Andrei Tarkovsky

Andrei Tarkovsky is one of those film makers you may never have heard of, but he attracts a lot of admiration from certain quarters:

(cut and paste from Wikipedia)

Notable film director Ingmar Bergman said of Tarkovsky:
"Tarkovsky for me is the greatest [director], the one who invented a new language, true to the nature of film, as it captures life as a reflection, life as a dream."

I recently endured a Tarkovsky-athon, watching (in chronological order) Solaris (1972), The Mirror (1975) and Stalker (1979) over the course of four days. The Mirror is a modest 100 minutes, the other two weigh in at over 160 minutes each (both are an hour too long).

To discuss the plots of these films is almost missing the point or so it seems. Two of them are adaptations of sci-fi novels (something I’m very keen on) but they meander away from the plot and into the realms of ‘The Tarkovskyeqsue’. If Andrei was concerned with holding his audience’s interest, his films wouldn’t be arduous journeys into tedium; I doubt a 90 minute version of Solaris was ever going to win the Prix Spécial du Jury.

Ingmar summed up what Tarkovsky was all about, but from what I gather Bergman and Tarkovsky were each other’s biggest fans. So while the above quote summarises what Andrei was trying to achieve, it’s another question as to whether his efforts were really as good as many a po-faced film critic would have you believe.

This brief clip from the beginning of The Mirror and it shows what Tarkovsky was capable of (I wouldn't agree with whoever posted that video about it being the best sequence ever shot).



Pure atmosphere, but from there the films goes nowhere, slowly. There’s another similar shot at the end, Solaris and Stalker are also book-ended with equally compelling sequences, and all three films are peppered with flashes of genius. But the problem is, for all the dream like imagery and ‘new language’ and glimpses of what may well be the true nature of film, this truth is betrayed by the pondering trite that makes up the bulk of the films.

Tarkovsky is an example of the film-maker who rejected the cinema. He was fully aware that his films were not easily enjoyed. Watching a cast of miserable characters waffle on about the meaning of love (Solaris), life (The Mirror) or desire (Stalker) is not remotely cinematic, it’s not even entertaining. From the three films I’ve seen Andrei was either a poor director of actors; everyone is giving the same morbid, brooding performance, or he was deliberately trying to make the same film again and again. Andrei loved an excessively philosophical, world weary protagonist, but none of them are ever as sympathetic as he thinks they are. The titular Stalker in particular goes through a prolonged crisis of conscience and by the end of the film questions the very worth and meaning of his own life, but by this point no one in the audience will give a govno.

The one thing I did take away from this experience was a desire to read Solaris and Roadside Picnic (the basis for Stalker).

Incidentally, I recently watched the 2002 version of Solaris directed by Steven Sodenbergh which I thought was very good.