In 1986 or 87 there was a "Festival of Soviet Films" in the most east corner of the GDR where I used to live, with films that showed the actual artistry of film in the land of Breshnew, Andropow, Tschernenko and finally Gorbachev. I remember "Proschanie" by Klimov, "Dead man's letters" by Lopushansky - and one of the "add-on-program": "Zerkalo" by Tarkowski.
I was sitting there slowly understanding that the Soviet Union had not killed or banned all of her inconvenient masters of art and science, and I became addicted to Tarkowskis movies. No - they were essential nutriment.
New hope was rising: Will we hear the truth about Chernobyl?
Robert Palmer's "Addicted to love" was out and Tina Turner's "Private Dancer"... and I had noticed that there was a man living nearby called Vaclav Havel, who was a friend of Frank Zappa.
I was 25, had two sons and a new born daughter, and wondered how important the children in Tarkowskis films are. The Pushkin-letter read by a boy and the woman from the photograph without frame behind him looking into my eyes through the camera... and I remembered the first time I saw a house on fire (in the village where my grand parents lived, we stood there and I was looking at my grandfather... he said "noone can help here"). I was 6.
And I remembered "Ivan's childhood", which I had seen when I was 16 - I suddenly saw the soldier girl under the birches and asked the projectionist in the cinema "Is this from the same director?" - "Yes!"
"Zerkalo" showed me that cinema can be art. I was sitting there taking photos of the screen in my mind more than a hundred times, and when I left the cinema I said "beauty depends on how you look at the world".
That this is how the only mirror works I recognized later, but I had seen this, a great gift to my life. "Zerkalo" opened a door on which is written "simply watch, be aware and let it in". Time is not linear, and nobody will understand the life of another human being, but understanding this makes us able to understand each other.
Sometimes I think this is "The Best Movie Of All Times". But then I remember that there is no need to rank it.
Tarkowski gives hints - deliberately or not - that this is only his movie: at the beginning we can see the shadow of the microphone on the wall, at at the end we see the rail of the dolly between the trees. Why not standing still and watch them go? Yes, how to move a camera is one of the most telling skills in this movie - just like in his others.
"Zerkalo" is like "In a silent way" composed with camera and light...
I was sitting there slowly understanding that the Soviet Union had not killed or banned all of her inconvenient masters of art and science, and I became addicted to Tarkowskis movies. No - they were essential nutriment.
New hope was rising: Will we hear the truth about Chernobyl?
Robert Palmer's "Addicted to love" was out and Tina Turner's "Private Dancer"... and I had noticed that there was a man living nearby called Vaclav Havel, who was a friend of Frank Zappa.
I was 25, had two sons and a new born daughter, and wondered how important the children in Tarkowskis films are. The Pushkin-letter read by a boy and the woman from the photograph without frame behind him looking into my eyes through the camera... and I remembered the first time I saw a house on fire (in the village where my grand parents lived, we stood there and I was looking at my grandfather... he said "noone can help here"). I was 6.
And I remembered "Ivan's childhood", which I had seen when I was 16 - I suddenly saw the soldier girl under the birches and asked the projectionist in the cinema "Is this from the same director?" - "Yes!"
"Zerkalo" showed me that cinema can be art. I was sitting there taking photos of the screen in my mind more than a hundred times, and when I left the cinema I said "beauty depends on how you look at the world".
That this is how the only mirror works I recognized later, but I had seen this, a great gift to my life. "Zerkalo" opened a door on which is written "simply watch, be aware and let it in". Time is not linear, and nobody will understand the life of another human being, but understanding this makes us able to understand each other.
Sometimes I think this is "The Best Movie Of All Times". But then I remember that there is no need to rank it.
Tarkowski gives hints - deliberately or not - that this is only his movie: at the beginning we can see the shadow of the microphone on the wall, at at the end we see the rail of the dolly between the trees. Why not standing still and watch them go? Yes, how to move a camera is one of the most telling skills in this movie - just like in his others.
"Zerkalo" is like "In a silent way" composed with camera and light...