MIRROR
The film opens with a boy turning on a TV set and we see a Therapist treating a boy who has a problem of “stuttering”. She hypnotises him and then cures him of his problem … why was this shown in the movie??? …well i guess Tarkovsky also had plans of hypnotising the viewers with his visual imagery and symbolisms and thereby take the viewer on a “trip”. It was indeed a trip for me, 10 minutes into the film and the film maker had abandoned me, and I found myself in deep woods, lost!!!
This is what i hate about these “mind-screwing” films. The film maker after earning all the trust before he held my hand to cross the road, just ditches me half way across the road. (I guess Karthick had once written about this )
I am nervous, anxious and filled with fear as i subject myself to a series of bouncers from Mr Tarkovsky. Initially i cursed the filmmaker and then cursed myself for obvious reasons. My urge to leave the preview room was countered by a single overpowering force – “visuals”.
I sat there unmoved with determination to sit through oozing through my veins as I decided to surrender myself to the “hallucination”. I stopped following the subtitles as well as the story. I just moved with “Georgi Rerberg” and his frames.
Its visual poetry, a dance, a ballet- between the actors, the nature, light and the lens … every shadow, every inch of bright spot and every movement is choreographed to perfection or atleast to what tarkovsky considers is perfect for him!!!
The movie made me believe that in the world where tarkovsky is the king even wind blows only after he nods. I always believed that every director should control himself and refrain from “playing god” when he makes his films, as one can easily get carried away, but tarkovsky shows a new direction to the directors who would want to “play god” in their films!!!
Each and every frame from “mirror” can be freezed, copied and printed to make a stunning photograph. The compositions, play of colours, play of light and the contrast is simply mind blowing. Every frame evokes layered emotions and the emotions are subjective and very relative.
As i sat through the film trying my best to analyse with the minimal intellect in cinematography that i know the frames and the shots in Mirror, i realised that the movie had achieved something amazing and beyond boundaries that cinema could understand when mirror took form (1975). And thats the very reason i am punching hard at my VAIO about “mirror” 33 years after Mirror was born.
Being a student from engineering background i know how hard it was for me to understand einstein’s theory of relativity and i doubt if i know it fully well even now, but that does not take anything away from “E= MC2”. Its the same with Tarkovsky’s Mirror. One day i will grow and evolve to learn and understand the work of art called “The mirror”.
Movies, World Cinema , Tarkovsky
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Tarkiovsky is my favourite all time director and The Stalker my all time favourite movie…I make no assumptions about what AT was trying to say with the movie, I just know what the narrative means to me - and that actually grows in subtlety and nuance with each watch…I’ve probably watched it in excess of 50 times already :)..I just wait a little between watches and see it again, now that it’s been this many times it tends to be a few months apart instead of just a few days or weeks…I’m a big fan of The Mirror as well. I strongly urge you to not try to sort the flow of incidents in the narrative into a linear flow while you’ve watching the movie. You’ll find that the linear order of instances will fall into place as a narrative at the end of the movie anyway, it’s the nature of your brain to do that…instead watch it in the same fashion that your thoughts and emotions wander - non linear but somehow complimentary and creating a narrative through the way they relate to each other…Tarkovsky’s work in effect reflects your inner life which is free from the tyranny of linear flow and the rules of physics…just the way that some profound dreams make perfect sense to you when you wake up even though they might violate a million laws of logic and physics…try not to push AT’s movies into the unyielding slots of external “reality”, they wont fit. I’ve never read him say it but I think to AT the experience of an event was much more important than the mere occurance of it…watch it with the non judgemental familliarity you listen to the jagged, non linear flow of your thoughts and contemplation with and the narrative will speak much more audibly
Has watched Stalker a year back and it was the biggest bouncer ever… bounced right out of the solar plexus in fact. The fact that it was pretty long and that I couldn’t really understand much, made it more agonizing than RGV Ki Aag. But yes, even I do hope that some day I shall be able to appreciate Tarkosky’s films.
Santosh sivan named this move as one of his top ten movies for the Sight and sound poll.
>>>
http://www.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/topten/poll/voter.php?forename=Santosh&surname=Sivan
Mirror (Tarkovsky)
It’s a film that grows on you with repeated viewings, like looking at yourself in different mirrors and seeing subtle differences each time.
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Sivan sir, Please write about your favourite movie on PFC.
eheheh..
medium saaab i was in the same corner as u 10 years back.
im still in the same corner..
You made me laugh. No offense but I relate to that exasperation when I don’t understand a film that I’m watching or the ending or so. Its terrible. I end up wondering if I am dumb or what?
The way you wrote @ your frustration, I could imagine it. Its very serious for one watching but it can also be a very funny situation. Hence so. Funnily written even tho not intended i presume.
I’ve got to watch this film…
LoL!
I saw Mirror and felt exactly the same way.. But I guess Tarkovsky’s (and many other greats) films are like wine, it is an acquired taste.. I am trying to acuire it.. Till then, I dont pretend I enjoyed these films.. I honestly admit I didnt understand it much.. But then I see it again.. And again.. Someday, I shall get there !!
I really don’t mean to be condescending so please don’t take it like that at all. I’m a musician and so was Tarkovsky before he became a film maker. when improvising in music say in indian classical or jazz or any other improvised genre the music being made has a completely subliminal quality and is not bound by grammer and form and narrative…things can be said through music out of the “correct” order and the still complete the whole statement through their emotional intent. At the risk of sounding like I’m imposing my view let me just say that try viewing tarkowsky from the heart and not the mind…a narrative of emotions, perspectives and mental spaces is IMO the access to Tarkowsky’s storytelling…not the more generally excepted linear narrative format which leads from one incident to another….after experiencing The Mirror as the surreal reminiscing of a person you realise that’s how you remember your own life…as emotions and states of mind rather than as a neatly flowing narrative like a CV or a biographical blurb. Once you experience the movie in that fashion the narrative of incidents forms in your mind anyway because that’s a product of the nature of your brain.
So Arati maybe the best thing to do might be to not “try” to acquire the taste or think that “someday you will get there”, because as a feeling and intelligent human being you are already there…just put away the filters of your preconception…once again I’m sorry if I come across condescending, I don’t mean to be - my very first reaction to Tarkovsky was naturally emotional rather than trying to decipher his work “rationally” so from the very first time it was accessible to me.