Pirosmani

Giorgi Shengelaia's 1969 Georgian film tells the life of the naive painter Niko Pirosmanashvili. Selling his paintings to taverns and restaurants for food and drink, Pirosmani died of starvation in 1918, and the film renders that life not as tragedy but as quiet observation. The narration does not follow events, it imitates how the painter saw the world. Its real achievement is visual method: the compositions imitate the flatness and colour of Pirosmani's paintings, the camera almost never moves, and the figures sit inside the frame as if placed into a canvas. It is considered one of the most consistent attempts in cinema to turn a painter's style into narrative form. Avtandil Varazi was himself a painter, which explains the stillness of the performance. Who it's for: viewers who like artist biographies, Georgian cinema of the Soviet period and formal experiment. Who it's not for: anyone wanting dramatic plot and psychological explanation, or who will find the static compositions wearing.