Watch The Color of Pomegranates For Free

Purely Joyful Movie!

Excellent but underrated film

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

The Color of Pomegranates looks great. Director Sergei Parajanov films textures so they pop out of the screen as much as two dimensional images can. This film's strengths are first and foremost visual. There is not much of a story in a traditional sense, nor is Parajanov interested in providing one. Whether this is a problem depends on whether the individual viewer is receptive to Parajanov's intent. The film follows the life of one man. We begin with this boy as a curious, young man in an Armenian village whose primary business involves mats (dyeing, washing, and hanging them). From there, the boy becomes a young man and joins a group of performers. The young man mimes his roles for an unseen audience. Next, our protagonist is older, in his thirties, and living in a monastery. He does much of the physical work at the monastery, but this viewer remained uncertain if the character was actually a priest. Finally, the man is older still (in his fifties), still residing at the monastery yet remaining distant from the other residents. He mostly wonders around outside, much as he did as an imaginative boy in the film's first section. This man is supposed to be an Armenian poet, but he is never shown writing. However, the film often transitions between sequences with a few poetic lines, which one assumes belong to the protagonist, it is not always clear how the verse applies to the images. That brings up back to the images. The film contains some eye popping ones. My personal favorite is in the first section, when as a boy, the protagonist climbs up to a roof to read a large book. On the roof and the adjourning slanted roofs are dozens of open books apparently drying. The image conjures up something magical about the printed word, books as sacred items. I have watched The Color of Pomegranates twice over a period of seventeen years. I have admired, and liked, it both times, yet I am still not quite converted to its greatness. I don't understand much of the film. This might be on account of my utter ignorance of Armenian history and folklore. Also, I tend to prefer my images in the context of a film with more of a narrative (Eraserhead, Orpheus, Stalker). This second reason may be why I prefer Sergei Parajanov's earlier film Shadows of Our Forgotten Ancestors to this one. Regardless, every film fan should watch The Color of Pomegranates once. I will probably return to the film again at some point. Maybe then I will find the film to be the masterpiece of cinema that I have read.

I found this incredible movie when I visited Johannesburg recently because it's impossible to find films like this in Durban. Parajanov creates a fascinating, one can say, almost an orgy of cultural detail in the highest art form. The details are what fascinated me, reminding me of Asia, perhaps with Turkish influence but also a strong Eastern European flavour. I must admit that I'm not educated about the culture of the regions in the former Russian states or countries near there. The media in South Africa hasn't shown us any of this so it was a completely new experience for me.The style Parajanov uses isn't a normal way of telling a story. It reminded me of how I used to look at old books of paintings from the East or even the Middle East. So, I have to congratulate the filmmaker on achieving something that is so rich in artistic detail, to a level I've never seen before. This got me curious to find more films by him. I found Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors and while it was a beautiful movie, it wasn't as brilliant as Sayat Nova. So, I highly recommend this film to anybody who loves art films and appreciate those from filmmakers such as Peter Greenaway. That's the closest example I can think of that has been shown on television in South Africa.

Only a poem. Delicate and soft, carpet of symbols and silence, travel in the womb of myth and a form of childhood's definition. Difficult to understand without the Caucasian civilization notions, it is fall in the respiration of an age which lives, in small dose, in everyone. A masterpiece, at first sight story of an Armenian poet, the movie is travel in the essences of usual pieces of life. Nothing forced. Nothing fake. A ritual of lost memories, sketch of a way to be more that shadow. And a beautiful invitation to discover Sayat Nova's poetry. For me is one of the movies required. As spring wind, green apple taste, warm of grandmother kitchen, lace of old feelings, morning of Chistmas eve.

When watching this movie , one has to let loose everything that applies to 'normal'cinema. Just sit , watch and undergo this excellent and magnificent piece of visual art. For me , a Westerner with no knowledge whatsoever of Armenian History/poetry the visuals are very stunning and could have come from another Galaxy for that matter... but what a beauty is presented in this stunning pallet of images ! I know nothing of the Poet who's life is supposedly depicted here , but i don't feel that as a necessity ... Truly original cinema is made here by Paradjanov... A stunning experience is presented to everyone who is able to ' let loose ' and undergo the beauty of this 80-minute wonder ! Be taken by it and be blessed when you saw it ! One of THE most impressive Movies i'v ever watched...a religious experience!