All language subtitles for American.Mirror.Intimations.Of.Immortality.2018.1080p.WEBRip.x264.AAC-[YTS.MX].en

Thanks for coming and-

I'm nervous about seeing it.

And where is it?

It's here.

Oh my God.

So of course, it's not finished, It's halfway.

I would say like 40%, first layer,

and then, with the layers, it will come out,

the whole quality of this thing.

And wow!

It looks like me.

I'm not that easy to paint.

I know people have tried and... Really?
- No.

It almost looks like a photograph,

except on a good day.

No, but I, for me, yeah, I think the features,

capture the features is important,

but especially, you know,
when we have this kind of like

real sitting sessions, it's very important,

because you can go like beyond
just, you know, just a view.

Because photograph is like
something that you capture.

It's just a moment, you know?

You just captured the moment.

And with a painting, while you paint,

like I will be painting for two months, you know?

And during these two months,

you can add so much more information

and so much more that have like, can be discovered.

What's missing that you're gonna be adding?

Missing?

Like, everything.

There will be like two or three
more layers on top of this.

So this is kind of, I call it flat.

Mhm.

And then, I will get like in depth.

So it's basically details.

So... Because I know that, for me,

I always go to the eyes of anybody.

Yeah.

And that's where it seems to-

- The soul.
- Yeah.

But, and they go where that can go wrong, you know?

It's nice that I don't have a lot of makeup on

or anything, so that it's pretty much-

- Yeah, it's natural.
- Bare.

Yeah, it's natural, yeah.

Like, exactly the thing.

Like, I want to capture the air between,

when, as they say, like,

you don't paint the subject, you paint the air

between your eyes and the subject.

And I think like, this air is very important to me,

you know, like just to have that

and like more focused on the spots, where-

So what do you mean, the air?

The air between the subject and you.

Because there is a theory

that you are painting the air between your eyes

and the subject, because the air is not transparent

and how air transitioning something

that you're seeing, you know?

Because in other words, we see,

when we look in a mirror,

we see ourselves differently-
- Differently, yeah.

- Than everyone else sees us.
- Exactly, exactly.

I wouldn't mind looking in the mirror

and seeing me like that.

You look wonderful, so.

Do you mind to...
- Sure.

- Just feel comfortable.
- Okay.

Yeah.

So where do you want me?

Has the air changed?

Yeah, I think it is, actually, yeah.

Because I'm like, I had like so many pictures

of you while I'm painting, you know,

but the real sitting session
is completely different,

I think, yeah.

I find it so hard to believe that it's,

the paintings that you do are so realistic,

that it's hard to even accept that they're not photos

that have been... I don't know how you do that.

It's realistic, but it's also, at the same time,

I think it's the illusion of reality,

because I take reality-
- I hope.

I hope.
- As a fact,

and then, I translate it my way, you know?

I think it's...

I understood that it's not only about

the beauty and the youth, you know?

Like, I understood that I love the interaction

of the time with identity,

and you know how they interact

and how it influenced with the time.

And this question about what is the beauty,

and what is the source of the beauty?

I don't know, what do you think as a woman?

Because I'm always trying

to understand... Well, you know, every time I go to a,

if I'm getting an award or something... Yeah.

They show a little film,

where you see your entire life flash

before you, because they have, you know... Yeah.

From 1970, I've been making films, so they have a lot

of changes up there, right?

And I don't think I understood what I looked like.

I mean, I was much prettier than I identified.

I wasn't really looking at myself

from the outside.
- Mhm.

At that time,

I was trying to find my identity,

trying to search about a lot of different things,

but I wasn't really looking at myself so much.

I didn't look at my films, really, that I had did.

But I think if you can, you know, the older you get,

the beauty that you have,

like my face when I was much younger, when I was 20,

seemed, you know, blank.

But it's true.

Like, when you're like
physically, and like I see things

that I don't see on the picture,

it's completely different.

Yeah, so it's very useful anyway that you're here.

Well, when you see a dead body

of someone that you love-
- Yeah.

And you realize that that
person is not there, you know?

You realize what percentage

of who they are is not their body.

It's difficult to recognize sometimes.

It's their spirit, and that's, I think also,

what makes some, people that aren't,

you know, that aren't what
we would think of in America,

as traditionally, symmetrically beautiful.

But yet they have, they're incredibly charismatic

and beautiful, but not by
the standards of perfection.

But as you get older, you realize

that it's the imperfections that make you, you know,

who you are, and they should be embraced, and...

And how do you think why
some beauty are very temporary

and they are fading with time very quick,

and the others are even like going,

like, I think you're looking better now

than like, some years ago.

I don't know.

