Snortemis

I certainly feel as though there is still much to be gained even from just the visual aspect of the film. It is one of Tarkovsky's most image heavy films, and certain sequences just stick in your head regardless of dialogue. Who could forget the barn burning? Or the ceiling collapse? People have said they sometimes watch Tarkovsky with the subtitles turned off, so as to enjoy the full scope of the picture without any intrusion. (Back to Werckmeister Harmonies - Facets burned in the subtitles, so they can't be turned off.) Criterion generally does a top-notch job with their releases, but i

A good friend of mine turned me on to Tarkovsky a couple of years ago, and I managed to see The Mirror even before he had. I told him that I had watched it twice, and that between the two viewings it had gone from being "impenetrable" to "extremely difficult". He withheld comment until he could see it. A few months later he saw it, and got back to me saying he too thought it was impenetrable, had no narrative, etc. which really shocked me. I mean, this same guy had helped me demystify another difficult Russian film, Ilya Khrjanovsky's 4 by putting it into a context based on Russia's current s