Kiev of the Soviet-Era from Parajanov’s Point of View: “Kiev Frescoes”

DOI: https://doi.org/10.34680/urbis-2021-1-119-141

Tigran Simyan
Yerevan State University, Armenia
[email protected]

ORCID: 0000-0001-9534-3505

Abstract

The article analyzes Sergey Parajanov’s habitus and Parajanov’s vision of the Kiev urban space based on the film script ”Kiev frescoes”. Using the example of the screenplay and screen test “Kiev frescoes”, the article investigates the urban landscape of Kiev and presents the “spirit” of the city at the level of the objective world, everyday life, and celebration. Specifically, I argue that Sergei Parajanov, in the Newspeak of visual signs, through spatial syntagmas and segments, conveys different historical layers of Kiev. The Soviet-era and the echoes of the Second World War in the post-war years of urban space are especially emphasized. An empirical analysis of the screenplay shows that the film “Kiev Frescoes” is a continuation of the Kiev supertext of the Soviet era and is of great interest for analyzing urban space and for identifying the functions of individual city buildings, squares, sculptures, and monuments. Examination of the screenplay reveals that Parajanov was preparing to create a Soviet film thematically and a modernist one by means of visualization. An analysis of the large context of “Kiev frescoes” showed that the Soviet film establishment was unable to understand the author’s intention, representing the 20th anniversary of the Great Victory in Kiev. The screenplay “Kiev frescoes” reveals not only the psychological problems of the city’s inhabitants but also the content of their imaginary post-war Kiev. The analysis of Parajanov’s intentions in the screenplay showed that he wanted to dynamically present the ancient and new (Soviet) Kiev, the “soul” of the city thanks to the details (fresco), fragmentation, and metaphors. The spectator had to be in the creative process all the time, in dialogue with the text: to conjecture, reconstruct, understand, and recreate visual signs at the level of private and public, social. Based on the screenplay and screen tests, the author reconstructed the pre-Soviet-era of Kiev through the details of the sculpture of Prince Vladimir, hetmans (XVI–XVII centuries), and the Soviet-era through the sculpture of Nikolai Shchors, standing next to Soviet generals as spectators of the parade, as well as through boots, greatcoats, uniforms, medals, orders, stars, mass graves, the Pobeda car, German trophies (accordion in a German case). Based on the screenplay, in which various phenomena, things, and objects were mentioned, two hypernyms “profane” and “sacred” were identified, indicating different functions of objects in the urban space. In the context of the hypernym “profane”, the authors analyzed the “third place” of Soviet Kiev (cafes, circus), as well as infrastructure (tram, metro). The subject of the analysis was also the Soviet way of life (refrigerators, motorcycles with a sidecar, shopping bags) and gastronomic hyponyms (orange, Ukrainian borsch, Kiev cake). The "sacred" of the city was presented through the example of the National Museum of the Ukrainian SSR (Museum of Art named after Bogdan and Varvara Khanenko) and the Holy Dormition Kiev Caves Lavra (XI century) since these social institutions and artifacts were indicated in the script. All the above-mentioned details and phenomena in the “Kiev frescoes” functioned as “speaking” indexes-signs or image-signs, with the help of which Parajanova conveyed both the pre-Soviet and Soviet layers of Kiev.

Keywords: Kiev text, Kiev supertext, cinema language, Parajanov, “Kiev frescoes”, Soviet Ukraine, Victory Day, holiday in cinema.

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About author

Tigran S. Simyan

Dr. Sci. (Philology), Professor of the Department of Foreign Literature
Yerevan State University, Armenia
E-mail: [email protected]

For citation:
Simyan T. S. Kiev of the Soviet-Era from Parajanov’s Point of View: “Kiev Frescoes”. Urbis et Orbis. Microhistory and Semiotics of the City. 2021. 1. P. 119–141. DOI: https://doi.org/10.34680/urbis-2021-1-119-141