Andrei Tarkovsky
Encyclopedia
Andrei Arsenyevich Tarkovsky was a Soviet
and Russian
filmmaker, writer, film editor, film theorist
, theatre and opera director, widely regarded as one of the finest filmmakers of the 20th century.
Tarkovsky's films include Andrei Rublev
, Solaris
, The Mirror
, and Stalker
. He directed the first five of his seven feature films in the Soviet Union
; his last two films were produced in Italy
and Sweden
, respectively. They are characterized by spirituality and metaphysical
themes, long takes, lack of conventional dramatic structure and plot, and distinctively authored use of cinematography.
Film director Ingmar Bergman
said of Tarkovsky:
, the son of poet and translator Arseny Alexandrovich Tarkovsky, native of Kirovohrad
, Ukraine
, and Maria Ivanova Vishnyakova, a graduate of the Maxim Gorky Literature Institute
.
Tarkovsky spent his childhood in Yuryevets
. He was described by childhood friends as active and popular, having many friends and being typically in the center of action. In 1937, his father left the family, subsequently volunteering for the army in 1941. Tarkovsky stayed with his mother, moving with her and his sister Marina to Moscow, where she worked as a proofreader at a printing press. In 1939, Tarkovsky enrolled at the Moscow School № 554. During the war, the three evacuated to Yuryevets
, living with his maternal grandmother. In 1943, the family returned to Moscow. Tarkovsky continued his studies at his old school, where the poet Andrey Voznesensky
was one of his classmates. He learned the piano at a music school and attended classes at an art school. The family lived on Shshipok Street in the Zamoskvorechye District in Moscow. From November 1947 to spring 1948, he was in a hospital with tuberculosis
. Many themes of his childhood - the evacuation, his mother and her two children, the withdrawn father, the time in the hospital - feature prominently in his film The Mirror
.
Following high school graduation, from 1951 to 1952, Tarkovsky studied Arabic
at the Oriental Institute in Moscow, a branch of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Although he already spoke some Arabic and was a successful student in his first semesters, he did not finish his studies and dropped out to work as a prospector for the Academy of Science Institute for Non-Ferrous Metals and Gold. He participated in a year-long research expedition to the river Kureikye near Turukhansk
in the Krasnoyarsk Province
. During this time in the Taiga
Tarkovsky decided to study film.
, whom he married in April 1957.
The early Khrushchev
era offered unique opportunities for young film directors. Before 1953, annual film production was low and most films were directed by veteran directors. After 1953, more films were produced, many of them by young directors. The Khrushchev Thaw
opened Soviet society and allowed, to some degree, Western literature, films and music. This allowed Tarkovsky to see films of the Italian neorealists
, French New Wave
, and of directors such as Kurosawa
, Buñuel
, Bergman
, Bresson
, Andrzej Wajda
(whose film Ashes and Diamonds
was a true experience for him) and Mizoguchi
. Tarkovsky absorbed the idea of the auteur
as a necessary condition for creativity.
Tarkovsky's teacher and mentor was Mikhail Romm
, who taught many film students who would later become influential film directors. In 1956, Tarkovsky directed his first student short film, The Killers, from a short story of Ernest Hemingway
. The short film There Will Be No Leave Today
and the screenplay Concentrate followed in 1958 and 1959.
An important influence on Tarkovsky was the film director Grigori Chukhrai
, who was teaching at the VGIK. Impressed by the talent of his student, Chukhrai offered Tarkovsky a position as assistant director for his film Clear Skies. Tarkovsky initially showed interest, but then decided to concentrate on his studies and his own projects.
During his third year at the VGIK, Tarkovsky met Andrei Konchalovsky
. They found much in common as they liked the same film directors and shared ideas on cinema and films. In 1959, they wrote the script Antarctica — Distant Country, which was later published in the Moskovskij Komsomolets. Tarkovsky submitted the script to Lenfilm
, which was rejected. They were more successful with the script The Steamroller and the Violin
, which they sold to Mosfilm
. This film became Tarkovsky's diploma film, earning him his diploma in 1960 and winning first prize at the New York Student Film Festival in 1961.
award at the Venice Film Festival
in 1962. In the same year, on September 30, his first son Arseny (called Senka in Tarkovsky's diaries) Tarkovsky was born.
