), recently was named "People's Artist of the U.S.S.R.," but the film bureaucracy has refused to fund some of his projects, delayed the release of others or exhibited them for only a few weeks...
...Paradjanov's more cautious colleagues have referred to him as "kind of mad." It may be equally delirious for Westerners to demand of today's Soviet film makers that they bring to their craft the passionate recklessness of their predecessors. Revolutionary fervor, like first love, passes quickly; in the long run, any marriage of art and the state demands fidelity and fealty. Official Soviet cinema is settling into middle age with all the virtues of a Chekhovian "good wife": it is handsome, thoughtful, often charming and, above all, discreet about the master's excesses and failings...
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