Chris Marker’s One Day in the Life of Andrei Arsenevitch is perhaps the best film yet made by one (great) film-maker about another. A revelatory document, loving, lucid and lyrical, on the elemental structuring of Tarkovsky’s work, it marries moving footage of the terminally ill director shooting and struggling to finish his final film The Sacrifice with an exemplary assessment of the films and their importance, humane, humble and always open. In its own essential way, it too is a masterpiece. —Gareth Evans
Andrei Tarkovsky — the man who sculpted in time, “the one who invented a new language, true to the nature of film, as it captures life as a reflection, life as a dream” — was born on this day in 1932.
The longer I work in cinema the more convinced I am that this domain of art is not ruled by any laws. I do not even attempt to find them… Everything is possible. —Andrei Tarkovsky
The essential documentaries on Andrei Tarkovsky, including Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky (1988), Donatella Baglivo’s Andrei Tarkovsky in Nostalghia (1984), One Day in the Life of Andrei Arsenevitch (2001), Andrei Tarkovsky: A Poet in the Cinema (1983), Voyage in Time (1983), Andrei Tarkovsky & Sergei Parajanov: Islands (1987), Tarkovsky Interruptus (2012), Andrei Tarkovsky interview (1986, RTB, sinkronizirano na srpskom), and Tarkovsky’s Very First Films: Three Student Films, 1956-1960.
During the shooting of Andrei Tarkovsky’s last film Offret, cameraman Arne Carlsson taped around 50 hours of behind the scenes footage. Editor Michal Leszczylowski took the material and added scenes of previous interviews and interesting statements from the script of Offret and from Tarkovsky’s book ‘Sculpting in Time’. The result is a documentary that shows the way Tarkovksy worked: carefully building each scene. Shows why he did the things he did: his vision on film. And shows the emotion of the man Tarkovsky: his great disappointment when the camera breaks while shooting the house going up in flames.
Donatella Baglivo’s Andrei Tarkovsky in Nostalghia is a fascinating and insightful rare documentary on Andrei Tarkovsky during the filming of Nostalghia. The documentary includes interviews with the master filmmaker, crew, and cast. “What is a film,” Tarkovsky asks himself and answers, “It’s a mosaic made of time.” Within these 90+ minutes lies an artist at work, what goes behind the process and his creative thought, how he directs his mise-en-scène and collaborators, but most importantly, it captures a time in the life of a great filmmaker whose idea of cinema was precisely that, to capture and sculpt time.
Chris Marker’s One Day in the Life of Andrei Arsenevitch is perhaps the best film yet made by one (great) film-maker about another. A revelatory document, loving, lucid and lyrical, on the elemental structuring of Tarkovsky’s work, it marries moving footage of the terminally ill director shooting and struggling to finish his final film The Sacrifice with an exemplary assessment of the films and their importance, humane, humble and always open. In its own essential way, it too is a masterpiece. —Gareth Evans
One Day in the Life of Andrei Arsenevitch is just about the best analysis you will find of Andrei Tarkovsky’s film style. In this exceptional film Chris Marker, in his stylistic video essay format, parallels the life of Russia’s most talented director, Andrei Tarkovskij, with his most recognized films. He points out that in the first scene of Tarkovskij’s first film a boy is standing at the foot of a live tree, and in his last film a man is lying at the foot of a dying tree. He points out how this symbolizes the great circle of Tarkovskij’s life which was encompassed within his films. I feel that this metaphor best puts the film, and the life and works of Tarkovskij into perspective. Marker is second to none when it comes to interpreting film. He helps explain many of the obscurities found within Andrei’s films perfectly, helping you realize something that you may have missed watching them the first time around.
