Even those who knew to expect a masterpiece from Georgian filmmaker Ioseliani (When the Leaves Fall, A Singing Blackbird) were stunned by his exquisite Pastorale when it was shown at the PFA in its first U.S. screening in November. Therefore we are glad to be able to show this film again, especially for those who missed it the first time!
Made in 1975, Pastorale has been denied export for distribution since. Ioseliani treats the theme of interaction between town and country - the visit by a string quartet to a small village - with his characteristic wry humor and a visual style reminiscent of Renoir. Albert Johnson, who viewed the film at the Cannes festival, comments:
“The determination to convey Georgian life in the most truthful manner possible is indicated with cinematic understatement...in Pastorale. Ioseliani has placed the story among farmers in a remote area of the countryside, who speak a dialect almost incomprehensible to the average Georgian. Pastorale is very much a visual tone-poem.... Ioseliani's sharp perceptions are constantly aimed toward sardonic juxtapositions, in the subtlest sense, to establish those wistful ironies of human behavior that exist when cultural patterns coexist behind invisible barriers. The unspoken condescension of the three girls and two boys from Tbilisi toward those around them is tempered with a resigned, polite tolerance. On the other hand, the villagers evoke the most tremendous emotional sympathy from the spectator. Like the people in Rouquier's Farrébeque or Dovzhenko's Earth, they are timeless embodiments of all humanity....
“The village is not at all cozy-cute, but unflinchingly grubby; the mud, poverty, insouciant pigs, goats and chickens, plus the eternal outhouse, are just there - the labor, too, for the women do everything without modern conveniences....”
Our print has no English titles; however, this film, more than most, speaks through its images, and the audience will have no difficulty comprehending and enjoying the film.