IMHO, if you’ll be watching your first Tarkovsky film start with Stalker, which is how my girlfriend (now wife of 27 years), introduced me to him many years ago. I was very much a Fellini person, and the Bergman-Tarkovsky school seemed cryptic (at best) at the time. When finished, ask yourself (1) if you would have gone into the room and (2) what the dreamlike sequences with Stalker’s son meant.
Second one should be Solaris, if you’re into SciFi or The Mirror if you’re not of if you’d like a challenge. I think The Mirror is the better movie, the woman (stand in for T’s mom) looking at the wheat field (T had these specifically planted for the film!) haunts me to this day.
I personally couldn’t relate to The Sacrifice, perhaps his most personal film. His earlier films (Ivan and Rublev) I could not watch at all.
To be a genius artist like him in the Soviet Union meant privileges unheard for art film directors in Europe (let alone US), eg see the wheat field thing above. It also meant you’re at the mercy of the “masses”. I had read an article once that included a comment for The Mirror from a regular filmgoer, saying after 30mins it caused such a headache! The funding was based on such feedback and the movie was labeled as elitist (it is) which greatly impacted his career. It’s infuriating to think T lost time due to such petty interference (OTOH, I could only finish the film on my third try, falling asleep in first two attempts! So she had a point)
Stalker is a beautiful movie but perhaps not the easiest one to watch, especially if you are not used to 10 min long shots of nature (e.g., water in a stream). Possibly Solaris, which you recommend too, would be an easier movie to watch first.
My personal recommendation for a Tarkovsky's first is his diploma film The Steamroller and the Violin (1960, 46 min, co-written with Andrei Konchalovsky).
It was surprisingly watchable [for me] and I wish I had watched it first myself before I was exposed to the Mirror when I was 16.
I consider myself a person who really loves and appreciates film, but I could not parse Stalker. It’s clearly dense with meaning and subtext, but I think I had too much going on in my head when I was watching it to appreciate what was going on.
>To be a genius artist like him in the Soviet Union meant privileges unheard for art film directors in Europe (let alone US), eg see the wheat field thing above. It also meant you’re at the mercy of the “masses”.
It also meant being at the mercy and whims of the Communist party. Like Polish genius director Andrzej Żuławski, who filmed almost his entire magnum opus "On the Silver Globe," only to have the Communist government cancel the project and order the destruction of what was filmed.
The greatest science fiction movie never made. I get goosebumps every single time I watch these trailers:
> what the dreamlike sequences with Stalker’s son meant
I though he had a daughter, am I misremembering?
Interesting tidbit, after a year of filming scenes the prints were damaged in processing and were unusable. [1] He had to completely (almost) reshoot the film a second time. I always wondered about the difference between the original shoot and the reshoot, what no one got to see.
It might help new viewers to understand that Tarkovsky viewed film as art, not entertainment. As such, he purposely avoided strong narratives or plots, instead focusing on poetry, mood, and time.
From the book "Sculpting in Time" by Tarkovsky himself: "I find poetic links, the logic of poetry in cinema, extraordinarily pleasing. They seem to me perfectly appropriate to the potential of cinema as the most truthful and poetic
of art forms. Certainly I am more at home with them than with traditional theatrical writing which links images through the linear, rigidly logical development of the plot. That sort of fussily correct way of linking events usually involves arbitrarily forcing them into sequence in obedience to some abstract notion of order. And even when this is not so, even when the plot is governed by the characters, one finds that the links which hold it together rest on a facile interpretation of life's complexities."
Solaris in particular seems more relevant than ever with the rise of ChatGPT and other generative AI services that do not understand what their outputs mean to us, and often produce eery simulacra of life.
The final scenes of Solaris show this situation brilliantly in that their content matches the way it is shown: The scenes themselves mirror the depicted content with perplexing compositions, zooms and transitions, almost as if they were themselves created by an entity that does not understand the content or medium:
Tarkovsky's "Stalker" is loosely based on the "Roadside Picnic"[1] a sci-fi novel of Strugatsky brothers.
