Otar Iosseliani

[Kirkinson]

Otar Iosseliani / ოთარ იოსელიანი (1934-present)



"What you're filming, if you're attentive, will itself suggest how it should be filmed, and then the very environment will enter the screen, with all the dimensions of truth which it brings to your narrative."


FILMOGRAPHY

Akvarel (1958) Cinema Prestige (R0)

Sapovnela (1959) Cinema Prestige (R0)

April / Aprili / Avril (1961) Facets / Blaq Out (R0) Blaq Out (R0/R2) Cinema Prestige (R0)

Cast Iron / Tudzhi / La Fonte (1964) Blaq Out (extra on Lundi matin (R2) Cinema Prestige (R0)

Falling Leaves / Giorgobistve / Listopad / La Chute des feuilles (1966) Facets / Blaq Out (R0) Blaq Out (R0/R2) Cinema Prestige (R0)

An Old Gerogian Song / Dzveli qartuli simghera (1969) Cinema Prestige (R0)

There Once Was a Singing Blackbird / Iko shashvi mgalobeli (1970) Facets / Blaq Out (R0) Blaq Out (R0/R2) Cinema Prestige (R0)

Pastoral / Pastorali (1975) Facets / Blaq Out (R0) Blaq Out (R0/R2) Cinema Prestige (R0)

Sept pièces pour cinéma noir et blanc (1982) Cinema Prestige (R0)

Euzkadi été 1982 (1983) Cinema Prestige (R0)

Favorites of the Moon / Les Favoris de la lune (1984) Blaq Out (R2) Cinema Prestige (R0)

Un petit monastère en Toscane / A Little Monastery in Tuscany (1988) Blaq Out (R2) Cinema Prestige (R0)

And Then There Was Light / Et la lumière fut (1989) Blaq Out (R2) Cinema Prestige (R0)

Chasing Butterflies / La Chasse aux papillons (1992) Blaq Out (R2) Cinema Prestige (R0)

Seule, Georgie / Georgia Alone (1994) Cinema Prestige (R0)

Brigands, Chapter VII / Brigands, chapitre VII (1996) Facets (R1) Blaq Out (R2) Cinema Prestige (R0)

Farewell, Home Sweet Home / Adieu, plancher des vaches! (1999) Kino (R1) Blaq Out (R2) Cinema Prestige (R0)

Monday Morning / Lundi matin (2002) Kino (R1) Blaq Out (R2) Artificial Eye (R2) Cinema Prestige (R0) RusCiCo (R5)

Gardens in Autumn / Jardins en automne (2006) Artificial Eye (R2) Sony (R2) Cinema Prestige (R0)

Chantrapas (2010)


Other Appearances

The Complete Jean Vigo. Artificial Eye (R2). In a video interview, Iosseliani offers his feelings on L'Atalante, one of his very favorite films.

The Son of Gascogne (1995) Fox Lorber (R1). Iosseliani has a cameo as himself in this film by Pascal Aubier.

The Whistling Blackbird (2007). A documentary on Iosseliani by Julie Bertucelli (an assistant on Brigands and director of Since Otar Left) that covers the making of Gardens in Autumn. Included (without subtitles) as an extra on the French release of Gardens. No further distribution so far.



FORUM DISCUSSION

Otar Iosseliani Complete Works

Facets: 4 Films by Otar Iosseliani

The Filmmaking Ethic



WEB RESOURCES

Interviews

"There is no return to anywhere". Interview by Mikhail Lemkhin at Nostalghia.com. 1991.

Interview in French by Pierre-Andre Boutang and Martine Marignac. Google translated version. Circa 1995.

Otar Iosseliani le dernier individualiste. Michelle Levieux in l'Humanité. Google translated version. 1997.

To a Stork, What Fools Humans Be. Robert Hilferty in the New York Times. 2001.

"Il cinema è sogno, il sogno del viaggio": incontro con Otar Iosseliani. Italian interview by Francesco Ruggeri. Google translated version. 2002.

Iosseliani dénonce la situation du cinéma en France. "Iosseliani denounces the situation of cinema in France." Google translated version. 2005.

Conflict blamed on both presidents, West. Iosseliani comments on the Russia-Georgia War. AFP, 2008.

La rabbia di Iosseliani: Una guerra assurda. Complete article from which the above comments were quoted. Google translated version. 2008.


Selected Criticism

Desperate Measures. Review of Brigands, Chapter VII by Jonathan Rosenbaum. Chicago Reader, 1998.

Shouts and Murmurs. Review of Monday Morning by Jonathan Rosenbaum. Chicago Reader, 2003.

The Man Who Loved Birds: Otar Iosseliani's Cinema of Kindness. By Quintín. CinemaScope, 2008.


Other

Otar Iosseliani. A short biography by Susan Doll at Facets' web site.

The Actor and the Secret. An interview with Michel Piccoli in which he discusses working with Iosseliani. From Cahiers du cinema.



PRINT MATERIAL

Et le cinema d'otar iosseliani fut. Antony Fiant. French. Age d'homme, 2002.

"Georgia on My Mind." Phillip Lopate. Film Comment, Vol. 41/No. 1. Jan/Feb 2005.

[Knappen]

Thanks for this very good presentation.

I constantly find myself thinking I'm seeing Otar when I spot an elderly gentleman with moustache and sixpence loitering here in Paris.

[Kirkinson]

Iosseliani has a new film debuting at Cannes in a few weeks (as a "special screening") called Chantrapas. The title appears to be a Russian word based on a French phrase ("ne chantera pas") which would be appropriate in light of what (superficially) sounds like a rather autobiographical plot:

Nicolas is an artist, a filmmaker who merely wants to express himself and whom everyone wishes to reduce to silence. When he first starts out in Georgia, the “ideologists” hope to gag him, concerned that his work does not follow the set rules. In the face of their determination, Nicolas leaves his homeland for France - the land of freedom and democracy. But the “state of grace” will not last long.

One important question remains: how does the mermaid fit in?

[Knappen]

Fantastic news. What happened to La Femme est venu pour tromper son mari?

[Kirkinson]

Chantrapas will be screening at the University of Chicago on February 11, with Otar Iosseliani in attendance. The event description says he is currently shooting a new film, but I can't find any information about this, or indeed any mention of it at all, elsewhere on the internet.