Pirosmani (1969) (1969)
October 14, 2024 12:06 PM - Subscribe
An awe-inspiring biography of the Georgian primitive artist Nikolai Pirosmanashvíli (1862-1918), better known as Pirosmani, who struggled his whole life by selling his paintings to bars and restaurants for food and drink, and who died lonely and unknown. This is my first masterpiece from Georgia [the country of the Caucasus] which was not made by Sergei Parajanov.
Pirosmani was a self-taught, naïve Georgian painter who lived during Vincent van Gogh's time, and like him, died destitute and unappreciated by his piers, only to find prominence decades after his death. He is now considered a Georgian 'National Treasure'.
This art film [which is available for free on YouTube] is an absorbing and visually-stunning work, composed of rural tableaux and primitive folk setting, a mixture of Henri Rousseau, Gauguin, Édouard Manet, Bruegel and Jodorowsky. A sad, slow and formal composition, full of sublime pathos and simplicity.
Start at this Japanese (?) trailer (which is also how I discovered the film.)
It scores an average 4.0 on Letterboxd, and 7.7 on IMDb.
After seeing the movie, I watched an excellent explainer from a YouTube channel called 'Plan-Séquence' [which offer similar analyses about other less-known masterpieces].
It's my best film of the month so far.
(Pirosmani later was also the inspiration for a Russian pop song called 'A million roses', which apparently became a big hit in the 1980's).
Pirosmani was a self-taught, naïve Georgian painter who lived during Vincent van Gogh's time, and like him, died destitute and unappreciated by his piers, only to find prominence decades after his death. He is now considered a Georgian 'National Treasure'.
This art film [which is available for free on YouTube] is an absorbing and visually-stunning work, composed of rural tableaux and primitive folk setting, a mixture of Henri Rousseau, Gauguin, Édouard Manet, Bruegel and Jodorowsky. A sad, slow and formal composition, full of sublime pathos and simplicity.
Start at this Japanese (?) trailer (which is also how I discovered the film.)
It scores an average 4.0 on Letterboxd, and 7.7 on IMDb.
After seeing the movie, I watched an excellent explainer from a YouTube channel called 'Plan-Séquence' [which offer similar analyses about other less-known masterpieces].
It's my best film of the month so far.
(Pirosmani later was also the inspiration for a Russian pop song called 'A million roses', which apparently became a big hit in the 1980's).
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