A. and B. Strugatsky are not that much recognized in the western countries as Andrey Tarkovsky, but they made significant contribution to the Russian literature of XX century, and their books are still popular in the post-soviet countries. In particular, the Roadside Picnic influenced many modern sci-fi works too, including, for example, the "S.T.A.L.K.E.R." and the "Metro" video game series.
Tarkovsky's "Stalker" is quite distinctive from Strugatsky's novel both in style and plot, but the screenplay of the movie was written by Strugatsy brothers too. Basically, they made completely different work in the same setting, but following completely different narrative. Also, they included a lot of pieces from their other (lesser famous) work "The Ugly Swans" into the screenplay, which is closer to Tarkovsky's film style. For example, the Writer's monologue[2] is just a direct translation of the same monologue from The Ugly Swans.
"Solaris", another Tarkovsky's famous sci-fi movie, based on Stanislav Lem's novel of the same title, was a more controversial work. Stanislav Lem made quite critical reception of this adaptation that simplifies and distorted his novel's original ideas. However, I think that Tarkovsky's "Solaris" is still the best adaptation of this book we currently have.
Aside from this, I would recommend "Ivan's Childhood" a war movie about orphaned child, and the "Andrei Rublev" a historical movie about the famous Russian Orthdox icon painter set place in the late middle ages, and about survival of artistic people in hard times.
The reason Stalker is so different from Roadside Picnic is very simply that Tarkovsky made the film twice, the second time without the original script.
He spent an entire summer filming the Strugatskys' original screenplay. But he was using American Kodak 5247 film stock that was found to be out of date. He tried several times to confirm the problem with the Soviet processing lab, but they were unfamiliar with the stock, and only by the time he was done shooting did they realize that the filmed footage was in fact unusable. Tarkovsky himself suspected it may have been sabotage. Apparently (I've never been able to confirm this) the sepia footage at the beginning of the film is from this footage.
Tarkovsky was at this point despondent, not just unhappy with the destruction of his footage, but also with the direction the film was taking, and with his cinematographer (Rerberg, who was critical of the film and the script), whom he fired shortly thereafter. While negotiating with the Soviet film board to get more money and time to reshoot the film, he had several workshops with the Strugatskys to try to develop a better screenplay. Eventually Boris gave up and flew back home, but Arkady persisted, and finally wrote Tarkovsky a short treatment that suggested reducing the entire film to a bare-bones, more philosophical story with nameless characters and very few overt scifi elements. He then encouraged Tarkovsky to go do his own thing.
This appears to have been the breakthrough that helped Tarkovsky find the direction and inspiration he needed, and he used the treatment as the basis for a new screenplay that ended up having very little to do with the book. He wrote enthuastically to Arkady that for the first time as a director he had a screenplay he could call his own. (His previous films had all been written by others, or collaborations, and mostly adaptations.)
Eventually, Tarkovsky was able to negotiate with the film board to shoot a two-part film instead. They would pretend his first shoot, which had already been financed, was the "first part", and he received the necessary funding to shoot the second half. The Strutgatskys, who were still credited, weren't very happy with the final film.
The whole story of Stalker is complicated. I recommend the book "The Films of Andrei Tarkovsky: A Visual Fugue", by Johnson and Petrie, for more information.
The best way to watch these movies would be by pirating them from the RuTracker, as that way you will be sure that you are not contributing any views or advertisement money to the Mosfilm, with a bonus of much higher bitrates.
Battleship Potemkin by Sergei Eisenstein is in public domain, and so you can legally watch any other upload on YouTube instead of Mosfilm's, for example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsQcljysO-8
There are things more important in life than ad revenue, and MosFilm can't directly get it from YouTube at the moment anyway.
RuTracker should always be one of the first options to consider, but I wouldn't be that zealous. Official subtitles might be the biggest problem, as they don't seem to have a definite source. Some are expressive (up to metrical translation of the songs) but too liberal, some were certainly made by cheapest freelancers they could find. The user has to know beforehand that better translations can sometimes be found, and that it is possible to use extensions to load subtitles from local files. Re-uploading the videos as distinct native and translated versions, and changing softsubs to hardsubs and vice versa is another problem resulting in link rot. Video itself usually seems to be fine, though one of the SD masters of “Stalker” was known for relying on digital film stabilization which resulted in artifacts on faster panning shots, but in that case it was the same on DVDs.
