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Born 1934 in Tbilisi, in the then Soviet Republic of Georgia, Iosseliani has studied music, as well as graphic art and graduated from Moscow university in mathematics. Finally, though, he chose cinema as his favourite field and graduated from VGIK (the Moscow Cinema Institute) in 1954 after attending Alexander Dovzhenko's class. His first medium-length movie in 1961, 'April', is little known and was not released. Together with his second, 'When Leaves Fall', however, it shows the characteristic elements of his style. Chosing Jean Vigo, rather than Eisenstein as a force of influence, he insists that he tries, 'to capture moments of passing life', rather than being occupied with techniques of intellectual montage in order to reach the ultimate goal of art. Together with Tarkovsky, but in a very different way, he was the young director who has been the most uncompromsing and the most consistent in his aesthetic approach under the Soviet regime. His films show a disregard for conventional ways of life. Iosseliani's nonconformity, his stubbornness, his frankness have alienated the authorities. His earlier works had serious problems with the strict political censorship of the time. But his name shot straight over the border in 1971 with his beautiful film 'Once there lived a Song-Thrush', on the subject of which Iosseliani himself said, 'I think I've made a simple and serious film, a film about social morals rather than a moralistic film.' 'Pastorale', shot in 1975, was blocked by the authorities until it was presented in 1981 at the Berlin Festival, where it won the Critics' Prize. Tired of struggling against his country's censorship, Iosseliani moved to France in 1982, where he continued to live and work on titles including 'Les Favoris de la Lune' ('Favourites of the Moon', 1984) and 'Et la Lumière Fut' (1989). |
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