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poliphiloIt must be something like 30 years since I first saw Tarkovsky's Solaris. I watched it for the second time yesterday and it's amazing how well my memories of it hold up. But Tarkovsky is like that. You may not understand him, you may not even like him, but once you've seen one of his movies there's no way you're ever going to forget it.
Solaris is his most accessible film. It's still makes extraordinary demands on the concentration and patience of the viewer. Who else would begin a sci-fi adventure with 45 minutes worth of footage of people mooching around in a dacha? It's remarkable how the Soviet system was prepared to nurture this awkward, bloody-minded, intensely individualistic artist. The censorship gave him grief- Andrei Rublev was "edited" to ribbons- but no-one ever stopped him working. Solaris was followed by the magisterial, intensely difficult, intensely personal Mirror and Mirror was followed by Stalker, which is like Solaris with all the fun taken out. Great movies- alps of cinematic art- but pop-corn fare they ain't.
Compare and contrast with Orson Welles's experience in Hollywood.
Things to look out for in Tarkovsky.
Dogs
Horses
Dachas
Leaking roofs
Rain
Steam
Stream-beds
Fire.
Solaris is his most accessible film. It's still makes extraordinary demands on the concentration and patience of the viewer. Who else would begin a sci-fi adventure with 45 minutes worth of footage of people mooching around in a dacha? It's remarkable how the Soviet system was prepared to nurture this awkward, bloody-minded, intensely individualistic artist. The censorship gave him grief- Andrei Rublev was "edited" to ribbons- but no-one ever stopped him working. Solaris was followed by the magisterial, intensely difficult, intensely personal Mirror and Mirror was followed by Stalker, which is like Solaris with all the fun taken out. Great movies- alps of cinematic art- but pop-corn fare they ain't.
Compare and contrast with Orson Welles's experience in Hollywood.
Things to look out for in Tarkovsky.
Dogs
Horses
Dachas
Leaking roofs
Rain
Steam
Stream-beds
Fire.
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no subject
Date: 2005-05-02 07:32 am (UTC)The other Tarkovsky titles are
Ivan's Childhood
Stalker
Nostalgia
He only made 7 feature films.
L'Atalante is a French movie from the 1930s about people living on a barge.
81/2 is Fellini's autobiographical movie about a film-maker suffering from creative block.
Aguirre Wrath of God is a German movie starring Klaus Kinski, about a bunch of Conquistadors looking for the city of gold.
L'Avventura is by Antonioni.I haven't seen it.
There are several movies about Joan of Arc. I think this one is the silent by the Dane, Carl Dreyer.
They're all of them European art house classics. And all well worth a look.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-02 07:37 am (UTC)