Simultaneously, he describes the life and mind of Tarkovskij; discussing how the great director thought and was involved in every aspect of the making of his films. Marker was granted complete access to the set of Tarkovskij’s final film, “The Sacrifice”, and the room in which the greatest Russian director of all time lay on his deathbed. This is some of the greatest footage of Andrei ever taken, and is a MUST see for all of his fans. In the footage in which Tarkovskij is editing this, his final film, from his hospital bed, Marker succeeds in showing how the frail man was able to keep up his and the spirits of others, despite the obvious fate that would soon follow. Tarkovskij would die before this film was released. Thus Marker was given the privilege of creating a final testament on the life and work of one of, if not the, greatest director’s in the history of cinema; and i couldn’t imagine anyone doing a better job. Rest in Peace Andrei, the world is a much bleaker place without you, but you will NEVER be forgotten!
Rare extensive interview with master director Andrei Tarkovsky conducted in 1983 by Donatella Baglivo.
Just like the Russian poet of the film 1983 Nosthalgia, who — accompanied by his Italian guide and translator — traveled through Italy researching the life of an 18th century Russian composer, Andrei Tarkovsky, accompanied by his Italian scriptwriter, Tonino Guerra, travels through Italy in order to find the locations for their common filmed effort. During this journey, Guerra constantly induces Tarkovskyi to reflect on his work and on his past as a filmmaker and a poet. The result will be Nostalghia, a masterpiece.
A short documentary film on the lives of two Russian filmmakers, their friendship and their artistry, with abundant footage of their works. It is stunning to see how close Andrei Tarkovsky and Sergei Parajanov were to their friendship, how two artists can be like brothers. Furthermore, it is revealing to see how much they fought for their art against a government that tried to constrain their visions. A wonderful window to these two filmmakers.
An evening screening and discussion of Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1979 film Stalker, with writers Geoff Dyer, Phillip Lopate, and Francine Prose; master film and sound editor Walter Murch; spaceprobe photo curator, filmmaker, and writer Michael Benson; and Slate film critic Dana Stevens; introduced by New York Institute for the Humanities director Lawrence Weschler. On the occasion of the publication of the novelist-essayist Geoff Dyer’s latest digressive interpretive rhapsody, Zona: A Book About a Film About a Journey to a Room, the New York Institute for the Humanities, in conjunction with the Illustration Department at Parsons The New School for Design, presented a screening of the film in question, the legendary Soviet master Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1979 masterpiece Stalker, introduced by Mr. Dyer, but then interrupted, every half hour or so, by a conversation among a distinguished panel of Tarkovsky fanatics.
Intervju koji je Tarkovski dao za RTB 1986. godine. Sinkronizirano na srpskom. Usput, pozdrav svim posjetiteljima bloga iz Hrvatske, Srbije, BiH, Makedonije, Slovenije…
Andrei Tarkovsky’s Very First Films: Three Student Films, 1956-1960.
In 1972 Andrei Tarkovsky told Leonid Kozlov about his favorite films. Tom Lasica recently talked with the critic.
I remember that wet, grey day in April 1972 very well. We were sitting by an open window and talking about various things when the conversation turned to Otar Ioseliani’s film Once Upon a Time There Lived a Singing Blackbird. “It’s a good film,” said Tarkovsky and immediately added, drawing out his words, “though it’s, well, a little bit too… too…” He fell silent with the sentence half finished, his eyes screwed up. After a moment of intense reflection, he bit his fingernails and continued decisively, “No! No, it’s a very good film!” It was at this point that I asked Tarkovsky if he would compile a list of his favorite ten or so films. He took my proposition very seriously and for a few minutes sat deep in thought with his head bent over a piece of paper. Then he began to write down a list of directors’ names - Buñuel, Mizoguchi, Bergman, Bresson, Kurosawa, Antonioni, Vigo. One more, Dreyer, followed after a pause. Next he made a list of films and put them carefully in a numbered order. The list, it seemed, was ready, but suddenly and unexpectedly Tarkovsky added another title - City Lights.
