Pictorial symbolism and suspended movement Plasticity of the tableaux vivants by Sergei Paradjanov

Parajanov’s use of tableaux vivants raises spatial and rhythmic issues that lead to a redefinition of cinema. The type of paintings that is conjured up (icons and miniatures) questions the way in which the world is put into images ; but these interruptions of movement also contradict the dynamism associated with cinematographic scrolling. The tableau vivant thus contaminates all of Parajanov’s films, to the point that they “overflow” the usual frame of cinema in favour of a formalist redefinition.