In 1965, he directed the film Andrei Rublev
about the life of Andrei Rublev
, the 15th century Russian icon painter
. Andrei Rublev was not immediately released after completion due to problems with Soviet authorities. Tarkovsky had to cut the film several times, resulting in several different versions of varying lengths. A version of the film was presented at the Cannes Film Festival
in 1969 and won the FIPRESCI prize
. The film was officially released in the Soviet Union in a cut version in 1971.
He divorced his wife, Irma Raush
, in June 1970. In the same year, he married Larissa Kizilova
(née
Egorkina), who had been a production assistant for the film Andrei Rublev (they had been living together since 1965). Their son, Andrei Andreyevich Tarkovsky, was born in the same year on August 7.
In 1972, he completed Solaris
, an adaptation of the novel Solaris
by Stanisław Lem. He had worked on this together with screenwriter Fridrikh Gorenshtein, as early as 1968. The film was presented at the Cannes Film Festival
and won the Grand Prix Spécial du Jury
and the FIPRESCI prize
and was nominated for the Palme d'Or
. From 1973 to 1974, he shot the film The Mirror
, a highly autobiographical film drawing on his childhood and incorporating some of his father's poems. Tarkovsky had worked on the screenplay for this film since 1967, under the consecutive titles Confession, White day and A white, white day. From the beginning the film was not well received by Soviet authorities due to its content and its perceived elitist nature. Russian authorities placed the film in the "third category" which meant severe limitations on its distribution, allowing it to be shown only in third class cinemas and workers' clubs. Few prints were made and the filmmakers received no returns. Third category films also placed the filmmakers in danger of being accused of wasting public funds, which could have serious effects on their future productivity. These difficulties are presumed to have made Tarkovsky play with the idea of going abroad and producing a film outside the Soviet film industry.
During 1975, Tarkovsky also worked on the screenplay Hoffmanniana
, about the German writer and poet E. T. A. Hoffmann. In December 1976, he directed Hamlet
, his only stage play, at the Lenkom Theatre
in Moscow. The main role was played by Anatoly Solonitsyn
, who also acted in several of Tarkovsky's films. At the end of 1978, he also wrote the screenplay Sardor together with the writer Aleksandr Misharin.
The last film Tarkovsky completed in the Soviet Union was Stalker
, inspired by the novel Roadside Picnic
by the brothers Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
. Tarkovsky had met the brothers first in 1971 and was in contact with them until his death in 1986. Initially he wanted to shoot a film based on their novel Dead Mountaineer's Hotel
and he developed a raw script. Influenced by a discussion with Arkady Strugatsky he changed his plan and began to work on the script based on Roadside picnic
. Work on this film began in 1976. The production was mired in troubles; improper development of the negatives had ruined all the exterior shots. Tarkovsky's relationship with cinematographer Georgy Rerberg
deteriorated to the point where Tarkovsky hired Alexander Knyazhinsky
as a new first cinematographer. Furthermore, Tarkovsky suffered a heart attack in April 1978, resulting in further delay. The film was completed in 1979 and won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the Cannes Film Festival
.
In the same year Tarkovsky also began the production of the film The First Day (Russian: Первый День Pervyj Dyen′), based on a script by his friend and longterm collaborator Andrei Konchalovsky
. The film was set in 18th century Russia during the reign of Peter the Great
and starred Natalya Bondarchuk
and Anatoli Papanov
in the main roles. To get the project approved by Goskino
, Tarkovsky submitted a script that was different from the original script, leaving out several scenes that were critical of the official atheism in the Soviet Union
. After finishing shooting of roughly one half of the film, the project was stopped by Goskino, after it became apparent that the film differed from the script submitted to the censors. Tarkovsky was reportedly infuriated by this interruption and destroyed most of the film.
During the summer of 1979, Tarkovsky traveled to Italy, where he shot the documentary Voyage in Time
, together with his longtime friend Tonino Guerra
. Tarkovsky returned to Italy in 1980 for an extended trip during which he and Tonino Guerra completed the script for the film Nostalghia
. During 1981 he traveled to the United Kingdom and Sweden. During his trip to Sweden he had considered defecting from the Soviet Union, but ultimately decided to return because of his wife and his son.