This is the final version of the list he made:
- Le Journal d’un curé de campagne
- Winter Light
- Nazarin
- Wild Strawberries
- City Lights
- Ugetsu Monogatari
- Seven Samurai
- Persona
- Mouchette
- Woman of the Dunes (Teshigahara)
After the list had been typed and signed “16.4.72 A. Tarkovsky,” we returned to our conversation, during which he quite naturally changed the subject and started with his gentle sense of humor to talk about something of no importance. Looking back at the list today, 20 years on, it strikes me how clearly his choices characterize Tarkovsky the artist. Like the numerous top ten lists submitted by directors to various magazines over the years, Tarkovsky’s list is highly revealing. Its main feature is the severity of its choice - with the exception of City Lights, it does not contain a single silent film or any from the 30s or 40s. The reason for this is simply that Tarkovsky saw the cinema’s first 50 years as a prelude to what he considered to be real film-making. And though he rated highly both Dovzhenko and Barnet, the complete absence of Soviet films from his list is perhaps indicative of the fact that he saw real film-making as something that went on elsewhere. When considering this point, one also needs to bear in mind the polemical attitude that Tarkovsky became imbued with through his experience as a film-maker in the Soviet Union.
For Tarkovsky, the question lay not in how beautiful a film-maker’s art can be, but in the heights that Art can reach. The director of Andrei Rublov strove for the most profound spiritual tension and extreme existential self-exposure in all his work and was ready to reject anything and everything that was incompatible with this end. His list, which includes three films by Bergman, undoubtedly reflects his taste both as a director and as a viewer - but the latter is subordinate to the former. As the way he began to compile his top ten shows, this is not only a list of Tarkovsky’s favorite films, but equally one of his favorite directors. Tarkovsky’s and Bergman’s “elective affinity” was noted long time ago, well before Sacrifice. But Bresson’s film does not come top of the list by chance: Tarkovsky considered him to be a supreme creative individual. “Robert Bresson is for me an example of a real and genuine film-maker… He obeys only certain higher, objective laws of Art…. Bresson is the only person who remained himself and survived all the pressures brought by fame.”
It would seem to me that the unexpected appearance of City Lights in the list can be explained similarly. What mattered most to Tarkovsky was not so much the film’s cinematographic achievements or any philosophical points it made, but rather the comprehensive nature of Chaplin’s self-realization as a director. “Chaplin is the only person to have gone down into cinematic history without any shadow of a doubt. The films he left behind can never grow old.”
The essence of Tarkovsky’s top ten films shows nothing less than his own manifesto for authorial film-making.
Source: people.ucalgary.ca
The cinema of Andrei Tarkovsky. “The one who invented a new language, true to the nature of film, as it captures life as a reflection, life as a dream.” —Ingmar Bergman
With thanks to Nelson Carvajal
The diaries of the Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky cover his life and work in the Soviet Union and the time of his exile in Western Europe. He called his diaries Martyrolog about which he said in 1974: ‘Pretentious and false as a title, but let it stay as a reminder of my ineradicable, futile worthlessness.’ The diaries are deeply personal and were intended mainly for Tarkovsky himself. Some entries are seemingly trivial, as for example shopping lists or entries on his health. Another frequent topic are other film directors or artists, which Tarkovsky generally regarded with a negative attitude. At other time Tarkovsky discusses philosophical or film theoretical questions, not necessarily related to day to day events. Tarkovsky kept his diary until shortly before his death on December 29, 1986. The last entry was on December 15, 1986. His last words were ‘But now I have no strength left – that is the problem’.
After the 1991 coup several memos surfaced that alleged that the KGB had at times access to the diaries. Although Tarkovsky did not openly oppose the Soviet system, his work heavily emphasized spiritual themes, that were at conflict with the official anti-religious atheist ideology, prompting the KGB to open a file on him.
Tarkovsky on the set of Solaris.
Andrei Tarkovsky: A Poet in the Cinema (1983). Rare extensive interview with Master Director Andrei Tarkovsky conducted in 1983 by Donatella Baglivo.
Orson Welles presents Robert Bresson and Andrei Tarkovsky with Best Director honors at the 1983 Cannes Film Festival.
Source: strangewood
Tarkovsky’s working diary for Mirror
(Can anyone translate?)
Andrei Tarkovsky on the set of Solaris.
