9 replies to this topic

[Sundered]

As pieces of imagery and as poetry I love it without reserve but I'm still not fully grasping the themes. I know that Tarkovsky is a very dense filmmaker and there are some scenes where the tone alone gives me feelings that could come together into the vaguest of overall impressions. Maybe a commentary would help, he sets up these settings that are so surreal and subtly confusing that they are practically paintings and then he places character and dialogue and context in there and it becomes just too much to take in. Add to this his penchant for completely switching gears (mood, setting, characters) and within twenty minutes, any framework I have for an analysis is almost completely destroyed. I know I shouldn't even be talking yet as Tarkovsky apparently takes a very long time to sink in but I can already tell this is one I'll have to see again before I can even begin to make sense of it. Again though, several of the sequences are unspeakably lovely. His style is extraordinary, I just wish at the moment that his substance was a wee bit easier to untangle.

Does anyone have any ideas as to what it all means?

[Ron Reed]

I'm afraid I'm pretty much a neophyte when it comes to Tarkovsky. THE SACRIFICE blew me away when I saw it, around the time it first came out. I saw ANDREI ROUBLEV last summer, and came away with very much the reaction you describe - I admired it, wasn't caught up in it the way some of my Tarkophile friends were, and was convinced it would require (and reward) several more viewings.

The next Tarkos I'm going to tackle are SOLARIS and STALKER. I have the sense (probably mistaken) that both might be slightly more accessible than, say, NOSTALGHIA or THE MIRROR.

Haven't seen much of Doug Cummings around the board this summer, but he'll have great things to say about this when next he drops in. And I think Russell Lucas may also be a fan?

[Christian]

Wonderful film, Sundered. Don't despair about your reaction -- and, certainly, don't give up on Tarkovsky. His films can be difficult to understand, and our reactions can be difficult to express.

Tarkovsky discusses the audience/filmmaker interaction, and certain critical views of his work, here. And I'm sure Doug would point you here.

If I had to sum up Nostalghia in a few words, I would say, "It's about the longing for one's home." But that doesn't do the film justice in any way, does it? Your grappling with it is far preferable, I think.

Edited by Christian, 07 August 2004 - 03:17 PM.

[TBeane]

This is my favorite Tarkovsky: for the candle walk, Eugenia's experience of the Virgin-worshipping nuns in the rural church, the Madonna del Parto, and the exquisite long shots moving through the brown environments.

Can anyone speak to the quality of the South Korean imported DVD? I imagine it's not very good, eh?

[M. Leary]

Here is a good rundown of the various DVDs.

And yes, though this isn't my favorite Tarkovsky, the candlewalk is astonishing. Ranks right next to the Solaris driving scene and the Stalker rail scene as the holy Trinity of Tarkovsky movement scenes.

Edited by MLeary, 06 November 2009 - 11:08 AM.

[KShaw]

Quote

And yes, though this isn't my favorite Tarkovsky, the candlewalk is astonishing. Ranks right next to the Solarisdriving scene and the Stalker rail scene as the holy Trinity of Tarkovsky movement scenes.

You mean the 5 minute POV montage of Japanese roadways? I haven't seen the other two scenes mentioned, but I'm surprised by this one. It hasn't aged well at all; at the time, Japan's winding road systems probably did have a taste of the sci-fi, but now they fix the setting in our present, not the future. Plus, I was under the impression from watching DVD commentary that Tarkovsky made the scene so long mainly to justify the expense of going to Japan to film. I've heard it called mesmerizing, but... it was not a high point of the film, for me.

[TBeane]

MLeary, on 05 November 2009 - 11:08 PM, said:

Here is a good rundown of the various DVDs.

And yes, though this isn't my favorite Tarkovsky, the candlewalk is astonishing. Ranks right next to the Solaris driving scene and the Stalker rail scene as the holy Trinity of Tarkovsky movement scenes.

I think you forgot to embed the link, thanks though.

[M. Leary]

Link fixed.

KShaw, on 05 November 2009 - 11:50 PM, said:

You mean the 5 minute POV montage of Japanese roadways? I haven't seen the other two scenes mentioned, but I'm surprised by this one. It hasn't aged well at all; at the time, Japan's winding road systems probably did have a taste of the sci-fi, but now they fix the setting in our present, not the future. Plus, I was under the impression from watching DVD commentary that Tarkovsky made the scene so long mainly to justify the expense of going to Japan to film. I've heard it called mesmerizing, but... it was not a high point of the film, for me.

I have always thought that thought that Tarkovsky did have to fight the system to get funding to shoot in Japan, as it was the right set for the context of the film, and it was allowed to be included in the final cut because they had already spent so much cash on it. For Tarkovsky, this was serendipitous, because it was such an important passage in the structure of the film. He kind of gamed the system to get it in.

And without this passage, the film would lose a lot of its momentum in the way it attempts to define the relationship of earth and space as stand-ins for the more spiritual concepts of earth and heaven. In the liner notes to Sufjan Steven's BQE album, he describes urban streets, tunnels, and bridges as birth canals, umbilical cords, passages linked to birth and rebirth. This is a great description of Tarkovksy's driving scene in Solaris, as he is moving through a channel to a point of rebirth and ascent. This is the central transition of the film, and without the driving interlude, there would be no structural device in the film that would allow us the time and space to realize what is happening. It is an ascension.

[Tyler]

Tonino Guerra, who collaborated on the Nostalghia screenplay with Tarkovsky, has died. He was 92 years old.

He also wrote Blow-Up and Amarcord, among many other movies.

[du Garbandier]

Can I say that this film has had some orthographic impact on me? Whenever I need to spell "nostalgia," my finger almost always makes an impulsive flinch towards the accursed "h," sometimes pressing it, sometimes not. And then my thoughts frequently spill away from their previous subject and back to the film.