Metaphorical Codes of S. Parajanov’s Movie Text “Sayat Nova” (1969)

Abstract

The article under studies deals with theoretical and practical discourse of the issue of cinema metaphor. It emphasizes that certain investigations of the issue are carried out in terms of theory, in the aspect of typology of cinema metaphors. The article also analyzes the ways of their creation and their impact on the recipient; in the cases of moving to the practical plane, particular attention is drawn to the analysis of either individual cinema metaphors or to the peculiarities of cinema metaphors of individual authors. The film “Sayat Nova” (“The Color of Pomegranates”) has been considered in the above aspect. The author of the article distinguishes a few detailed cinema metaphors that most clearly demonstrate the deep receptive potential of visual reading of this movie text. The key metaphorical codes in this case are wine, pomegranate, water, book, ladder, ritual, sheep, dream, vision, thread, lace, and poet. Particular emphasis has been laid on the fact that the he author's methods of creating cinema metaphors are polymorphic in their nature. Some of them contain a deeply conceptual, symbolic meaning, which is formed due to the context and can be expanded because of additional connotations arising during the perception of “cinema metaphors”. Others are formed as a result of a montage combination of two or more frames, through the use of purely cinematic means (for instance, shooting angle, close-up, sound, color) or involvement of viewer’s receptive experience in the course of perception.