In the framework of “Golden Apricot” film festival, today, a meeting was held with the famous filmmaker Artavazd Peleshyan at the “Moscow” cinema. The evening was dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the renowned Armenian-born. His films “Life”, “The End”, “Seasons of the Year”, “Our Country” and “Inhabitants” were shown. The founding Director of “Golden Apricot”, Meritorious Artiste of the Republic of Armenia, renowned filmmaker Harutyun Khachatryan said that it is a great fortune to have a meeting with the maestro. The Chairman of Cinematographer’s Union of Armenia Ruben Gevorgyants Ruben awarded Peleshyan with the “Knight of the Golden Cross” award, and film critic, writer, president of Film Academy David Muradyan presented “Anahit” on behalf of the Academy. “Words are always helpless when you deal with Artavazd Peleshyan’s movie. His film does not let us our country feel small. Peleshyan spreads our country all over the world, making Armenia to the world, and the world to Armenia … We are grateful to Peleshyan for living his life and creating his film century,”- said Mr. Mouradyan. Then Artavazd Peleshyan films were shown, and at the end of each film the hall was exploded with applause, the master was getting up of his place and greeting the audience.
Silent, but by every word endowed with the power of aphorism Peleshyan agreed to answer the questions of those present, he talked about his movies, and the difficulties of creating them. He was surprised at the question of “In your opinion, what is a national film?”. “What do you mean by saying national film, in my opinion, it is the same as you ask are you an Armenian?” As for the absence of the words in the films in general, the master said that there are no words in his case, because using a word requires that much length of the image. According to his formulation, the words used to the point are certainly important, but they enchain while creating the image. In the beginning of the talk, Peleshyan said the films that he had shot when young are constantly shown. “At the time I was young, I had curly hair, but no comb and now I have a comb but no hair.” And to the observation that every time when watching his films new things are discovered, Peleshyan answered,- “No matter how absurd it may seem, I’m cutting not only the present, but also the absent images … The film is constructed, but half of the film is missing, but due to editing, music and image the missing part subconsciously becomes present.” Speaking about the film Pietro Marcello’s “The Silence of Pelesjan”, the master of the film said smiling,- “It is Marcello’s silence and not Peleshyan’s. Such title requires explanation while the film director, taking my example, has remained silent.”
Gohar HAKOBYAN