For comparison, LenFilm also uploaded movies to YouTube, and they had masterpieces of Alexei German in 1080p, but either recorded with botched brightness correction through some kind of screen capture software at superfast settings, or watermarked with landline phone number (in a second decade of a 21st century) of some subcontracting studio. The whole thing probably relied on some clueless intern uploading files from their office PC. However, LenFilm has been banned as vile and daaangerous “state-controlled media”, and neither German, nor popular Soviet adventure movies for kids, nor dull and boring soc-realistic factory life dramas are officially there.
Personally, I am a bit skeptical about the image of a regular multi-tasking user seeing the scene of a interrogation, a remark about the suicide of Mayakovsky, and a dinner, and getting it all.
Plus if you are not in an a t m o s p h e r i c mood, you can watch Moscow - Cassiopeia (kids space film) and Kuryer (coming of age comedic drama in EOL CCCP) instead.
And then The War of the Worlds: Next Century with Iron Idem for dark comedy that's even less a fan of Soviet stuff
Having these movies, and many others, on YouTube is a net positive. I already saw most of Tarkovsky's movies, but I found on Mosfilm's account on YT a few more good movies, it will be a good way to spend the nights during this summer.
I would like to have a simple way to get these movies offline without paying YT premium for 720p, so your links are welcome.
If anyone is wondering if there's any relation with the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games, like me:
> While not a direct adaptation, the video game series S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is heavily influenced by Roadside Picnic. The first game in the series, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, references many important plot points from the book, such as the wish granter and the unknown force blocking the path to the center of the zone. It also contains elements such as anomalies and artifacts that are similar to those described in the book, but that are created by a supernatural ecological disaster, not by alien visitors.
> The book is referenced in the post-apocalyptic video game Metro 2033. A character shuffles through a shelf of books in a ruined library and finds Roadside Picnic, he states that it is "something familiar". Metro 2033 was created by individuals who had worked on S.T.A.L.K.E.R. before founding their own video game development company. The game was based on a novel of the same name which also took influence from Roadside Picnic.
I liked Solaris while watching it, but it's one of those movies that's kind of "stuck" with me. I find myself thinking about it at random moments, just kind of pondering its themes. I've always been interested in the fine line of "real" and "creation" (my favorite movie is Ghost in the Shell (1995)), and I think Solaris does a good job exploring the interesting themes about how our memories of a person an the actual person are different and the same.
It being free on YouTube is as good of an excuse as any to re-watch it.
More generally, heaps of old Soviet movies are available in HD (and often subtitled) on Mosfilm YT channel, putting you a yt-dlp away from a movies night.
Was re-watching The Limits of Control by Jim Jarmusch recently, and realised it had a reference to Tarkovsky's Stalker in the scene with the "cinema lady".
"The best films are like dreams you're never sure you've really had. I have this image in my head of a room full of sand. And a bird flies towards me, and dips its wing into the sand. And I honestly have no idea whether this image came from a dream, or a film"
And while we are here: There used to be a huge Tarkowsky copycat movement at the film festivals, which flamed out just 10 years ago.
But just now another one appeared, the Quinzaine premiere "Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell" by Thien An Pham which I attended. The guy is also seriously depressed (as Tarkowsky) and would need professional help, but the critics are still flocking to it. And I didn't fall asleep as with other similar films.
Weird fact about Stalker, they were shooting in disused USSR factories that had just been left as-is -- a lot of people on set got cancer not much longer after shooting, likely from being around so much industrial waste.
It's also way better than the book it was based on IMO (Roadside Picnic).
The Stalker shooting locations are actually close to Tallinn in Estonia, a former Soviet republic that’s an EU and NATO member today. So if watching the film turns you into a super fan, it’s not too hard to go visit the sites!
