Creative use of objects as signs in cinema: an analysis of Sergei Parajanov’s Hakob Hovnatanyan
Abstract
The paper presents an analysis of Sergei Parajanov’s short film, Hakob Hovnatanyan (1967), and its significance as an example of poetic cinema within Soviet cinematography. Not only feature-length films of Parajanov, but also his short films hold an important place among his œuvre, as a multi-modal and multi-channel visualization of the past. Hakob Hovnatanyan is a prime example of poetic cinema in Soviet cinematography. A pioneer in this discourse in the Soviet Union was Andrei Tarkovsky with his film Andrei Rublev (1966). Examples of this discourse include the Parajanov’s films The Color of Pomegranates (orig. Nṙan gowynë, 1969), Arabesque on a Theme of Pirosmani (orig. Arabeskebi Pirosmanis temaze, 1985), and Etudes on Vrubel (orig. Etyudy on Vrubel, 1989), which was directed by Leonid Osyka (scriptwriter Parajanov). The paper explores Hakob Hovnatanyan as a converter of cultural memory and multimodal vehicle for the construction of the spirit of the city. While in the framework of the short film the city is presented in the open air, in the middle the interior, the everyday life, the hum of language, and the language of clothes and necklaces of Old Tbilisi, Georgia, are presented. The interior and spirit are presented not only on the visual level of paintings, carpets, and furniture (a dresser with a metronome) but also through auditory elements: sound, language, music, etc. Thus, through a multimodal visualization of the past Parajanov presents a new language of cinema (Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (orig. Tini zabutykh predkiv, 1965), The Color of Pomegranates, The Legend of Suram Fortress (orig. Ambavi suramis tsikhisa, 1985), Ashik Kerib (orig. Ashik’-keribi, 1988, first director Dodo Abashidze)).
Keyword : channels of city presentation, film language, microhistory of the city, modus of city presentation, semiotics of the city, Sergei Parajanov
How to Cite
Simyan, T. (2024). Creative use of objects as signs in cinema: an analysis of Sergei Parajanov’s Hakob Hovnatanyan. Creativity Studies, 17(2), 475–494. https://doi.org/10.3846/cs.2024.19192
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
References
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Lotman, J. (2011). The place of art among other modelling systems. Sign Systems Studies, 39(2–4), 249–270. https://doi.org/10.12697/SSS.2011.39.2-4.10
Manukyan, S. (Ed.). (1991). Izobrazitel’noe iskusstvo. Izdatel’stvo visual’nogo iskusstva.
Morris, Ch. W. (1938). Foundations of the theory of signs. In O. Neurath (Ed.-in-Chief), International encyclopedia of unified science (Vols. 1–2): Foundations of the Unity of Science. The University of Chicago Press.
Morris, Ch. W. (1971). Approaches to semiotics. Writings on the general theory of signs (Vol. 16). De Gruyter Mouton. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110810592
National Gallery of Armenia. (2011). Home. http://www.gallery.am/en/
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Parajanov, S. (2020). Pis’ma iz zony. Antares.
Parajanov, S., & Zakoyan, G. (1999). Ispoved’ Sergeja Paradzhanova, ... sobrannaja i skolazhirovannaja Gareginom Zakojanom. Kinovedcheskie zapiski, 44, 37–44.
Parajanov–Vartanov Institute. (2017). Maestro Sergei Parajanov. Parajanov–Vartanov Institute.
Peirce, Ch. S. (1931–1935). Speculative grammar: Logic as semiotics. In The collected papers of Charles Sanders Peirce (Vol. 2, pp. 219–445). Ch. Hartshorne & P. Weiss (Eds.). Harvard University Press.
Pelechian, A. (2006). Parajanovi fenomeny. Pakagits, 129(15), Article 7.
Radiovan. (2019). Neocenimyj vklad v armjanskoe izobrazitel’noe iskusstvo: dinastija Ovnatanjan. https://radiovan.fm/station/article/12140
Sidenova, R. (2016). From Pravda to Vérité: Soviet documentary film and television, 1950–1985. Yale University, United States [unpublished source].
Simyan, T. S. (2022). “Guilty of Being Free”: An intellectual vs. Soviet penal system (prison letters and drawings of Sergei Parajanov). Changing Societies and Personalities, 6(1), 197–216. https://doi.org/10.15826/csp.2022.6.1.170
Simyan, T. S. (2019a). Muzykal’noe i karnaval’noe prostranstvo Starogo Tiflisa (na primere tvorchestva Vano Khodzhabekyana, Vagarshaka Elibekyana, Agasi Aivazyana). ΠΡΑΞΗΜΑ: Problemy vizual’noi semiotiki, 2, 63–80.
