paul chaderjian

Paul Chaderjian March 18, 2003   Sayat Nova                         Sergei Paradjanov's "Sayat Nova" is more than a motion picture bringing to life images from historical Armenian culture, it is a code that holds the key to unraveling the ancient reality of a people.                         Philosopher and writer Carl Jung believed that symbols were how the universe or god communicated to man. Jung wrote that the symbols were communicated to man's consciousness through dreams. Within that context, Paradjanov captured symbols of a people on film, so that he would eternally communicate that which represented Armenians to generations to come.             While the conscious mind of the viewer may attach differen...

Canadian-Armenian filmmaker Atom Egoyan cannot help but continue to make movies that address the themes of loss and the consequences of trauma, because so much of his personal history is dictated by the loss his grandparents' generation experienced during the Armenian Genocide. The person that he is and the art that he creates cannot help but be a reaction for one of the greatest traumas suffered and yet to be collectively addressed by 20th and 21st century civilization. While most critics and film fans believe that Egoyan's "Ararat" was his first film about the Armenian Genocide, a careful study of Egoyan's previous feature films will demonstrate that all his films address the issue of how one or how a group of people react and respond to loss. The theme of the trauma of loss, people's reaction to loss and the relationship of the people dealing with loss and trauma are what define Egoyan's films and screenplays. In his first feature, "Next ...

by Paul Chaderjian What is the cost of America’s obsession with media content? This is the question that Eric Bogosian asks in his film “Talk Radio,” and this potent question to his question is death. Bogosian, the writer and star of the film, speaks to the viewers through intense monologues about the issues that plague society. From drug abuse to people’s fascination with the famous, Bogosian’s character, radio personality Barry Champlain, tackles these societal issues, allowing lonesome and anonymous voices to articulate a range of opinions. Public dialogue may be healthy for a democracy, but the value that listeners of Champlain’s radio show place on the subjects and opinions contained in the radio show is what Bogosian questions. Several of the callers Champlain talks with on the air continue to call to preach their politics or win empathy or love from nameless strangers listening to the radio. Champlain’s ability to create live drama on the air by negating and arguing with ...

Paul Chaderjian March 12, 2003 Shoot the Piano Player The existential question of whether man is a passive player in the drama of his life or is the active hero of its unfolding is at the heart of François Truffaut’s “Shoot the Piano Player.” In this film, Charles Aznavour plays a man who cannot escape his past or his family -- no matter how hard he tries to reinvent himself. Through the lead character in this film, Truffaut shows that a man trying to gain control of his life at the last minute may be a bit too late. The passivity of Aznavour’s character is best demonstrated by the technique Truffaut uses in alienating the character. When Aznavour’s character, Charlie Kohler, is heard thinking to himself, instead of Truffaut allowing us to hear Aznavour’s voice externalizing Kohler’s thoughts, we hear a voice other than Aznavour’s. This jarring technique clearly demonstrates that the character Aznavour plays is passive about his life -- so passive that he is a different ...

Paul Chaderjian March 5, 2003 Mamoulian's Love Me Tonight "Love Me Tonight," the 1929 motion picture musical, was a groundbreaking template of contemporary sound design in motion pictures. Today, it stands as testament of when and how the art of using sound in narrative motion pictures, music videos, concert films and television was created. In addition to its historic creation of sound design, "Love Me Tonight" was also the vehicle with which filmmaker Rouben Mamoulian changed the relationship between filmmaking cameras and the subjects they photographed. Through the use of ambient sounds, musical beats, orchestrated melodies, machine-gun-like dialogue and the pace created by the motion of the actors and the rhythm of the editing, "Love Me Tonight" set the standard for filmmakers and producers who would continue to marry audio to film or television media products. This ability to capture and sustain a pace, a tempo within a the...

Time magazine’s Richard Schikel and Christian Science Monitor’s David Sterritt are among those who have said that filmmaker Robert Altman captures in his films the essence of American life, its uncertainties and its confusion. This accurate interpretation and summary of Robert Altman’s talent as a filmmaker can be exemplified by the realities he has created in THE PLAYER, MCCABE AND MRS. MILLER, SHORT CUTS and NASHVILLE. The first of these films, THE PLAYER, is about a Hollywood movie industry executive, Griffen Mill, who murders a screenwriter, because Mill thinks the writer has been sending him anonymous postcards and threatening his life. Mill tracks down the unsuccessful and unproduced writer, buys the man a drink then ends up killing him and covering up the murder by making it look like a robbery.   The “Player,” Mill, escapes murder charges, because an eye-witness identifies the homicide detective, played by Lyle Lovitt, as the murderer. Mill escaped the accusations an...

Filmmaker Martin Scorsese's central theme of man's isolated and alienated existence can be best exemplified by a review of the plight of his three lead characters in TAXI DRIVER, RAGING BULL and BRINGING OUT THE DEAD. In these films, the central characters are men who lack the social skills to function productively in civilization. Because these characters are unable to connect with others, they do not benefit from the support of family, loved ones or other social units. Alone in the world, alienated and isolated, they are overwhelmed by their environment and by the hyper-competitive and selfish, individualism-focused modern day society. The lack of productive socialization, the pace of a me-first modern race in life and a congested and overwhelming city leads all three characters to lose the concept of rational thought and react to others and to society in socially unacceptable, destructive, criminal and at times homicidal behaviors.   In TAXI DRIVER, Travis is a Vietnam ...