Tarkovski's movies have what you could call a Russian sentiment. Hard to put in words what exactly that means but perhaps some fatalism and melancholy, how things are what they are and do not easily change except in our dreams. Looking back at Soviet Union and now Putin's Russia, and even the autocratic Czarist Russia before revolution, it is easy to understand where that sentiment comes from. But it makes for great, thoughtful art.
Another great Russian movie from a contemporary director of Tarkovski is "A Few Days from the Life of I.I. Oblomov":
Well put. Fatalism and melancholy are great descriptions of it.
One such interesting culture clash happened when the Soviets went to Cuba to shoot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_Cuba. A beautiful movie, fantastic cinematography by Kalatozov, but the Cubans just never liked it. The portrayal of Cubans is very much what Russians thought Cubans might be like, as opposed to how Cubans see themselves.
And that sentiment is replicated by the director Andrey Zvyagintsev, in e.g. The Return (2003) or Leviathan. Both great movies with beautiful cinematography and very Russian feeling.
Funny that he actually already blogged about this back when they became available in 2010 (Mosfilm since introduced a new channel guess that’s where the newness come from)
I remember watching Adrei Rublev for the first time, getting more and more pissed the whole time. It wasn't the technique. I had already seen Solaris. It was the hapless passiveness of the main character. However, the bell making sequence really drew me in. I had this immense tension waiting to see how it would turn out. The ending broke me and suddenly the whole movie clicked for me.
I don't wish to spoil it or taint someone else's experience so I'll just say, many films have a plot twist at the end but I can't really think of another movie that manages that kind of an emotional turn. Not without something pretty hammy like a surprise betrayal or death. Andrei Rublev will always stick with me.
I'm surprised no one has mentioned Tarkovsky's clear influence on Terrence Malick's style. If you like anything by Malick, say, The Tree of Life or the most recent A Hidden Life, you should at least watch Mirror or Stalker.
Interesting— I like both but I wouldn’t think of Tarkovsky as having an influence on Malick. What would you say are the similarities, for you? Tarkovsky is intensely formal, seems blocked to the point of almost being choreographed, while Malick is quite the opposite in both regards.
I saw A Hidden Life within the last month and it is one of the best movies I have seen. I have also seen Stalker and after an interesting start it eventually bored me. I can see why you make the comparison, but I found them very different.
The colour grading on Stalker on YouTube seems quite different to other versions floating around. The YT version seems to have lost the heavy yellow cast of the other versions.
Does anyone know which is "correct"? It makes quite a difference to the feel of the film.
[+] [-] Jun8|2 years ago|reply
Second one should be Solaris, if you’re into SciFi or The Mirror if you’re not of if you’d like a challenge. I think The Mirror is the better movie, the woman (stand in for T’s mom) looking at the wheat field (T had these specifically planted for the film!) haunts me to this day.
I personally couldn’t relate to The Sacrifice, perhaps his most personal film. His earlier films (Ivan and Rublev) I could not watch at all.
To be a genius artist like him in the Soviet Union meant privileges unheard for art film directors in Europe (let alone US), eg see the wheat field thing above. It also meant you’re at the mercy of the “masses”. I had read an article once that included a comment for The Mirror from a regular filmgoer, saying after 30mins it caused such a headache! The funding was based on such feedback and the movie was labeled as elitist (it is) which greatly impacted his career. It’s infuriating to think T lost time due to such petty interference (OTOH, I could only finish the film on my third try, falling asleep in first two attempts! So she had a point)
[+] [-] dr_kiszonka|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] PyWoody|2 years ago|reply
Not the same but it made me think of Akira Kurosawa spends 12 hours on a single shot...only to cut it[0]
[0]https://old.reddit.com/r/criterion/comments/pamqsd/akira_kur...
[+] [-] omazurov|2 years ago|reply
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Steamroller_and_the_Violin
[+] [-] kodt|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] coldtea|2 years ago|reply
Those also require a familiarity and understanding of the relevant culture of those places.