Like seriously, I'm honest.

And-
- I think if you,

it's hard to be beautiful
if you're incredibly bitter

and angry, or smoke a lot of cigarettes.

Some of it has to do with lifestyle,

but some of it has to do with an open heart,

and how you're engaged with people,

and what matters to you.

Do you think it's just health,

or you think that it's really-

No, I don't think it's just health,

but I think that it's...

I mean, I just visited a relative in Sicily who's 101.

Mhm.

- And she's so vital.
- Yeah.

I mean, she was so happy to meet me again

and hold my face, and she just, you know?

And she certainly isn't, she's ravaged by age,

but somehow,

you know, she's very beautiful

if you don't think of wanting
her to be without a wrinkle.

I mean, there's something
kind of strange to see people-

- Yeah.
- Who are 60 something,

and they're just completely without anything.

I think, you know, kind of
burn victim looking, you know,

it's just nothing on their face at a certain point.

There's something that,

or someone who's very upset,
but their face isn't moving,

you know, to me, there's something unnatural.

And I think you can do things to yourself,

or plump things up, or whatever,

as long as it stays natural.

It's when it starts to look,

when it's incongruent, you know?

But I do think it has to do with the, don't they say that,

you know, you're depending on how you live your life,

that it's how your life starts to show on your face.

Yeah, I think the thoughts are like

reflecting on things.
- Yeah.

Like, the way you think, like the part of the body

that we interact with,

with everything, like the exterior world,

if you take away the vision

and hearing, this is like the most active parts.

So it's very tactile.

And that's why, for me, it's that important,

because we discover things with help of hands,

and we feel them.

And we...

When I was younger, every single year,

Playboy would ask me to do a centerfold.

And I had nothing, I had taken my clothes off.

It really wasn't about that.

But I was trying to figure out,

when I looked at Playboy magazine-

- Mhm.
- Why did the women seem,

you know, so kind of disembodied, and kind of flat,

and kind of, you know,

they lost a lot of their personality

and became just kind of-

- Yeah.
- Part of that.

So I started looking at women in other cultures

that were movie stars, like Silvana Mangano and

Jeanne Moreau.

And you know, people who, compared to Barbarella,

who was the one that was our kind of... [Tigran] Yeah.

beauty at that time,

were beautiful in a completely different way.

And what I decided was that they,

there was something about
them that said yes to life,

that there was something, some quality of theirs

that even though they might look like they were

somewhat damaged-
- Mhm.

at times, that they were women

that looked like they would go for it.

You know, they were game gals.

They were ready to-
- Yeah.

engage in life,

and that was attractive.

Because I think the main thing
everybody wants is contact.

That's all what we do in our lives,

are look for a way to make contact.

And on the screen, when you see people

that looks like it's sexual or sensual,

it's because you believe

that those two people see each other in a way

that no one else sees them.

And so, that contact, you know, reads.

So I think anybody, if you've lived your life trying

to make contact, if you've lived your life full

of adventures of the heart-

- Mhm.
- Adventures of whatever,

and kind of in a search for authenticity,

then your face shows that.

If you get to the point where you're,

especially as you get older
and you're tempted by so much

altering things, like

to, you know, I don't, fillers-

- Yeah, of course.
- And, you know?

Not that I have anything
against anybody doing anything,

but you really have to find an artist

that's gonna have the same aesthetic you have

if you're gonna start doing that.

Because otherwise, you start
to look like a manifestation

of fear of some sort.

And you're, you know,

it's distracting from who you are,

as opposed

to enhancing who you are.

Let's go, let's go, let's go.

All right, come on.

Play a match for a run around the table?

Who you wanna beat?

Are you ready?

Let's go.

Come on!

Ladies and gentleman, the winner of the run around,

!

♪ I reach up my hand ♪

♪ And touch the sky ♪

♪ Drifting away ♪

♪ To another life ♪

♪ Come away ♪

♪ With me ♪

♪ You can hide away ♪

♪ With me ♪

♪ You can hide away ♪

♪ With me ♪

♪ We can hide away ♪

♪ Baby ♪

What do you think

how the society is influencing the beauty,

sense of beauty today and femininity,

and like purely, is it like,

you think like purely masculine,

in purely masculine perspective?

How does it influence?

I don't know if it's masculine,

or if, I mean, certainly in my business,

it's about being hired.

So that's a whole other dimension.

- Yeah.
- You know, what do people

value?

And the audience tells them by what they go

to see what they value.

And they don't tell many stories that have to do with-

Of course.

People at a certain age,

unless they're dying,

or they have Alzheimer's or something.

Well, I have these kind of questions

about me.