Tarkovsky returned to Italy in 1982 to start shooting Nostalghia
. He did not return to his home country. As Mosfilm
withdrew from the project, he had to complete the film with financial support provided by the Italian RAI
. Tarkovsky completed the film in 1983. Nostalghia
was presented at the Cannes Film Festival
and won the FIPRESCI prize
and the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury. Tarkovsky also shared a special prize called Grand Prix du cinéma de creation with Robert Bresson
. Soviet authorities prevented the film from winning the Palme d'Or
, a fact that hardened Tarkovsky's resolve to never work in the Soviet Union again. In the same year, he also arranged the opera Boris Godunov
at the Royal Opera House
in London under the musical direction of Claudio Abbado
.
He spent most of 1984 preparing the film The Sacrifice
. At a press conference in Milan
on July 10, 1984, he announced that he would never return to the Soviet Union and would remain in the West. At that time, his son Andrei Jr. was still in the Soviet Union and not allowed to leave the country.
During 1985, he shot the film The Sacrifice
in Sweden. At the end of the year he was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer
. In January 1986, he began treatment in Paris, and was joined there by his son, who was finally allowed to leave the Soviet Union. The Sacrifice
was presented at the Cannes Film Festival
and received the Grand Prix Spécial du Jury
, the FIPRESCI prize
and the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury. As Tarkovsky was unable to attend due to his illness, the prizes were collected by his son, Andrei Jr.
In Tarkovsky's last diary
entry (December 15, 1986), he wrote: "But now I have no strength left - that is the problem". The diaries are sometimes also known as Martyrolog
and were published posthumously in 1989 and in English in 1991.
Tarkovsky died in Paris on December 29, 1986. He was buried on January 3, 1987 in the Russian Cemetery
in Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois
in France. The inscription on his grave stone, which was created by the Russian sculptor Ernst Neizvestny
, reads: To the man who saw the Angel.
A controversy emerged in Russia in the early 1990s when it was alleged that Tarkovsky did not die of natural causes, but was assassinated by the KGB
. Evidence for this hypothesis includes several testimonies by former KGB agents, who claim that Viktor Chebrikov
gave the order to eradicate Tarkovsky to prevent what the Soviet government and the KGB saw as anti-Soviet propaganda by Tarkovsky. Other evidence includes several memos that surfaced after the 1991 coup and the claim by one of Tarkovsky's doctors that his cancer could not have developed from a natural cause.
As Tarkovsky, his wife Larisa Tarkovskaya
and actor Anatoli Solonitsyn all died from the very same type of lung cancer, Vladimir Sharun, sound designer in Stalker
, is convinced that they were all poisoned when shooting the film near a chemical plant.
for the stage in Moscow, the opera Boris Godunov
in London, and directed a radio production of the short story Turnabout by William Faulkner
. He also wrote Sculpting In Time
, a book on film theory.
Tarkovsky's first feature film was Ivan's Childhood in 1962. He then directed in the Soviet Union Andrei Rublev
in 1966, Solaris
in 1972, The Mirror
in 1975 and Stalker
in 1979. The documentary Voyage in Time
was produced in Italy in 1982, as was Nostalghia
in 1983. His last film The Sacrifice
was produced in Sweden in 1986. Tarkovsky was personally involved in writing the screenplays for all his films, sometimes with a co-writer. To Tarkovsky, a director who realizes somebody else's screenplay without being involved in it becomes a mere illustrator, resulting in dead and monotonous films.
he was awarded the Golden Lion
. At the Cannes Film Festival
he won several times the FIPRESCI prize
, the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury
and the Grand Prix Spécial du Jury
. He was also nominated for the Palme d'Or
two times. In 1987, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts
awarded the BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Language Film to The Sacrifice
.
Under the influence of Glasnost
and Perestroika
, Tarkovsky was finally recognized in the Soviet Union in the fall of 1986, shortly before his death, by a retrospective of his films in Moscow. After his death, an entire issue of the film magazine Iskusstvo Kino was devoted to Tarkovsky. In their obituaries, the film committee of the Council of Ministers of the USSR and the Union of Soviet Film Makers expressed their sorrow that Tarkovsky had to spend the last years of his life in exile.