[+] [-] dclowd9901|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] virgulino|2 years ago|reply
It also meant being at the mercy and whims of the Communist party. Like Polish genius director Andrzej Żuławski, who filmed almost his entire magnum opus "On the Silver Globe," only to have the Communist government cancel the project and order the destruction of what was filmed.
The greatest science fiction movie never made. I get goosebumps every single time I watch these trailers:
https://youtu.be/zBFRiSlcBAg
https://youtu.be/HFf5BGNpnJ0
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Silver_Globe_(film)
[+] [-] lordfrito|2 years ago|reply
I though he had a daughter, am I misremembering?
Interesting tidbit, after a year of filming scenes the prints were damaged in processing and were unusable. [1] He had to completely (almost) reshoot the film a second time. I always wondered about the difference between the original shoot and the reshoot, what no one got to see.
[1] https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0079944/trivia
[+] [-] EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK|2 years ago|reply
Um, daughter.
[+] [-] 0xr0kk3r|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] myth_drannon|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] the_gipsy|2 years ago|reply
(3) did the stalker / Tarkovski just bring you to the room
[+] [-] signa11|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] thriftwy|2 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] mdswanson|2 years ago|reply
From the book "Sculpting in Time" by Tarkovsky himself: "I find poetic links, the logic of poetry in cinema, extraordinarily pleasing. They seem to me perfectly appropriate to the potential of cinema as the most truthful and poetic of art forms. Certainly I am more at home with them than with traditional theatrical writing which links images through the linear, rigidly logical development of the plot. That sort of fussily correct way of linking events usually involves arbitrarily forcing them into sequence in obedience to some abstract notion of order. And even when this is not so, even when the plot is governed by the characters, one finds that the links which hold it together rest on a facile interpretation of life's complexities."
[+] [-] 1shooner|2 years ago|reply
Somewhat similar to Terrence Malick in that way (but I'd say Malick is much more approachable).
[+] [-] triska|2 years ago|reply
The final scenes of Solaris show this situation brilliantly in that their content matches the way it is shown: The scenes themselves mirror the depicted content with perplexing compositions, zooms and transitions, almost as if they were themselves created by an entity that does not understand the content or medium:
https://youtu.be/Z8ZhQPaw4rE?t=9489
Quoting from the book:
"QUESTION: Do you mean, for example, that the hands didn’t move as human hands would move, because the joints were not sufficiently supple?
BERTON: No, not at all. But . . . these movements had no meaning. Each of our movements means something, more or less, serves some purpose . . . "
[+] [-] Der_Einzige|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Eliah_Lakhin|2 years ago|reply
A. and B. Strugatsky are not that much recognized in the western countries as Andrey Tarkovsky, but they made significant contribution to the Russian literature of XX century, and their books are still popular in the post-soviet countries. In particular, the Roadside Picnic influenced many modern sci-fi works too, including, for example, the "S.T.A.L.K.E.R." and the "Metro" video game series.
Tarkovsky's "Stalker" is quite distinctive from Strugatsky's novel both in style and plot, but the screenplay of the movie was written by Strugatsy brothers too. Basically, they made completely different work in the same setting, but following completely different narrative. Also, they included a lot of pieces from their other (lesser famous) work "The Ugly Swans" into the screenplay, which is closer to Tarkovsky's film style. For example, the Writer's monologue[2] is just a direct translation of the same monologue from The Ugly Swans.
"Solaris", another Tarkovsky's famous sci-fi movie, based on Stanislav Lem's novel of the same title, was a more controversial work. Stanislav Lem made quite critical reception of this adaptation that simplifies and distorted his novel's original ideas. However, I think that Tarkovsky's "Solaris" is still the best adaptation of this book we currently have.
Aside from this, I would recommend "Ivan's Childhood" a war movie about orphaned child, and the "Andrei Rublev" a historical movie about the famous Russian Orthdox icon painter set place in the late middle ages, and about survival of artistic people in hard times.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roadside_Picnic
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwIoSI1Eqak
[+] [-] atombender|2 years ago|reply
He spent an entire summer filming the Strugatskys' original screenplay. But he was using American Kodak 5247 film stock that was found to be out of date. He tried several times to confirm the problem with the Soviet processing lab, but they were unfamiliar with the stock, and only by the time he was done shooting did they realize that the filmed footage was in fact unusable. Tarkovsky himself suspected it may have been sabotage. Apparently (I've never been able to confirm this) the sepia footage at the beginning of the film is from this footage.