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Simyan, T. S. (2019c). Staryi Tiflis v pamyati raznykh pokolenii: zhivois’, kafe, zakat goroda (na primere V. Elibekyana, A. Aivazyana). Syuzhetologiya i syuzhetografiya, 1, 256–276.
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Simyan, T. S. (2023). Problema semioticheskogo perevoda: mistifikator i “perevodchik” (na primere Sergeya Paradzhanova). Kritika i semiotika, 1, 453–468.
Simyan, T. S. (2024). Sergei Paradzhanov v poiskakh identichnosti: mezhdu samopokhoronami i refleksiei o smerti. Quaestio Rossica, 12(2), 422–435. https://doi.org/10.15826/qr.2024.2.886
Simyan, T., & Ghazaryan, G. (2020). Biologicheskii dukh Starogo Tiflisa: svatovstvo, den’gi, mezhlichnostnye otnosheniya. Idei I edealy, 12(1), 257–274. https://doi.org/10.17212/2075-0862-2020-12.1.2-257-274
Steffen, J. (2013). Wisconsin Film Studies. The cinema of Sergei Parajanov. University of Wisconsin Press.
Tajarian, Y. (2022). Ghajarakan geghankarch’akan avanduyt’neri artats’olank’y Hakob Hovnat’anyani arvestum. Banber hayagitut’yan, 1, 153–164.
Tarantino, N. (2019). Arabesques on the Pirosmani Theme [1985]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfu9KA78jI0
Tsivyan, Y. G. (1984). K metasemioticheskomu opisaniyu povestvovaniya v kinematografe. Trudy po znakovym sistemam, 17, 109–121.
Yankovskaya-Misakyan, G., & Parajanov, S. (1969). Zruyts’ Sergey P’arajanyani het (zhamanakakits’ kinoyi, “Nrran guyny” filmi, kinematografum plastik artahaytch’akanut’yan skzbunk’i motets’man masin). Ekran, 5, Article 4.
Zakoyan, G. (2013). Strasti po Akopu Ovnatanyanu. In Yu. Morozov (Ed.), Ekrannyi mir Sergeya Paradzhanova. Sbornik st. (pp. 107–115). Dukh i Litera.
Zhuravleva, V. I. (2022). Sushchnostnye aspekty kartiny mira v tvorchestve Sergeya Paradzhanova [PhD/Doctoral Thesis, Armenian National Academy of Sciences, Armenia]. https://degrees.hesc.am/sites/default/files/2022-10/Zhuravleva%201.pdf
Zvereva, T. V. (2014). Skazka, obrashchennaya v mif: Ashik-Kerib M. Lermontova v kinointerpretatsii S. Paradzhanova. Filologicheskii klass, 4(38), 32–37.
Badasyan, V. (1988). Haykakan vaveragrakan kino: verakarruts’um, tsragrer, herrankarner. Sovetakan Hayastan, 1, 20–23.
Bozulbang. (2022). Hakob Hovnatanyan – Sergei Paradjanov (1967). YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqGrfb8ZDTE
Bogosian. (2016). Intro to poetic documentary and late Socialism screening. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peCHriKTaNc
Burks, A. W. (1949). Icon, index, and symbol. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 9(4), 673–689. https://doi.org/10.2307/2103298
Campbell, C., Olteanu, A., & Kull, K. (2019). Learning and knowing as semiosis: Extending the conceptual apparatus of semiotics. Sign Systems Studies, 47(3–4), 352–381. https://doi.org/10.12697/SSS.2019.47.3-4.01
Chernyavskaya, V. E. (2022). Typographic landscape in urban space: A sociolinguistic approach. Slovo.ru: Baltijskij accent, 13(4), 71–84. https://doi.org/10.5922/2225-5346-2022-4-5
Drampyan, R. (1939). Armenian painter Hakob Hovnatanyan and Iranian influences in his art. In The Third International Congress on Iranian Art and Archeology: Reports. Izdatel’stvo Akademii nauk SSSR.
Drampyan, R. (2006). Hakob Hovnatanian: Album-Katalog. Kartinnaya galereya Armenii.
Drampyan, R. (1969). Hakob Hovnatanian: Album of reproductions. Hayastani nkarch’i tun.
Drampyan, R. (1952). The Hakob and Araton Hovnatanyan: Brothers. Hayastani nkarch’i tun.
Eikhenbaum, B. (1982). Problems of cine-stylistics. In A. Shukman (General Ed.), Russian poetics in translation. The poetics of cinema (Vol. 9, pp. 5–31). B. M. Eikhenbaum (Ed.). Kino Izdatel’stvo RSFSR.
