Andrei Tarkovsky

  On 9/11/2010 at 6:47 AM, ieafs said:

my favourite i think... the most beautiful/saddest films

 

mirror, stalker and andrei rublev are probably my favourites.

 

is his book translated then? i'm sure i looked that up a few years ago and though it was only in russian at that point.

 

those polaroids are unsurprisingly great looking... some of it inherent in the medium i guess, but they all look like stills from a film too. i think the best thing about polaroids for me is definitely the square frame. there's something much more cosy about a square frame - 6x4 or other rectangular formats suit sweeping landscapes and things but i think the square beats them for domestic type things.

landscapes fit great on square frames too. it's just a matter of balance and composition.

the rectangular shape is the one that best simulates our biological eye framing, but there are paintings and photography that seem to have been created exclusively to be enframed on a square.

film, on the other hand, would be very hard to develop in such frame. i guess it's something related to motion.

I decided to test out that "freeze frame = art" theory. It holds up.

I skipped around randomly and just took screen shots without even looking. This is what I got:

seriously only like two of those don't look like carefully composed still photographs.

No one would believe that those are random captures lol

did the same with andrei rublev, doesn't hold up quite as well but still quite stunning

it was filmed ~9 years before the mirror though, so yeah.

  On 9/11/2010 at 2:08 PM, disparaissant said:

I decided to test out that "freeze frame = art" theory. It holds up.

 

it's not strictly like this.

you don't simply make art out of film screens, i guess.

but that really shows how each of those sequences and shots were planned to the smallest detail.

and how about that movie, you enjoyed it?

  On 9/11/2010 at 2:37 PM, disparaissant said:

did the same with andrei rublev, doesn't hold up quite as well but still quite stunning

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Andrei Rublev, 1968

 

 

it was filmed ~9 years before the mirror though, so yeah.

those might not look so good, but it's the color that is missing.

the compositions here are also amazing.

yeah i dont mean that just taking a freeze frame = art, i just didn't feel like typing out what you said. each frame is pretty much perfectly composed.

and yeah, ive seen the films i've done this to, i had them sitting on a DVD from a while back actually. but ive honestly only seen stalker, solaris, the mirror, and andrei rublov. what should i try next?

  On 9/11/2010 at 2:45 PM, disparaissant said:

yeah i dont mean that just taking a freeze frame = art, i just didn't feel like typing out what you said. each frame is pretty much perfectly composed.

and yeah, ive seen the films i've done this to, i had them sitting on a DVD from a while back actually. but ive honestly only seen stalker, solaris, the mirror, and andrei rublov. what should i try next?

offret (translated The Sacrifice) and nostalgia.

these are kind of different in terms of language. the first one was filmed in swedish and the second in italian.

ohh i've actually seen nostalgia but not since college. i'll check them both out.

  On 9/11/2010 at 3:39 AM, lumpenprol said:

wry Russian sarcasm

interesting..im russian, wry and sarcastic and i've never felt that in his films, which one exactly ?

  On 9/11/2010 at 3:32 PM, eugene said:

  On 9/11/2010 at 3:39 AM, lumpenprol said:

wry Russian sarcasm

interesting..im russian, wry and sarcastic and i've never felt that in his films, which one exactly ?

he's certainly not the funniest director, but there's wry sarcasm in Stalker from the writer character, and to a lesser degree the stalker guy himself. I was trying to find the right way to say it. It's that russian sort of "humor", deriving some small entertainment value from pessimism/fatalism about the human condition. I guess it's present in jewish humor too come to think of it. I'm no expert.

Also, though Tarkovsky is no Beckett, I think there's some underlying absurdist humor in Stalker, simply by the fact that

Some of the work of Béla Tarr should appeal to Tarkovsky fans. Werckmeister Harmonies, Damnation and Satantango in particular. Tarr works on a similar level of skill and control when it comes to long slow shots. Content-wise, the main difference is that Tarr's movies avoid the blatant spiritual connotations.

Rewatched The Sacrifice yesterday. Still mindblowingly great. The story itself was a lot more comprehensible than I remembered, which makes it all the more admirable.

On the other hand, there were a few scenes where I really had the feeling he was stretching things out, making it unnecessarily long/slow. Like the part where the postman-friend tries to explain to Alexander that he needs to go see Maria, but Alexander doesn't seem to understand what he means. That scene seems to have a reason to be played out the way it is, but I can't figure out what it is. And the ending

how about jodorowsky? he's not too terribly far off early tarkovsky, cinematically. his ideas are certainly different haha.

what are the similarities? im having trouble thinking of any..

heavy-handed symbolicism?

http://people.ucalgary.ca/~tstronds/nostalghia.com/TheTopics/Symbols.html

"We can express our feelings regarding the world around us either by poetic or by descriptive means. I prefer to express myself metaphorically. Let me stress: metaphorically, not symbolically. A symbol contains within itself a definite meaning, certain intellectual formula, while metaphor is an image. An image possessing the same distinguishing features as the world it represents. An image — as opposed to a symbol — is indefinite in meaning. One cannot speak of the infinite world by applying tools that are definite and finite. We can analyse the formula that constitutes a symbol, while metaphor is a being-within-itself, it's a monomial. It falls apart at any attempt of touching it. "

Found out about this today http://trakovskyfilm.com/film/

and some text about it

http://imagejournal.org/page/blog/stalking-the-maker-of-stalker-part-1

http://imagejournal.org/page/blog/stalking-the-maker-of-stalker-part-2

  On 9/11/2010 at 8:27 PM, Z_B_Z said:

what are the similarities? im having trouble thinking of any..

i was thinking technically. the way they use the camera.

  On 9/11/2010 at 7:17 PM, disparaissant said:

how about jodorowsky? he's not too terribly far off early tarkovsky, cinematically. his ideas are certainly different haha.

The Holy Mountain might be the most mindfucking movie I've ever seen.

  On 9/12/2010 at 5:15 AM, futuregirlfriend said:

Found out about this today http://trakovskyfilm.com/film/

 

and some text about it

http://imagejournal.org/page/blog/stalking-the-maker-of-stalker-part-1

http://imagejournal.org/page/blog/stalking-the-maker-of-stalker-part-2

haven't heard about that docu yet, glad you posted this info.

also, the last guy talking in the trailer really resembles the director and is named tarkovsky as well. possibly his son?

Yeah, probably Andrei Jr.

another link http://people.ucalgary.ca/~tstronds/nostalghia.com/TheTopics/Tarkovsky_Guerra-1979.html

  On 9/12/2010 at 4:17 PM, futuregirlfriend said:

Yeah, probably Andrei Jr.

 

another link http://people.ucalgary.ca/~tstronds/nostalghia.com/TheTopics/Tarkovsky_Guerra-1979.html

incredible stuff there. i found a drawing he made, possibly as a kid, ahah:

also a painting:

This needs bumping, I went ahead and watched The Mirror last night. Oh dear lawwdd it was fucking incredible. There are so many shots that had me in a trance, eyes glued to the screen. Watching the film was like trying to recall a dream and trying to decipher the meaning behind it. Every little detail has such significance.

I'll probably have to watch Stalker again sometime, but right now the Mirror is on top.

Solaris still to be watched.

Okay, so I don't have The Mirror on DVD and I want it, but the reviews of the DVD on Amazon are discouraging. Does anyone know if Criterion plans on putting it out or does anyone know of a reputable DVD that I can buy. The Kino release seems to be the one that is easily accessible but many have complained about the translation and quality of the DVD itself.