Like, some collectors are like,

"Oh, you feel pale today.

Like, are you okay?

Like, because if not, maybe you should tell me,

maybe we should buy
something more like..."

Like, these kind of jokes I heard as well, yeah, so.

But I think that,

really, where things start to go wrong is

that the whole idea of the priorities of our life,

you know, the

definition of a successful life is off.

Yeah.

So if you start with that,

then, the idea of beauty is also off,

because you're trying to earn approval

as opposed to embracing who you are.

You're trying to somehow be

legitimized or,

you know, you're looking for someone else

to tell you your worth.

And so, when you're chasing that

in what you do for a living,

you're gonna be chasing the wrong thing.

And we don't really emphasize with our kids, you know,

to try to give them more time to find out who they are,

and to be able to be flexible,
and adaptable, and curious,

and to encourage them to make mistakes,

and encourage them to live a braver life.

And if you're doing that,

then, your idea of what's beautiful changes.

- Yeah.
- You know?

You have a wider idea-
- That's true.

of what's beautiful changes.

Because now, it's all about

preserving youth.

Yes.

It's about preserving something
instead of evolving beyond

whatever you were initially,

into something even bigger, and more fluid, and more-

No, I think that beauty is
really timeless and ageless.

And I think art is also like maybe the only thing

that can really like push

beyond the boundaries of time, you know?

It can really fight that boundaries, you know?

And because if you watch like the art history,

how things stayed, you know,
since like the beauty was-

Well, time is a very... Yeah.

difficult concept,

'cause it's completely arbitrary... Exactly.

And usually, when it ever, it rears its head,

it's in some way passing judgment
on the past or the future.

So-
- Yeah.

You know, I try to stay away from time.

You get to be 25, and you haven't accomplished

what you think you should have accomplished.

And then, you get to be 30 or 40 is a big,

oh my god, I'm 40.
- Yeah.

- And I haven't, you know...
- That's-

And you constantly...

Or you meet somebody and you go, well, you know,

that's really interesting.

And he's only 22, and he's done all that.

And then, you find out he is 32,

and you go, "Oh, well
that wasn't such a big..."

Not a big deal.

Oh, I thought he was 22.

Now, he's 32.

Okay, that's not so special.

Right?

So now, you just don't follow the camera,

just keep looking straight.

I'm gonna shoot you from different directions.

when you're not here,

so I will have like different pictures around,

and yeah, I'm gonna start painting, and then-

Cool, cool.

Thank you so much.

Perfect, thanks.

Thank you!

All right, so.

All right!

Yeah, I will design all-

Yeah, that's really pretty.

Mhm.

Yeah.

That one's it for me.
- Yes.

Love it!

Yay, I'm excited!

That's it.

It's a complete shot.

They look great.

So I think it's hard to be beautiful

when you're not kind.

Yeah, I think so, yeah.

You need kindness in there.

Yeah, that's true.

I was talking to the Dalai Lama

about compassion once at forum.

And I said, he was talking
about trying to get everyone

to be more compassionate.

And I said, well, you should tell them that it,

you lose weight being compassionate.

Compassion makes you thin and beautiful,

and you would have everyone
trying to be compassionate.

But I think that it does give you certain,

compassion and kindness, you know,

there is a glow to people... [Tigran] Yeah.

That live a life of compassion and kindness.

I was in Nepal with some nuns, with the Kung fu nuns

after the earthquake, and we were delivering

rice and oil, and stuff up in the mountains.

And they're shaved heads, you know, and no makeup.

A couple of them had braces, but that was it.

They were young, and they were just beautiful women.

Beautiful!

You know, certainly not,

hadn't done anything to try to be beautiful,

except to follow their passion

and their path that they found.

And I find like people, when
they do what they love to do

with a passion, at that moment, like for example,

musicians, when they perform.

Mm!

You just fall in love with them.

Mm!

They are like so inspired and... Yeah.

the beauty is coming through their faces,

their eyes are like, everything is just like-

That's true.

- Yeah.
- That's true.

And the same person, when he's asleep,

you will never notice that, you know?

So I think like, yeah, inspiration.

I also did a painting of a very old lady,

like Armenian lady,

and I wanted to capture, I wanted to paint the beauty.

She will like completely
wrinkled and like, very old.

I met her in a retirement house,

so I didn't know anything about her life,

but in the wrinkles and everything,

I tried to really capture the beauty.

And many people were thinking

that she's like really beautiful

in that perspective, like without even...

So yeah, I'm like really curious-

I wanna see that one.

Yeah.

Is that in a book, where-

Yeah, I have it in a book,

I'll show you, yeah.
- Yeah.