Eikhenbaum, B. (1974). Problems of film stylistics. Screen, 15(3), 7–34. https://doi.org/10.1093/screen/15.3.7
Galstyan, S. (2014). Sergei Parajanov: Saving beauty. Cinergie: Il Cinema e le altre Arti, 3(6), 104–114.
Ginsburg, L. (1958). Armianskie hudozhniki pervoj poloviny XIX veka. Patmabanasirakan handes, 3, 106–135.
Goudge, Th. A. (1965). Pierce’s Index. Transactions of the Charles S. Pierce Society, 1(2), 52–70.
Grigoryan, L. R. (2011). Parajanov: Biography. Molodaya gvardiya.
Grigoryan, L. (1968). Sayat Nova. Banvor, 266(16), Article 4.
Khachatryan, N. A. (2006). Akop Ovnatanjan – nacional’noe dostojanie. Lraber hasarakakan gitut’yunneri, 3, 30–49.
Kiersten, J. (2014). Modalities of the long take in the era of late Socialism: Miklós Jancsó, Sergei Parajanov, Andrei Tarkovsky (1956–1986) [PhD/Doctoral Thesis, Stanford University, United States]. https://searchworks.stanford.edu/?q=889935406
Kim, O. (2018). Cinema and painting in Parajanov’s aesthetic metamorphoses. Studies in Russian and Soviet Cinema, 12(1), 19–36. https://doi.org/10.1080/17503132.2017.1415519
Kinokontsern “Mosfilm”. (2017a). Andreĭ Rublev 1 seriya (FullHD, drama, rež. Andrej Tarkovskij, 1966 g.). YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6kqlveBhVY
Kinokontsern “Mosfilm”. (2017b). Andreĭ Rublev 2 seriya (FullHD, drama, rež. Andrej Tarkovskij, 1966 g.). YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JpnrdEOAcM&t=186s
Kubat’yan, G. (2002). Ne nasytitsja oko zreniem: zametki o Paradzhanove. https://magazines.gorky.media/druzhba/2002/4/ne-nasytitsya-oko-zreniem.html
Lee, H. S. (2012). Multiculturality of Paradjanov’s works and Armenia. A Study of Modern Cinema, 14, 449–469.
Lotman, J. (1965). O probleme znachenii vo vtorichnykh modeliruyushikh sistemakh. Trudy po znakovym sistemam, 2, 22–37.
Lotman, J. (2004). Semiosfera. Semioticheskoe prostranstvo. Iskussvo SPB.
Lotman, J. (2011). The place of art among other modelling systems. Sign Systems Studies, 39(2–4), 249–270. https://doi.org/10.12697/SSS.2011.39.2-4.10
Manukyan, S. (Ed.). (1991). Izobrazitel’noe iskusstvo. Izdatel’stvo visual’nogo iskusstva.
Morris, Ch. W. (1938). Foundations of the theory of signs. In O. Neurath (Ed.-in-Chief), International encyclopedia of unified science (Vols. 1–2): Foundations of the Unity of Science. The University of Chicago Press.
Morris, Ch. W. (1971). Approaches to semiotics. Writings on the general theory of signs (Vol. 16). De Gruyter Mouton. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110810592
National Gallery of Armenia. (2011). Home. http://www.gallery.am/en/
Nersisyan, A. (2007). Akop Ovnatanyan i rannii armyanskii zhivopisnyi portret: k probleme stanovleniya armyanskogo iskusstva Novogo vremeni. In A. Asatryan (Ed.), Hakob Hovnat’anyan. Ants’um mijnadarits’ Nor Zhamanak։ gitazhoghov nvirvats tsnndyan 200-amyakin (pp. 62–66). HH GAA Arvesti instituti hratarakch’ut’yun.
Nöth, W. (1985). Handbuch der Semiotik: Vollständig neu bearbeitete und erweiterte Auflage mit 89 Abbildungen (Vol. 2). Verlag J. B. Metzler. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-476-03212-6
Ovchinnikov, V. (1995). Andrei Tarkovsky Original Soundtrack, Vol. 2: Andrei Rublev. https://music.apple.com/no/album/andrei-tarkovsky-original-soundtrack-vol-2-andrei-rublev/272823595
Parajanov, S. (2020). Pis’ma iz zony. Antares.
Parajanov, S., & Zakoyan, G. (1999). Ispoved’ Sergeja Paradzhanova, ... sobrannaja i skolazhirovannaja Gareginom Zakojanom. Kinovedcheskie zapiski, 44, 37–44.
