Finally, a few words about Aristakisyan. I mean, I overcome my reserve, I give in to the blogging way, of talking about Artur Aristakisyan, about Ladoni, about Palms, about a certain hallucination, a certain dream, a kind of metaphor, of politics, of movie or film or dream or idea or everything alltogether, about Aristakisyan, of the fringes, about fringes, of certain mirrors shown to certain authorities, of confrontation, about confrontation.
A film or documentary, a poetic mirage, an anarchic offering, a messianic message? To the roots of cinema, pure cinema or to another illusion? To make a statement of rhetorical intent ( all statements ending in a full stop are rhetorical and most are banal), to persuade through image and dream and memory, to innovate and to suffer through that innovation.
A film or documentary, a poetic mirage, an anarchic offering, a messianic message? To the roots of cinema, pure cinema or to another illusion? To make a statement of rhetorical intent ( all statements ending in a full stop are rhetorical and most are banal), to persuade through image and dream and memory, to innovate and to suffer through that innovation.
Ladoni is the movie to end all movies. That is a statement of extreme rhetoric. But are not all images and all odours in any movie constructs? Then we have beggars here, no actors and why should this seem like an invasion, as some think of Ladoni? For to portray those at the fringes, that needs a relaying of reality, and here we have the tortured bodies themselves, in all their muted isolation, their silence, their reticent terror. The beggars who populate this movie, the 'reality' that is shown is actually 'real', for these people lie outside the known networks of our social realities, outside the thin ice of our anarchic lives.
Ladoni says that everyone is blind, the blind boy begging in a blind world from blind people. That is confronatation? Aristakisyan addresses his unborn son. What can you see, achieve? Go into the world, outside the mechanisms of power, go beg. Don't say a word, words are meaningless. There is no escape, no saviour in the end. What you see is the beginning and the end, the terminal is forever. The bodies and the beggars, the litter and the waste are forever. There is no crisis. There are many stories within Ladoni, many terrors. "This is a dangerous film", says Aristakisyan.
3 comments:
thank you for this, you have convinced me, i will certainly try to find this film, though it won't be easy, i think. and while searching for more information about the director, i found another interesting blog entry on the same topic, which touches perhaps silimar points as yours:
http://filmislove.blogspot.com/2008/03/palms-aristakisyan-1993.html
though the styles are very different, yours being a highly poetic one (which reminds me of Schlegel's statement: "A critical judgment which is not itself a work of art has no citizen's rights in the realm of art").
Hi Roxana
You must try watching this 'movie. i saw it nearly 6 months ago and have seen it twice of late. i did not want to describe what 'happens' here but just recollect what i remember of the images.
there are a few other interesting reviews of Ladoni and you can find some clips too. There is an interview with Aristakisyan on you tube.Aristakisyan is a great artist. some call him different, dangerous. that is to subvert his work. Aristakisyan obviously is the most subversive.
Hi! I was pretty stroke in the face and mind by this movie - though I would
consider it more similar to a philosophical
poem by image-words. I am looking for the full text in russian Since I think words play a key role leading through images to what is to be seen beyond both of these means of representation. May you help finding it? I could only get the english version which Second Run kindly provided in the booklet. Kindly but forgetful of the imprtance of the words chosen as for rythm-sound-resonance (I understand some russian and some passages sounded beautifully built by the elegance of bare simple language). Thank you!
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