Tarkovsky was at this point despondent, not just unhappy with the destruction of his footage, but also with the direction the film was taking, and with his cinematographer (Rerberg, who was critical of the film and the script), whom he fired shortly thereafter. While negotiating with the Soviet film board to get more money and time to reshoot the film, he had several workshops with the Strugatskys to try to develop a better screenplay. Eventually Boris gave up and flew back home, but Arkady persisted, and finally wrote Tarkovsky a short treatment that suggested reducing the entire film to a bare-bones, more philosophical story with nameless characters and very few overt scifi elements. He then encouraged Tarkovsky to go do his own thing.
This appears to have been the breakthrough that helped Tarkovsky find the direction and inspiration he needed, and he used the treatment as the basis for a new screenplay that ended up having very little to do with the book. He wrote enthuastically to Arkady that for the first time as a director he had a screenplay he could call his own. (His previous films had all been written by others, or collaborations, and mostly adaptations.)
Eventually, Tarkovsky was able to negotiate with the film board to shoot a two-part film instead. They would pretend his first shoot, which had already been financed, was the "first part", and he received the necessary funding to shoot the second half. The Strutgatskys, who were still credited, weren't very happy with the final film.
The whole story of Stalker is complicated. I recommend the book "The Films of Andrei Tarkovsky: A Visual Fugue", by Johnson and Petrie, for more information.
[+] [-] leoc|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dang|2 years ago|reply
How 'Stalker' claimed the life of Andrei Tarkovsky and his wife - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32588569 - Aug 2022 (1 comment)
The Drenching Richness of Andrei Tarkovsky - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29782009 - Jan 2022 (79 comments)
The Drenching Richness of Andrei Tarkovsky - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26132544 - Feb 2021 (1 comment)
The Drenching Richness of Andrei Tarkovsky - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26126004 - Feb 2021 (44 comments)
Andrei Tarkovsky’s Message to the Young: “Learn to Be Alone” (2015) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22196779 - Jan 2020 (91 comments)
Andrei Tarkovsky – Poetic Harmony [video] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11601651 - April 2016 (18 comments)
Tarkovsky Films Free Online (2010) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7107215 - Jan 2014 (52 comments)
[+] [-] anonymfus|2 years ago|reply
Here are the links:
Solaris — https://rutracker.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6191155
Stalker — https://rutracker.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6182463
Ivan's Childhood — https://rutracker.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6194960
The Mirror — https://rutracker.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6194964
Andrei Rublev — https://rutracker.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6194948
The Passion According to Andrei — https://rutracker.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5820633
Battleship Potemkin by Sergei Eisenstein is in public domain, and so you can legally watch any other upload on YouTube instead of Mosfilm's, for example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsQcljysO-8
[+] [-] ogurechny|2 years ago|reply
RuTracker should always be one of the first options to consider, but I wouldn't be that zealous. Official subtitles might be the biggest problem, as they don't seem to have a definite source. Some are expressive (up to metrical translation of the songs) but too liberal, some were certainly made by cheapest freelancers they could find. The user has to know beforehand that better translations can sometimes be found, and that it is possible to use extensions to load subtitles from local files. Re-uploading the videos as distinct native and translated versions, and changing softsubs to hardsubs and vice versa is another problem resulting in link rot. Video itself usually seems to be fine, though one of the SD masters of “Stalker” was known for relying on digital film stabilization which resulted in artifacts on faster panning shots, but in that case it was the same on DVDs.