Parajanov–Vartanov Institute. (2017). Maestro Sergei Parajanov. Parajanov–Vartanov Institute.
Peirce, Ch. S. (1931–1935). Speculative grammar: Logic as semiotics. In The collected papers of Charles Sanders Peirce (Vol. 2, pp. 219–445). Ch. Hartshorne & P. Weiss (Eds.). Harvard University Press.
Pelechian, A. (2006). Parajanovi fenomeny. Pakagits, 129(15), Article 7.
Radiovan. (2019). Neocenimyj vklad v armjanskoe izobrazitel’noe iskusstvo: dinastija Ovnatanjan. https://radiovan.fm/station/article/12140
Sidenova, R. (2016). From Pravda to Vérité: Soviet documentary film and television, 1950–1985. Yale University, United States [unpublished source].
Simyan, T. S. (2022). “Guilty of Being Free”: An intellectual vs. Soviet penal system (prison letters and drawings of Sergei Parajanov). Changing Societies and Personalities, 6(1), 197–216. https://doi.org/10.15826/csp.2022.6.1.170
Simyan, T. S. (2019a). Muzykal’noe i karnaval’noe prostranstvo Starogo Tiflisa (na primere tvorchestva Vano Khodzhabekyana, Vagarshaka Elibekyana, Agasi Aivazyana). ΠΡΑΞΗΜΑ: Problemy vizual’noi semiotiki, 2, 63–80.
Simyan, T. S. (2019b). Sergei Paradzhanov kak tekst: chelovek, gabitus, Inter’er (na materiale vizual’nykh tekstov). ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ: Problemy vizual’noi semiotiki, 3, 197–215.
Simyan, T. S. (2019c). Staryi Tiflis v pamyati raznykh pokolenii: zhivois’, kafe, zakat goroda (na primere V. Elibekyana, A. Aivazyana). Syuzhetologiya i syuzhetografiya, 1, 256–276.
Simyan, T. S. (2021). Paradzhanovskij Kiev sovetskoj jepohi: “Kievskie freski”. Urbis et Orbis: Mikroistoriya i semiotika goroda, 1, 119–141.
Simyan, T. S. (2023). Problema semioticheskogo perevoda: mistifikator i “perevodchik” (na primere Sergeya Paradzhanova). Kritika i semiotika, 1, 453–468.
Simyan, T. S. (2024). Sergei Paradzhanov v poiskakh identichnosti: mezhdu samopokhoronami i refleksiei o smerti. Quaestio Rossica, 12(2), 422–435. https://doi.org/10.15826/qr.2024.2.886
Simyan, T., & Ghazaryan, G. (2020). Biologicheskii dukh Starogo Tiflisa: svatovstvo, den’gi, mezhlichnostnye otnosheniya. Idei I edealy, 12(1), 257–274. https://doi.org/10.17212/2075-0862-2020-12.1.2-257-274
Steffen, J. (2013). Wisconsin Film Studies. The cinema of Sergei Parajanov. University of Wisconsin Press.
Tajarian, Y. (2022). Ghajarakan geghankarch’akan avanduyt’neri artats’olank’y Hakob Hovnat’anyani arvestum. Banber hayagitut’yan, 1, 153–164.
Tarantino, N. (2019). Arabesques on the Pirosmani Theme [1985]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfu9KA78jI0
Tsivyan, Y. G. (1984). K metasemioticheskomu opisaniyu povestvovaniya v kinematografe. Trudy po znakovym sistemam, 17, 109–121.
Yankovskaya-Misakyan, G., & Parajanov, S. (1969). Zruyts’ Sergey P’arajanyani het (zhamanakakits’ kinoyi, “Nrran guyny” filmi, kinematografum plastik artahaytch’akanut’yan skzbunk’i motets’man masin). Ekran, 5, Article 4.
Zakoyan, G. (2013). Strasti po Akopu Ovnatanyanu. In Yu. Morozov (Ed.), Ekrannyi mir Sergeya Paradzhanova. Sbornik st. (pp. 107–115). Dukh i Litera.
Zhuravleva, V. I. (2022). Sushchnostnye aspekty kartiny mira v tvorchestve Sergeya Paradzhanova [PhD/Doctoral Thesis, Armenian National Academy of Sciences, Armenia]. https://degrees.hesc.am/sites/default/files/2022-10/Zhuravleva%201.pdf
Zvereva, T. V. (2014). Skazka, obrashchennaya v mif: Ashik-Kerib M. Lermontova v kinointerpretatsii S. Paradzhanova. Filologicheskii klass, 4(38), 32–37.