It's actually in a museum

in the National Gallery of Armenia now.

And it was after the hundred years of genocides

when I did it.

Did you talk to her?

Yeah, yeah, I did, yeah.

I met her, and beautiful person.

She didn't have anybody, like, she was like alone,

completely.
- Mm, mm.

And she was like so happy to do this.

Like, I thought that she'll never accept doing this.

And she was so happy, she was entertained, and-

Did she see it?

Yeah.

Did she love it?

- Yeah.
- Yeah!

Now, she's in a museum.

Now, she's in a museum, yeah.

Wow.

That was probably interesting
for her to see herself

as you saw her.

Yes.

Because that's the other thing, you know,

if someone looks at you, if you're in love,

and somebody looks at you, and they love you,

and you know, you respond.

And you become even more beautiful

just because you feel the love

that that person's giving you.

Yeah.

You know, that happens, for sure.

That's true.

Yeah, look how strong she looks.

So it was like the whole history of Armenia, you know,

through this, through this
face, through this person.

She saw a lot.

She don't want to see her own reflection today

in a mirror, because cold mirror is about mirrors.

But like, she had amazing, beautiful eyes,

and I somehow, I wanted to hide them.

I didn't want to paint them.

So I wanted to hide the beauty inside

and kind of, you can see
through without even showing-

Well, you should have done another one

when you turn the page, where you see her eyes.

Yeah, maybe.

Maybe the next one... 'Cause now, you're so curious.

I mean, that's a very-
- Yeah.

very strong photo.

And all the suffering that the
country has gone, you know,

obviously, that's a... And I love that her hands

and everything look really strong,

but at the same time,

you know, worn, and that's great.

I'm in Lugano,

the city where we met for the first time.

Everything smells like those five days.

Everything is sick of you.

I cannot see a street

or a corner that doesn't recall the memories

of our beginning.

All the craziness of those five days, how I loved you,

and all, all we lived here.

Now, that's five years away,

and all that's withered under the golden mist

of those past five days.

In spite of so much grief,

I don't know if I should feel sorry for it,

but I couldn't stop myself from writing you.

I don't think you'll be able to hate me for that.

Do not hate me for that.

There was a war,

there was an earthquake.
Where like, I don't know,

50, over 50,000 died around.

And we had like refugees
from the earthquake living

in our apartment, like sleeping on the floor.

We hosted as many people as we could, feed, like

fit into our place.

And I was growing up with that and

there was no walls, like inside the place.

So we were like freezing.

It was dark.

So I think definitely, it influenced my art and

like everybody, because

like Armenia was completely locked country.

You could get in and out only by airplane.

And

so, I think I had

two periods while I was like a child painter,

who was already started
showing internationally before.

And then, I get locked into this situation

for like five, six years,

which just, the only question was how

to find some bread and some like, you know,

like really, the first necessity to just survive.

And after that,

I kind of started in the life from zero again.

And the thing, what I went through, I really needed,

I needed to go through all these things

to become who I am.

Because an artist is not
somebody who painted somebody

who had a life and who had thoughts and position.

I think that's what the art,

that what makes somebody an artist.

And I think this is like the toughest moment

I've ever went through.

I often desire to paint.

I have this very strong,

I know I have this feeling that I need to paint.

But I think, you know, in life, everything that...

The future, we don't really control.

And the past, take it as the past.

And like... I tried to find myself.

Already, you have a woman with questions.

I think that I have a lot of questions

and I kind of try to find the answers

while I'm painting, during the process.

It take me a long time.

I have a lot of time

to spend with that person and really go beyond.

I'm seeing myself painting, still painting with oil.

No matter the fashion of the art, I'll be around.

It's strange, because I didn't have that feeling

for you for some years,

and my dad was to listening music.

We had like all this art book collection at home.

So like, watching this old master books

and visiting museums when we traveled,

and it affected my vision and my reflections.

And I think I'm still... I remember those days.

I'm still fascinated,

but at the same time, I think I'm...

The result is important, but the process, for me,

I think is most important part.

Somewhere, disappointed maybe, but I try

to put it on the side-I was in love.

And I was really small.

Every time, start from grown up, you know?

Don't make generalities, and don't take it as...

So, but I love the combination of...

And it will be like that every time.

Maybe though, the only thing
that can really like push

beyond the boundaries of
time, you know, it can really

fight that boundaries, you know?

And I just need to go and just paint.

The art history, how...

And it's a real feel of desire.

And then, there is a desire in a painting as well.

I want...

There are like, there may be smaller part

of desires in a process.

Yeah, and I think like as soon
as you satisfy the desire,

the desire disappears.

I wouldn't say it's really comfortable.