He made eight films in his lifetime, with an average Douban score of 8.7, and a booklet about film theory and director's mission, "Carving Time", written in half a life, with a Douban score of 9.0. The first feature film won the Golden Lion Award (one of the three major film festival awards in the world). His work won four International Critics Awards, three Catholic Humanitarian Awards and two Special Jury Prizes at the Cannes Film Festival. Fifty-four years of life, half dedicated to film. For him, the film is a flower that blooms in the midst of suffering. Today Ene would like to talk about him, the film master of the former Soviet Union - Andrei. Tarkovsky. (hereinafter referred to as "Old Tower")
Born in 1932, the son of a famous poet of the former Soviet Union. In 1961, "The Roller and the Violin" was his graduation work from film school, and he began his career as a director. The film tells the story of a kind worker and a lonely little boy who have a short and beautiful friendship. Although the cinematic language of the tower style has not yet taken shape, the old tower's poetic fantasies about the world and compassion for human beings have been revealed in this film. And this poetry and compassion are consistent in subsequent films.
The first true feature film of the old tower was Ivan's Childhood, released in 1962, based on the novel of the same name by the famous writer Bogomolov. But the old tower has already used the novel for his use, and the effect presented by the film has already acquired the characteristics of tower aesthetics. The characters who are calm on the surface but turbulent on the inside; the intermingling of dreams and reality; the sharp emotions felt in the slow and almost stagnant state; the poetic symbolism rather than the coherent and straight narrative; the artistic expression of the ugly with beauty. The film tells the story of a young boy (Ivan) who has become a "revenge machine" after losing his parents in the war, who dies while on a reconnaissance mission.
The old tower does not express the cruelty of war with grand scenes, and the film spends most of its time in the gap between wars. Quiet birch forests, neatly lined trenches, overgrown rivers and ponds, silent soldiers and the occasional sound of shooting from afar. It was like arrows ready to be fired as soldiers approached the city and the night before the death row of prisoners awaited their execution at dawn, a strong sense of despair and breathless tension and oppression.
And the film intersperses Ivan's four dreams in such a realistic environment, how beautiful the dream is, how terrible the reality is. In the dream, the afternoon sun was obscured by the woods and cast dappled light spots, Ivan was running naked in the woods, cuckoos were chirping, goats were grazing, the river was roaring, and his soft-haired mother was smiling and walking toward him. Suddenly, with a loud noise, he woke up, his expression cold and alert, and this change of eyes made us watch as many things that we should have at that age disappeared irretrievably from his life. The madness that had been distorted by the war, the madness that had been given by the war, gathered and swelled in him. At this time, he had been in this cold and dark cellar all night, waiting for the German reconnaissance troops to leave.
Near the end of the film, the old tower uses several documentary-style clips to quickly show the victory of World War II. Leaders spoke, defeated countries signed, Soviet troops captured Berlin, victory flags planted in the rubble of artillery, and people shouted and cheered. This sudden victory made the war absurd. At the end of the film, the captain finds in the ruins the German booklet on the disposal of the captured Soviet soldiers, and his subordinates read it heavily: shoot, hang, shoot, hang, shoot, hang, This was Ivan's life, and cruelty and suffering were not his past experiences, but the whole of his short life.
The old tower, with its superb scene scheduling, allows us to develop irrepressible compassion and sympathy for Ivan from its landscape and environmental settings, makes us doubt the so-called arduous battle, the hard-won victory, and makes us think about the meaning of the war itself.
By this time, he had shown a high degree of self-consciousness as an artist. He said that the artist had always been a servant and was trying to repay god for the gifts he had given him. Only when people gather their eternal and indelible desire for spirit and ideals around art can art exist and gain a foothold. The purpose of art is to prepare for man's death, to reclaim and cultivate his soul for good.