Andrei Tarkovsky: A Poet in the Cinema (1983). Rare extensive interview with Master Director Andrei Tarkovsky conducted in 1983 by Donatella Baglivo.
Source: strangewood
Edward Artemiev talks about working on soundtracks for Tarkovsky’s films.
An evening screening and discussion of Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1979 film STALKER, with writers Geoff Dyer, Phillip Lopate, and Francine Prose; master film and sound editor Walter Murch; spaceprobe photo curator, filmmaker, and writer Michael Benson; and Slate film critic Dana Stevens; introduced by New York Institute for the Humanities director Lawrence Weschler.
Andrei Tarkovsky discussed the film, its characters and their significance to him as an artist and filmmaker in the following interview from 1981.
Previously on Cinephilia & Beyond:
During the shooting of Andrei Tarkovsky’s last film Offret, cameraman Arne Carlsson taped around 50 hours of behind the scenes footage. Editor Michal Leszczylowski took the material and added scenes of previous interviews and interesting statements from the script of Offret and from Tarkovsky’s book ‘Sculpting in Time’. The result is a documentary that shows the way Tarkovksy worked: carefully building each scene. Shows why he did the things he did: his vision on film. And shows the emotion of the man Tarkovsky: his great disappointment when the camera breaks while shooting the house going up in flames.
Andrei Tarkovsky’s advice to young directors. Scene three from Voyage in Time (Tempo di Viaggio), where filmmaker Andrei Tarkovksy dispense advice to beginning filmmakers, while scouting out locations for a movie he and Tonino Guerra are doing.
This is an excerpt from Tarkovsky interviews on art.
Tarkovksy is listed among the 100 most critically acclaimed film directors; director Ingmar Bergman was quoted as saying “Tarkovsky for me is the greatest [director], the one who invented a new language, true to the nature of film, as it captures life as a reflection, life as a dream.”
More: Andrei Tarkovsky
During the shooting of Andrei Tarkovsky’s last film Offret, cameraman Arne Carlsson taped around 50 hours of behind the scenes footage. Editor Michal Leszczylowski took the material and added scenes of previous interviews and interesting statements from the script of Offret and from Tarkovsky’s book ‘Sculpting in Time’. The result is a documentary that shows the way Tarkovksy worked: carefully building each scene. Shows why he did the things he did: his vision on film. And shows the emotion of the man Tarkovsky: his great disappointment when the camera breaks while shooting the house going up in flames.
Essential Viewing (101’37”). Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky (1988) is.gd/mgy5yC #filmmaking
— LaFamiliaFilm (@LaFamiliaFilm) November 30, 2012
I am Sergei Parajanov! shot a few months after Parajanov’s death. Features archive photographs, his collages, the clips from Sayat-Nova (1968), Ashik Kerib (1988), the making of The Legend of the Surami Fortress (1984) and a few views of the house he lived.
Documentary/Interview, 1994 (Russian + English subtitles).
Life and career of Sergei Parajanov. Footage from:
- “Andriesh” (1954)
- “Ashik Kerib” (1988)
- “The First Lad” (1959)
- “Ukrainian Rhapsody” (1961)
- “A Little Flower on the Stone” (1962)
- “Shadows of Our Forgotten Ancestors” (1964)
- “Kiev Frescoes/Akop Ovnatanyan” (1967)
- “Sayat Nova” (1969)
- “Arabesques on the Pirosmani Theme” (1985)
- “The Legend of the Suram Fortress” (1984)
Source: youtube.com
Just like the Russian poet of the film 1983 ‘Nosthalgia’, who, accompanied by his Italian guide and translator, traveled through Italy researching the life of an 18th century Russian composer, Andrey Tarkovskiy, accompanied by his Italian scriptwriter, Tonino Guerra, travels through Italy in order to find the locations for their common filmed effort. During this journey, Guerra constantly induces Tarkovskyi to reflect on his work and on his past as a filmmaker and a poet. The result will be ‘Nostalghia’, a masterpiece.
Written by Guy Bellinger.
