Shadows of Our Forgotten Ancestors

Parajanov's prelude to \"Color of Pomegranates\" is badly in need of a dvd release. On Martin Scorsese's top-10 films for color cinematography. An incredibly visually dynamic Ukranian folk tale, full of witches and woods, romance and raw power. A must-see.

I've never seen a film shot quite like this. The camera is always finding dramatic angles, circling and whipping around suddenly to locate a new subject. The muted color palette is quite striking. The editing is quick and dynamic. As for the story, it's not especially complex or original: a tragic love story, shades of "Romeo and Juliet". But it is moving, and the glimpses of folk culture and religious imagery are fascinating.

wow I couldve shot this better with my butt

Riotous & defiant fireworks display. For me it serves as an affirmation that raw beautiful cinema doesn't need to concede to any kind of stylistic format or intellectual/narrative restraint. This film is simply alive and gorgeous. With its highly animated sense of spontaneous creativity it really manages connect with some fleeting aspect of human experience rarely expressed in cinema so upfront. Hearing about the persecution Sergei Paradjanov fell victim to makes this film so very tragic.

Forsaking cohesive narrative structure for consistently wondrous scenes of love and magic, this film never stops reinventing itself on the go. One second you're watching a birch tree fall down on a guy from the tree's perspective, and the next a guy gets axed to death and blood runs down the screen, which suddenly turns into red-tinted wild horses in flight. It's visceral, frantic, spiritually-infused cinematic poetry, the kind of challenging, unique work that keeps me up at night for days.

Probably one of the most breakneck and delirious films I have seen in a while, this is my first Sergei Parajanov work and if this is a signifier for the rest of his filmography it is a fantastic sign for the things to come. The combination of this culture which I have not seen in other films with the hyperactive imagination, striking music and rich cinematography (you have not seen red until you have seen this) makes it a masterpiece.

The camerawork is giddyingly wonderful. The story's hardly unique, but I don't mind since it's wrapped up in such a fascinating culture. The colours, the music, everything about this is superb... except at one point you can really obviously see a cameraman's shadow. More like Shadows of Our Forgotten Cameramen.

Stunningly beautiful and unique work with a dreamlike atmosphere. I must admit I found it really hard to get into it or take much out of it, the story being somewhat uninteresting. Thankfully the visuals and music blend in such a captivating way that it was still enjoyable even if it left me unsatisfied.

Pretty uninteresting and straightforward story. Good thing then, that there are enough beautiful shots here to keep me fascinated througout the film. This one's all about the sometimes stunning cinematography.

Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors is an extremely...unique film. This film is so hard to describe, If you even wanted to know what genre it is, I would have trouble telling you. Paradjanov's style is so different from ALL other directors. This films contains absolutely amazing cinematography, I mean the camerawork is something else. It is always moving, it is very fast paced, It was just incredible. The acting and the imagery were also extremely well done. Not for everybody.

Unique, visually compelling, tragic.

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A simple yet timeless story unfolds in gorgeous motion. Flowing, breathing cinema.

This movie was like Jodorowski films. I like Carpathians shamanic origin traditions and music.

One of the strangest movies I've ever seen. That's both good and bad. I have no idea what was going on plot-wise. It has the feel of a talented amateur with tons of ideas who doesn't know how to harness them, with a different energy that makes it difficult to dislike. It's adventurous technically and with the camera, using unusual techniques to mixed results. Lightning effect toward the end is great. Recommended if you're looking for something totally different; an interesting trainwreck.

Well, this was a whole bunch of crazy but I'm here for it.

Camerawork that just feels like an utter "so it goes"

The dramatic camerawork and neverending alien theatrics in this film reminded me immediately of On The Silver Globe. I've become really interested in learning about the everyday life of ancient human cultures. While this movie is obviously an interpretation of Ukranian culture, it seems authentic. And viewing this as a millennial, it might as well be a film from another planet. It's really fascinating. I liked the music!

Escorpião

Very interesting and very unique. A fast and loose fairy tale with beautiful visuals and a whimsical feel. I wasn't into the music that much but everything else was very entertaining and made for an enthralling experience.

Parajanov uses a simple Carparthian folk tale about tragic love to create a boundary pushing work that reset all conventional co-ordinates, turning traditional slide rules to dust. Visually it's an outstanding achievement, displaying a wide array of imaginative formal strategies that always serve the story and/or build an atmosphere and are simultaneously spontaneous and precise. The jaw dropping use of color and sound completes the deeply transportive effect that's entirely singular.

Very colourful use of cinematography, editing and the way of telling the story. The baseline of the story's got a rich portrayal of Ukrainian Hutsul culture of harsh and brutal lifestyle. A different kind of Romeo and Juliet story.

ps74

the short life of an unhappy man. the ever-changing music, the fairytale-like framework, the eye-popping colour, the nutty aesthetic, everything here is truly gorgeous. yet another wonderfully unsubtle soviet film.

Jeg ble noe skuffet over denne etter å ha hypet meg opp over så lang tid. Greit nok, den var virkelig unik i sitt uttrykk, og den hadde flere svært kreative scener og en helt spinnvill kamerabruk, men alt i alt engasjerte ikke historien spesielt. Spent på om The Color of Pomegranates oppleves på samme måte.

Although my rating quip indicates 60 to be 'average' this film is anything but. It's true that the camerawork and general style is often remarkable, but I can't honestly claim to have got much more than this general technical appreciation from this film, as I found everything else about it to be pretty uninteresting.

A beautiful and inscrutable film, full of kinetic energy and earthy imagery.

Spatially (and often temporally) strange, this film was oddly stimulating, yet brought me into a world so unlike my own. The music score alone deserves my rating, it's so wonderfully varied and full of sounds I've never heard before. The story is slight, yet is executed very well, the cinematography really being a highlight of the character's inner conflicts.

The best film I saw in the past year, and one of the greatest ever.

asiri amator oyunculuklar beni cok rahatsiz etti filmde. senaryo diye bir sey yok; olay orgusu berbat; hikaye desen iki cumlelik. ha evet, yonetmen ozgun bir is cikarmis ortaya; seveni de cok gordugum kadariyla ama bana hic hitap etmedi. ne goruntulerde, ne anlatiminda bir lezzet bulabildim. muzigin, kameranin kullanimi da cok yorucu. benim "iyi film"den anladigim kesinlikle bu degil. cok garip bir film. iyyhh.

Cool camerawork; dude looks like Rob Thomas with a mustache though.

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Incredible cinematography combined with hyper filmmaking. Almost as curious as a Brakhage film. The form of this film is definitely out of conventions and deserves further discussion.

One of a kind movie regarding the way it's shot; a kinetic, colourful Carpathian bliss-out.

Sui generis filmmaking, also probably the most heavily mustachioed film I've seen.

Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors is different from any other films. Parajanov created his own genre and style: mobile camera work, dialogues substituted for songs and traditional ukrainan sayings, settings with muted colors, etc. I am not going to suggest this film to every cinema aesthete because you need to be Ukrainian, I am afraid, to gasp and get it all.

Using little dialogue, and some shaky camerawork, Parajanov conjures an old rural Carpathian story with both authenticity and condensed aestheticism. The minimalistic plot is woven into a ceaseless succession of flamboyantly spectacular images set to richly varied and painfully beautiful music. Parajanov's symbolism is always elegant, creating the mood of a fairytale rather than that of a pompous art movie. Entrancing, dazzling, and one of the most ingeniously original movies of all time.

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