Retrospective

Yervant Gianikian and Angela Ricci Lucchi

Prisoners of the War

Italy
1995, 60min.

Script/Dir./Edit.: Yervant Gianikian, Angela Ricci Lucchi, Compos.: Giovanna Marini.

The film consists of material shot during the 1914- 1918 World War, collected into the archives of the great Empires involved in the clash, and mainly the Tsarist and Austro-Hungarian ones. The work consists of the contrast between the military “report films” concerning the conditions of the war prisoners, of the orphans, of the refugees, of women and children and of the fallen of both sides; mirrorimage events shot by “enemy” cameras on the edges of battles. The story also follows the movements and dispersions of different ethnic groups that operated on the various fronts and that after defeat underwent deportation to places distant from their motherlands.

Gianikian, Yervant

Ricci Lucchi, Angela

Yervant Gianikian (born 1942, Venice)
Angela Ricci Lucchi (born 1942, Lugo di Romagna)

Yervant Gianikian (born to Armenian parents) studied architecture in Venice; Angela Ricci-Lucchi studied painting in Austria with Oskar Kokoschka. Setting in Milan, they have devoted their activities to the cinema since the mid-seventies, first with their performance screening of scened films, then with their artisanal re-working of the old films of their collection which they tinted, toned and re-edited - as they did, for example, in From the Pole to the Equator (Dal polo all'equatore) with footage shot by pioneer Luca Comerio. Working like archeologists with filmstock, ideologies and culture, they have developed a cinema which is not only narrative and poetry but also critique and analysis of the recycled footage.

Filmography
Erat Sora (1975), Wladimir Propp – Perfume of Wolf (Wladimir Propp - Profumo di lupo, 1975), Of the Sleep and the Dreams of the Limited Rose on the Sence of the Odored (Del sonno e dei sogni di rosa limitata al senso dell'odorato, 1975), Rose Perfumed Alice (Alice profumata di rosa, 1975), Klinger and the Glove (Klinger e il guanto, 1975), Catalogue of the Dismantling (Catalogo della scomposizione, 1975), Don’t think about the Perfume of Bunuel (Non cercare il profumo di Bunuel, 1975), Comparative Catalogue (Catalogo comparativo, 1975), Stone Book (1975), From November 2nd to the Easter Day (Dal 2 Novembre al giorno di Pasqua, 1975-76), Cesare Lombrosso on the Odor of the Pink (Cesare Lombroso - Sull'odore del garofano, 1976), Of Some Flowers Not Easily Catalogued (Di alcuni fiori non facilmente catalogabili, 1976), Catalogues Aren’t Other than the Odors that Smell (Cataloghi non e' altro gli odori che sente 1976), Catalogue N. 2 (1976), Perfume (Profumo, 1977), Catalogue N. 3 – Odor of Bast Around the House (Catalogo N.3 - Odore di tiglio intorno alla casa, 1977), Un prestigiatore, una miniaturista (1978), Milleunanotte (1979, incompiuto), Karagoez et les bruleurs d'herbes parfumes (1979), Essence d'absinthe (1981), Das Lied Von Der Erde - Gustav Mahler (1982), Karagoez-Catalogue (Karagoez-Catalogo 9.5, 1979-1981), From the Pole to the Equator (Dal polo all'equatore, 1986), Return to Khodorciur - Armenian Diary (Ritorno a Khodorciur - Diario Armeno, 1986), Fragments (Frammenti, 1987), The Most Beloved by the Italians (La piu' amata dagli Italiani, 1988), Passion (1988), People Years Life (Uomini anni vita, 1990), Interior in Leningrad (Interni a Leningrado, 1990, incompiuto), Italian Archives N. 1 - The Flower of the Race (Archivi Italiani N.1 - Il Fiore della razza 1991), Italian Archives N. 2 (Archivi Italiani N. 2, 1991), Mario Giacomelli - Contact (Mario Giacomelli - Contact, 1993), Criminal Animals (Animali criminali, 1994), African Diary (Diario Africano, 1994), Air (Aria, 1994), Prisoners of the War (Prigionieri della guerra, 1995), Diana’s Mirror (Lo Specchio di Diana, 1996, short), Nocturne (1997, short), I Remember (Io ricordo, 1997, short), Transparencies (Trasparenze, 1998, short), On All the Heights It’s Peace (Su tutte le vette e' pace, 1998), Balkan Inventory (Inventario Balcanico, 2000), Visions of the Desert (2000, short), Images of Orient - Vandal Tourism (Images D'orient - Tourisme vandale, 2001), Bodies (Corpi. Frammenti elettrici N.3, 2002), Viet-Nam (Viet-Nam. Frammenti elettrici N.2, 2002), Rom (People) (Rom (Uomini). Frammenti elettrici N.1, 2002), New Caledonia (Nuova Caledonia, 2004), Oh, Man (Oh, uomo, 2004), Electrical Fragments N.4. N.5. Asia – Africa (Frammenti elettrici N.4. N.5. Asia – Africa, 2005).