Another Water, Another Script: The Outtakes for "The Color of Pomegranates".

• Type of Material: Book Chapter
• Authors: James Steffen, Emory University
• Language: English
• Date: 2025
• Publisher: Sergey Parajanov Museum
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: © 2025 Sergei Parajanov Museum
• License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Parajanov 100: A Journey Through Time and Culture. International Conference, 10-12.09.2024. Edited by Levon Abrahamyan.
• ISBN: 9789939121871
• Start Page: 13
• End Page: 28
• Place of Publication or Presentation: Yerevan, Yerevan, Armenia
• Keywords: genetic criticism; outtakes; Sergei Parajanov; production history; The Color of Pomegranates; censorship
• Subject - Topics: Sayatʻ-Nova (Motion picture); Paradzhanov, Sergeĭ, 1924-1990
• Research Categories: Film studies

Abstract

This essay describes an ongoing project to catalog, and analyze the surviving outtakes for The Color of Pomegranates (Նռան գույնը, 1969), using the film’s shooting script as a guide. The footage is held in the National Archives of Armenia, and digital scanning was completed in the fall of 2023. The footage includes outtakes, screen tests, title cards, and other miscellaneous production footage. Using genetic criticism as a methodology and the outtakes and shooting script as primary source documents, the essay sheds light on the film’s production history, its circuitous creative evolution, and Parajanov’s unusual working methods as a film director. The unused footage demonstrates that Parajanov frequently experimented with different visual approaches to the same scenes, though he often selected more simplified and austere versions for his preferred takes instead of the more decorative versions, and he opted for a more uniform overall look to the film. The footage also suggests that in some episodes he may have considered a self-reflexive approach that pointed to the present day and to his own presence as the film’s author. The role of censorship in his choice to discard certain shots is somewhat ambiguous. On the one hand, some of the discarded material contains nudity and sexually suggestive content that Parajanov or the authorities likely felt could not be retained in the film. On the other hand, much of that footage was part of longer episodes which he trimmed down considerably in the finished film. Ultimately, the outtakes suggest that the film underwent a deliberate movement toward brevity and poetic economy.