For comparison, LenFilm also uploaded movies to YouTube, and they had masterpieces of Alexei German in 1080p, but either recorded with botched brightness correction through some kind of screen capture software at superfast settings, or watermarked with landline phone number (in a second decade of a 21st century) of some subcontracting studio. The whole thing probably relied on some clueless intern uploading files from their office PC. However, LenFilm has been banned as vile and daaangerous “state-controlled media”, and neither German, nor popular Soviet adventure movies for kids, nor dull and boring soc-realistic factory life dramas are officially there.
Personally, I am a bit skeptical about the image of a regular multi-tasking user seeing the scene of a interrogation, a remark about the suicide of Mayakovsky, and a dinner, and getting it all.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFZa9CVBeJY&t=2669
Three decades of talking about multimedia, and we still don't have a convenient commentary system to hold all the explanations and notes.
[+] [-] thrdbndndn|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] themodelplumber|2 years ago|reply
Plus if you are not in an a t m o s p h e r i c mood, you can watch Moscow - Cassiopeia (kids space film) and Kuryer (coming of age comedic drama in EOL CCCP) instead.
And then The War of the Worlds: Next Century with Iron Idem for dark comedy that's even less a fan of Soviet stuff
[+] [-] AdrianB1|2 years ago|reply
I would like to have a simple way to get these movies offline without paying YT premium for 720p, so your links are welcome.
[+] [-] rickstanley|2 years ago|reply
Also, about Metro 2033 (game):
[+] [-] pavlov|2 years ago|reply
I believe Tarkovsky himself preferred the final cut which is 20 minutes shorter (but still over three hours, so not exactly a cinematic snack).
[+] [-] sorokod|2 years ago|reply
https://m.youtube.com/@Mosfilm_eng/videos
[+] [-] tombert|2 years ago|reply
It being free on YouTube is as good of an excuse as any to re-watch it.
[+] [-] shakow|2 years ago|reply
https://www.youtube.com/@Mosfilm_eng
[+] [-] Galicarnax|2 years ago|reply
"The best films are like dreams you're never sure you've really had. I have this image in my head of a room full of sand. And a bird flies towards me, and dips its wing into the sand. And I honestly have no idea whether this image came from a dream, or a film"
[+] [-] Schiendelman|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rurban|2 years ago|reply
But just now another one appeared, the Quinzaine premiere "Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell" by Thien An Pham which I attended. The guy is also seriously depressed (as Tarkowsky) and would need professional help, but the critics are still flocking to it. And I didn't fall asleep as with other similar films.
https://variety.com/2023/film/reviews/inside-the-yellow-coco... https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/inside-the-yellow-cocoon...
[+] [-] the-mitr|2 years ago|reply
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUtZOl_QxvY
and White Tiger
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soRIjIJAUfA
[+] [-] StrangeATractor|2 years ago|reply
It's also way better than the book it was based on IMO (Roadside Picnic).
[+] [-] bookofjoe|2 years ago|reply
"Roadside Picnic" pdf: https://soviethistory.msu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/pic...
[+] [-] pavlov|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] galaxyLogic|2 years ago|reply
Another great Russian movie from a contemporary director of Tarkovski is "A Few Days from the Life of I.I. Oblomov":
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079619/
[+] [-] rdtsc|2 years ago|reply
One such interesting culture clash happened when the Soviets went to Cuba to shoot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_Cuba. A beautiful movie, fantastic cinematography by Kalatozov, but the Cubans just never liked it. The portrayal of Cubans is very much what Russians thought Cubans might be like, as opposed to how Cubans see themselves.
[+] [-] tpm|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] haunter|2 years ago|reply
https://kottke.org/10/07/tarkovsky-films-online-for-free-vie...
[+] [-] DubiousPusher|2 years ago|reply
I don't wish to spoil it or taint someone else's experience so I'll just say, many films have a plot twist at the end but I can't really think of another movie that manages that kind of an emotional turn. Not without something pretty hammy like a surprise betrayal or death. Andrei Rublev will always stick with me.
[+] [-] PyWoody|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] david927|2 years ago|reply
Exhibit A: https://vimeo.com/153979733
[+] [-] nimbleal|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mongol|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] JenrHywy|2 years ago|reply
Does anyone know which is "correct"? It makes quite a difference to the feel of the film.