Old Tower really regards film as art, with its faith and creation to the extreme, in the production of the last film "Sacrifice", the artist's tragic spirit of "total destruction" is reflected in it. At that time, the old tower was forced to leave the Soviet Union because of his last film, "Nostalgia", and then he announced his separation from his homeland. Although the spirit was freed, leaving the Soviet monopoly system of film distribution, lao ta faced the dilemma of no one to invest, and at this time, he was diagnosed with lung cancer and his son was not allowed to leave the Soviet Union. In the end, the film was difficult to complete, and it was like the old tower left to the world
The protagonist of the film, Alexander, lives in isolation, has an indifferent relationship with his wife and daughter, is lonely and gentle, pessimistic and loves the world, and only when he is with his young son who cannot speak, he has endless words. On his 50th birthday, a nuclear war broke out (perhaps the protagonist's fantasy, or the reality), and he knelt before the icon without believing in God, and for the sake of a human who had nothing to do with him, even a wife who had just confessed to cheating in front of him, he made a vow: If all this could be avoided, I would remain silent and never say a word to anyone, and I could even leave my beloved son, cut off all connection with my past life, and give up life. Then, at the command of God, He completed his mission and the world was restored to its original state. Alexander burned down the house to fulfill his promise, and without a word he was taken away as a mental illness. At the end of the film, the younger son alone waters the dead wood planted by the father and son at the beginning of the film, and opens his mouth to say the first sentence - there is a way in the beginning. (First sentence of the Bible's opening chapter)
The terrible mechanisms of modern society in the film destroy humanity, and Alexander redeems humanity with acts that are completely contrary to modern life. This ragged pilgrim, the many sacrifices made by the martyrs, were not understood by the world, and the rules he broke were barriers that the world could not break. But his son is a continuation of this firm belief, and he firmly believes that the germination of dead wood is also the good expectation of the old tower for mankind and the world. Alexander in the film and the old tower that carved time have unreserved love for human beings, and this broadness, tolerance and sincerity are transmitted to us by Alexander's compassionate eyes. We know that we do not deserve this mercy, but can only respect him more.
If Sacrifice is the epitome of Old Tower's thought, then Mirror, released in 1975, can be seen as the epitome of its aesthetic and cinematic style. Old Tower has always maintained that film is a kind of author's art, and in the final analysis, only the director's mind can make the work achieve ultimate completeness. And "Mirror" is a semi-autobiographical work of the director, so it can best reflect the poetic film language of the old tower. He mapped his childhood, memories, dreams, and ideals into The Mirror. The overturned milk bottles, the evening wind that rustles the grass, the thunderstorm that suddenly falls, the snow-white buckwheat flowers in the fields, the sad and strong mother, the lonely and reclusive father. (Lao Ta's mother also starred, playing the elderly mother of the reminiscent; her father participated in the film in the form of reading his own poems.)
"Mirror" has only about two hundred shots in the whole film, almost all of which are long shots, and time flows through it. The memories of our childhood in the fields and in the cabins are presented to us like oil paintings, and the wind of the wilderness also blows to us. The protagonist who recalls all this does not appear in the camera from beginning to end, and the whole film presents his inner world. Lao Ta's film does not use the story and the charm of the actors to impress you, he needs you to calm down, to feel an atmosphere and emotion, and to resonate with the film.
Just to see Bach's music and the poetry of Arseny Tarkovsky, it is like facing the sea, looking up at the stars, enjoying the natural scenery. There is no mathematical logic here, mathematical logic cannot explain what man is, cannot explain the meaning of life.
Thank you for your movie Mirror. "That's how my childhood was... But how do you know? It was that wind, that thunderstorm, and Grandma shouted, 'Garika, pick up the cat!' ’...... The room was pitch black... The oil lamp was also extinguished, and I was looking forward to my mother's return. (At that time, the Soviets read the letter written to the old tower by "Mirror", excerpted from the preface of "Carving Time")
In the film, the memory of the child's mother and adult wife are played by one person, and when he becomes an adult, he has a very bad relationship with his mother, and his son is raised by his wife alone. Memories of his childhood have always appeared in his dreams, and in reality he feels very bitter because he cannot repay the love given by his mother. So he always wanted his wife to remarry and raise their children. The narrator is tormented by this failure to fulfill his responsibilities and irreparable guilt, which still makes him anxious until the last moment of his life.
The texture of tower cinema is the closest to poetry, and poetry is best suited to express emotion rather than narrative. Only poetry can directly evoke your emotions through three words and two words, a few imagery. Therefore, Lao Ta attaches great importance to scene scheduling, and the truth in his films is not the truth of replicating reality, but the truth that can trigger specific memories and poetic associations. In the formalistic world he created, where nature was always beautiful, pure, far from modern civilization, he tried to attract the lost lamb with this garden of Eden with its reminiscences.
Pure and profound geniuses suffer because of their sense of mission. But as Russell said: the desire for love, the search for knowledge, and the deep sympathy for human suffering, these three pure but incomparably strong passions have dominated my life. Love and knowledge lead me to heaven as much as possible, but compassion always brings me back to earth, and I long to alleviate these misfortunes, but there is nothing I can do, and I myself suffer from it. It's been my whole life and I think it's worth living. I'd love to live again if I get the chance.
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