Andrei Tarkovsky afficionados? - Solaris

[Guest]

IMO the one man in film truly deserving of the description genius, as in the league of the artistic giants thru the ages. A huge pity he had to battle so much to end up producing such a meagre output of films- the downside of being a spiritually aware great soul and trying to operate within the state sanctioned atheism of the USSR of the time. Though it could be questioned how much financial backing he'd have got to make an Andrei Rublev, in the West.
Though I think he should have been a tad more ruthless in his finishing of Stalker, have to say probably my favourite film. A director like no other in having an intuitive grasp of the mystery of existence. Certainly have never experienced anyone else make one almost weep for the incredible sense of humanity somehow encapsulated within some of his images. A man very aware of his infinite nature, that death was no end.
Ivan's Childhood his first film probably a good place to start if anyone interested in entering the world of this great, great man.
Possibly he's most familiar thru the re-make of Solaris which though it has much of his alchemical magic contained within, it is to my mind and to his own, possibly his least satisfying work.
Just a short clip of Tarkovsky on art-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aedXnLpKBCw&search=tarkovsky
And a taste of the haunting imagery of Stalker here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBijk4s5FTE&search=tarkovsky

 

[taitai]

Solaris (Tarkowsky)

This is an old film that I try to watch at least once a year for it's beauty of script, music (Bach) & lyrical thought - I find myself uplifted & humbled every time. Sadly, the newer American version just does not come anywhere near the original Takowsky film.

 

[Windmill knight]

I first watched the Hollywood version of Solaris and I actually liked it a lot. I found the story to be quite 'esoteric' in the sense of facing the choice between a 'happy illusion' and the 'desert of the real'. I watched it a few years ago so my perception may be different now if I watched it again. But I liked it enough to keep looking for Tarkovsky's version all this time (hard to find).

A few weeks ago I finally watched Tarkovsky's Solaris and I liked it a lot too. I found enough differences between the two versions to appreciate their own merits. Certainly the newer one is more easy on the viewer and more straightforward - which I don't think is a bad thing - while Tarkovsky tends to be very intellectual and philosophical. In fact, dare I say, sometimes a bit too intellectual for my taste, but still good. I watched Stalker a few years ago and I had the same impression.

 

[taitai]

I also love "Stalker" - it seems there are not that many Tarkowsky fans around nowadays, which is a pity, in my opinion, as films are so often reduced to mere entertainment. I suppose I'm a bit of a fanatic but I feel that if we lower our personal standards in/for anything, be it film, music, art, books etc - we lower our entire "psychic" tone. I have never understood the idea that some people find it relaxing to watch cheap, cliche ridden films as I become very tense & soon leave the room . . I suppose I need to work on tolerance!

 

[SeekinTruth]

I watched Andrei Rubliev in the late 80's in NYC at a Tarkovsky retrospective. And around that time I also saw a black and white film by him which I liked better, but for the life of me can't remember. It's weird that there are some things like this that I've noticed in the last few years as I've tried to recapitulate/remember and draw a total blank. I've had a very good memory, it's not as good as when I was younger, but still pretty good. But once in a while when something comes up where I cannot recall details it really puzzles me.

I've also heard about "Stalker" and "Solaris" since around that time and wanted to see them but never did. I think I've seen little bits of both, again for some reason I have a memory lapse. Anyway, this reminded me that I'd still like to see these movies.

Also a couple of years ago, there was a documentary about Tarkovsky visiting Armenia in the late 60's or early 70's at a film festival here in Armenia but I didn't get the chance to see it.

 

[Possibility of Being]

I'm happy to see some Tarkovsky's fans here on the forum :)

My favorite movie by Tarkovsky (and one of my "20 best ever" type list) is Offret (The Sacrifice) - his last movie made shortly before he died. That's a mesmerized one, with Bach's music and long takes with Nykvist behind cameras (another my favorite cinematography person). A movie for which your mind seems not to be the best interpreter, as it speaks rather directly to your heart/soul.

From an interview with Tarkovsky:
_http://people.ucalgary.ca/~tstronds/nostalghia.com/TheTopics/On_Sacrifice.html

The issue I raise in this film is one that to my mind is most crucial: The absence in our culture of room for a spiritual existence. We have extended the scope of our material assets and conducted materialistic experiments without taking into account the threat posed by depriving man of his spiritual dimension. Man is suffering, but he doesn't know why. He senses an absence of harmony, and searches for the cause of it.

I wanted to show that a man can renew his ties to life by renewing his covenant with himself and with the source of his soul. And one way to recapture moral integrity—the state in which one no longer simply contemplates the value of material things, or allows oneself to function merely as a subject for society's experimentation—is by having the capacity to offer oneself in sacrifice.

Here, then, is a man who sacrifices himself for someone, a man who understands that to save himself, even physically, he must become absolutely oblivious to his own ego and make room for his own spirituality, thereby gaining entry to another realm.

Even though in our world his actions seem absurd, and even though he is a trial to those around him, still it is by accomplishing these very acts that he demonstrates his freedom.

The film is a poetic parable. Each episode can be interpreted differently. I am well aware that it is a film at variance with the prevailing ideas of our time; it "flows against the stream", as it were. But need I point out that I am a believer, and that I am astonished by the spiritual (and by no means only spiritual) suicide that we are rushing toward, even though no regime is forcing us to it? I feel closer to the eastern mode of thought, in which a person—instead of being ensnared in polemical superficialities— can still be summoned by an Inner Voice.[...]

What interested me in this film was showing a man who was capable of self-sacrifice. Sometimes that can become distressing, even for his own family and friends. This is a man who has understood that, to redeem himself, it has become indispensable to efface himself. Even on a physical level one has to rise to another level of existence. When one is hungry, one goes to a shop and buys something to eat; but when one is truly depressed, in a kind of spiritual crisis. There is nowhere to go, except to sexologists and psychoanalysts who have no understanding of what is going on inside one. They are voyeurs and chatterboxes, who console you, soothe you and cost you the earth. They are charlatans, but terribly fashionable charlatans. My protagonist can no longer go on living as he had done before and he commits an act that may have been born out of despair but which demonstrates to him that he is still free. Any such act is likely to appear absurd on the material plane, but on the spiritual plane they are magnificent as they create the possibility of a rebirth. [...]

The Sacrifice in imdb database and on Wikipedia

 

[Skipling]

I have Andrei Rublev in my collection, and it is a superb film! Deeply moving, stark cinematography, depicting an unforgiving world, harsh and zealous. But yet there is the beauty, the yearning call, and such melancholy was stirred in first watching this film. I absolutley loved it, and still do.

Possibility of Being, you have given Tarkovsky a glowing appraisal, and I am sold. I have just ordered Stalker, Offret and Mirror, and will be watching them with great joy next week no doubt. The above quote is just incredible from the director. What simplicity of depth, the insights pierce the fog of abstraction. We forget how to live in our contemporary culture, it's like a nebulous blob that consumes whenever it can. These films I know will speak to me.

Thanks to Guest. A fine reminder, as Rublev has been on my mind recently.