Andrei Tarkovsky, The Mirror

Tarkovsky (1932 - 1986) is widely regarded as one of the most remarkable film makers of the 20th century. He produced a very small number of films - only eight - during his career (from 1960 to 1984). As two major film scholars have put it, "during his lifetime Tarkovsky ... generally received grudging official recognition at home and had been in almost constant conflict with the bureaucracy over his films..." (Vida Johnson and Graham Petrie, The Films of Andrei Tarkovsky: A Visual Fugue, p. 3).

Tarkovsky is renowned for his intensely lyrical vision; the difficulty of his films; and for his exploration in film of profound human, existential and philosophical problems. The Mirror was made in 1975, and while it was released in the Soviet Union, it got very limited distribution (often it was shown in out-of-the-way theatres on the periphery of cities). The film is both intensely personal (much of the material is biographical) and broadly human; while it deals with details of Tarkovsky's life, it also touches on questions that are central to Russian culture, and to human culture more broadly.

Tarkovsky is notoriously difficult, but can be overwhelmingly gripping in his blending of visual imagery, sound and music, fragments of story and allusions to the mythical. As you watch this film for the first time, I suggest several strategies for opening yourself to the film:

Try to 'go with the flow' and be patient with the film. It's not put together in a linear, plot-driven fashion, but you will see recurring figures and scenes, which you may begin to make sense of more after the fact. Memory and the power of memory are important themes of the film, and Tarkovsky may want you to do some Ôremembering' of your own as you begin to process the film.

Watch for recurring images and patterns of images - after you have seen the film, I recommend that you spend some time writing down some of those images, and letting your memory and imagination (still under Tarkovsky's spell) roam around, making connections or posing questions. These will become some of the material that we work with in class on Tuesday.

Tarkovsky makes some use of documentary footage in the film. We can talk more about these on Tuesday - but it may help you to know that some of the childhood sequences are from the war period (1941 - 45) in Russia; that there is footage from thelate 30's (of Spanish orphans - refugees from the Spanish Civil war - being brought to Russia); and that the shots of angry Chinese refer to a period of heightened tension between China and the Soviet Union in the mid 1960's.

There are many ways in which Tarkovsky refers to the heritage of European and Russian culture in this film: in the music which he uses (Bach and Pergolesi), visual references to Leonard da Vinci, and in a long citation from Pyotr Chaadaev, an early 19th century Russian intellectual. Chaadaev is famous for his claim that Russia "has no history" - because Russia existed outside of the European (i.e. Roman Catholic) church, she had not participated in the intellectual and cultural development of Western Christendom. This claim was responded to with much vehemence and creativity throughout the 19th century, by writers and artists who wanted to show the vitality and distinctness of Russia's different path. [This is perhaps not irrelevant to our own world: do countries that don't follow the model of European - or American - development Òhave a past?Ó Is their culture legitimate? Do they ÒcountÓ in the world? How does it feel to their people, whether intellectuals or more 'common folk,' that their culture feels 'backward' and out of sync?]

Finally, Tarkovsky is concerned with memory, with love, with what endures- and with the fragility of human life. And he is concerned with the possibilities of articulation - whether in language or in other media. Hence the opening scene (also a documentary clip, from Russian TV). Talking about the film can be hard Ð but I hope we'll be able to explore some of its images and significant scenes together.