by Artsvi Bakhchinyan
YEREVAN — On January 14, in Yerevan, Svetlana Gulyan, film scholar and researcher at the Institute of Arts of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia, passed away at the age of 86. She was a notable expert in world and Armenian cinema and television, and the author of a monograph on eminent American-Armenian stage and film director Ruben Mamoulian (The Sign of Mamoulian, 2015, in Russian).
Gulyan joined her beloved husband, historian and rare specialist in Arabic countries and the Armenian Genocide, Nikolay Hovhannisyan, who passed away on April 24 of last year.
I am sharing excerpts from my interview with my esteemed colleague and friend, conducted in 2018.
Dear Svetlana, there is an opinion that art historians are those who were unsuccessful in the art field themselves. Is this true in your case?
To some extent. I really wanted to become a director! But I understood that it is very difficult for women in this profession. I also wasn’t particularly healthy. I gave up the idea of becoming a film director, but I couldn’t give up cinema. And five years after graduating from the Russian philology faculty of Yerevan State University, I sat back down on the student bench, but this time at the film studies faculty of the All-Union State Institute of Cinematography (VGIK) in Moscow.
You were the first among Armenian women film scholars and one of the first professional Armenian film scholars with a VGIK diploma. What did your education at VGIK give you?
The profession of a film scholar. For five years, students of this university not only attend lectures on the history and theory of cinema, but the lectures are accompanied by film screenings on the subject. Often, we had to watch 4-5 films a day related to cinematography, directing, the work of artists in cinema and music in cinema. Many hours were dedicated to practical sessions at the film studio.
And if you had become a director, what kind of films would you have made?
I don’t know. Different ones. I would have made detective films.
Which director do you feel is closest to you?
It’s hard to say. There are many. I love the films of Visconti and Antonioni. I love the documentary films of Artavazd Peleshyan. I try not to miss the works of Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev.
When you write about a film, how many times do you watch it?
A lot. At least three times. I almost know the film by heart by the time I write about it.
You were the first in Armenia to engage in television theory. Years ago, one of our high-ranking television officials said, “Television is not culture.”
How can that be? Television is exactly culture — the culture of communication, the culture of life, the culture of behavior.
But there is no television culture as such in Armenia.
Yes, that’s true. Unfortunately. Television is primarily about programming. In world television, there is such a profession — programmer. This is a person who knows the place of each show in the schedule. A professional programmer arranges the shows not randomly, but according to a specific law. In our television, the concept of “programming culture” is not even considered. As for the quality of the shows, I won’t even mention it. An intelligent, interesting show in Armenian television, spoken in proper language, is a rare occurrence.
I remembered the words of Wim Wenders: “Television is useless, especially if you are doing something useful. Television is a disease. I feel sick when I switch channels. That’s why I love films.”
Well! Wim Wenders is a director who is in his bones a “cinema” director. It’s no wonder he gets sick from television. But I watch TV. It’s a spectacle that has become so embedded in our daily life, in our existence, that you can’t escape it.
By the way, I don’t have a TV either, just like Wenders, like Atom Egoyan…
A lucky person! I envy my husband because he only watches those programs that are of professional interest to him. I, on the other hand, often watch things that are interesting but completely unnecessary to me. I understand that it’s bad, that I’m wasting my time. And yet, I still watch.
There is a distinction between film studies, film journalism, film criticism, film theory and film history. For you, it seems, there are no such boundaries.
No. I wrote without thinking about the genre. But what has always interested me most is the history of cinema. That’s what I delve into with pleasure. I have over 70 published articles. And they are very diverse. My very first article was published in the Yerevan Russian-language newspaper Kommunist in 1964. It was a review of a very good film by director Laert Vagharsyan, “Martiros Saryan.”
Every art historian has their so-called hero. Your hero is our common favorite, Rouben Mamoulian.
Rouben Mamoulian unintentionally became my “hero” during the process of working on a book about him. I started studying Mamoulian’s work by accident. I knew nothing about him. I only knew that he was the creator of the film “Queen Christina” and that he worked in Hollywood. When, in the early ’90s my husband and I found ourselves in the US, I didn’t know what to do with myself due to boredom. I started learning English; I attended a special English school for Mexicans, for six months. A wealthy philanthropist, Carlos Rosario, opened this school in Washington for his compatriots. I even have a diploma from that school. Once I was able to read and write in English, I became bold enough to start researching the work of Mamoulian. I watched all of his films at the Los Angeles Film Institute. I photocopied all the literature about him in three famous libraries in Washington: Adams, Jefferson and the Library of Congress. My husband was a great help to me in this. He became not only my guide and translator, but also my advisor and sponsor. By the time we returned to Yerevan, I had accumulated a huge amount of material about him, of course, in English. And I spent many years writing the book about Mamoulian, often at night.
But even after so many years of studying Mamoulian’s work, he still didn’t become one of the most significant figures in cinematography for you.
No, he didn’t. I am extremely objective when it comes to Mamoulian. He is a wonderful director. Masterfully skilled in film directing, thoroughly understanding all the nuances of creating a cinematic image, knowing how to shoot, he didn’t think at all about what to shoot. He was a pioneer in the use of artistic means of expression in cinema. Today, filmmakers around the world use techniques and methods of shooting that were first introduced by Mamoulian, without even knowing it. A simple example: Directors worldwide use the technique of film panoramas with a dolly on wheels. But none of them know that this method was invented by Mamoulian. The first director to place a camera on a dolly was Mamoulian. Initially, he placed the camera on iron rails, and later he transferred it to a dolly with wheels. Mamoulian made the camera incredibly mobile! The word “first” is often applicable to Mamoulian’s films. “He was the first to do this in cinema, to do that…” There are many such “firsts” in his work, and the most eminent was that in 1935 he shot the very first three-strip color film in the history of cinema!
You dedicated your book about Mamoulian to your husband. Our highly respected Nikolay Hovhannisyan, in turn, dedicated one of his books to you, saying that without you, “none of his books would have been written.” Such mutual appreciation is, I think, very touching. Is it difficult to be the wife of an outstanding, productive scholar?
It’s not difficult. Nikolay Hovhannisyan has a good character. My life with him has been easy, without complications. I’ve always felt very comfortable with him. I love and respect my husband deeply, and I just admire his work ethic. He is a very big, true scholar. Understanding this, I’ve always tried to create the right conditions for him to work.
Does your husband have an interest in cinema, and do you have an interest in Oriental studies?
It’s inevitable. Nikolay’s good taste showed in everything. And in cinema too. He has just started to understand its subtleties. As for me, I must say that the East didn’t exist for me at all. Nikolay Hovhannisyan made me love it. Thanks to him, I’ve been to Egypt, Syria and Israel. I fell in love with Syria. Damascus, Aleppo — such amazing cities! How painful it is to see what is happening there now! As for Oriental studies, I didn’t delve into it because I don’t know the language. Naturally, I read all his books and articles in Armenian and Russian, and I attended all his lectures both abroad and in Armenia. Of course, I learned a lot. Now, I understand Oriental studies much more than any other film scholar.
And the last question – do you have any hobbies?
I love to read. I recently discovered a wonderful writer, Narine Abgaryan. Smart, talented, with a wonderful sense of humor. I am reading her third book with great pleasure. I read slowly, to prolong the enjoyment. I adore detective stories. I know all the detective writers, the international ones. Thankfully, the computer allows me to read everything. Also, since childhood, I’ve really loved cats. Unfortunately, I don’t have one. I have a small toy cat. It’s my talisman.
And this too connects you to our beloved Mamoulian!