Posthumously, he was awarded the Lenin Prize
in 1990, one of the highest state honors in the Soviet Union. In 1989 the Andrei Tarkovsky Memorial Prize was established, with its first recipient being the Russian animator Yuriy Norshteyn
. Since 1993, the Moscow International Film Festival
awards the annual Andrei Tarkovsky Award. In 1996 the Andrei Tarkovsky Museum opened in Yuryevets
, his childhood town. A minor planet
, 3345 Tarkovskij
, discovered by Soviet
astronomer Lyudmila Georgievna Karachkina
in 1982, has also been named after him.
Tarkovsky has been the subject of several documentaries. Most notable is the 1988 documentary Moscow Elegy
, by Russian film director Alexander Sokurov
. Sokurov's own work has been heavily influenced by Tarkovsky. The film consists mostly of narration over stock footage from Tarkovsky's films. Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky is 1988 documentary film by Michal Leszczylowski
, an editor of the film The Sacrifice. Film director Chris Marker
produced the television documentary One Day in the Life of Andrei Arsenevich
as an homage to Andrei Tarkovsky in 2000.
Ingmar Bergman
was quoted as saying: "Tarkovsky for me is the greatest [of us all], the one who invented a new language, true to the nature of film, as it captures life as a reflection, life as a dream". Film historian Steven Dillon
claims that much of subsequent film was deeply influenced by the films of Tarkovsky.
At the enterance to the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography
in Moscow, Russia there is a monument that includes statues of Tarkovsky, Gennady Shpalikov
and Vasily Shukshin
.
, allowed his students considerable freedom and emphasized the independence of the film director.
Tarkovsky was, according to Shavkat Abdusalmov, a fellow student at the film school, fascinated by Japanese films. He was amazed by how every character on the screen is exceptional and how everyday events such as a Samurai cutting bread with his sword are elevated to something special and put into the limelight. Tarkovsky has also expressed interest in the art of Haiku and its ability to create "images in such a way that they mean nothing beyond themselves."
In 1972, Tarkovsky told film historian Leonid Kozlov
his ten favorite films. The list includes: Diary of a Country Priest
and Mouchette
, by Robert Bresson
; Winter Light
, Wild Strawberries
and Persona
, by Ingmar Bergman
; Nazarín
, by Luis Buñuel
; City Lights
, by Charlie Chaplin
; Ugetsu
, by Kenji Mizoguchi
; Seven Samurai, by Akira Kurosawa
, and Woman in the Dunes
, by Hiroshi Teshigahara. Among his favorite directors were Buñuel, Mizoguchi, Bergman, Bresson, Kurosawa, Michelangelo Antonioni
, Jean Vigo
, and Carl Theodor Dreyer
.
With the exception of City Lights, the list does not contain any films of the early silent era. The reason is that Tarkovsky saw film as an art as only a relatively recent phenomenon, with the early film-making forming only a prelude. The list has also no films or directors from Tarkovsky's native Russia, although he rated Soviet directors such as Boris Barnet, Sergei Paradjanov and Alexander Dovzhenko
highly.
Although strongly opposed to commercial cinema, in a famous exception Tarkovsky praised the blockbuster film The Terminator
, saying its "vision of the future and the relation between man and its destiny is pushing the frontier of cinema as an art". He was critical of the "brutality and low acting skills", but nevertheless impressed by this film.
themes, extremely long take
s, and memorable images of exceptional beauty. Recurring motifs are dreams, memory, childhood, running water accompanied by fire, rain indoors, reflections, levitation, and characters re-appearing in the foreground of long panning movements of the camera. He once said, “Juxtaposing a person with an environment that is boundless, collating him with a countless number of people passing by close to him and far away, relating a person to the whole world, that is the meaning of cinema.”
Tarkovsky included levitation scenes into several of his films, most notably Solaris. To him these scenes possess great power and are used for their photogenic value and magical inexplicability.
Water, clouds, and reflections were used by him for its surreal beauty and photogenic value, as well as its symbolism, such as waves or the form of brooks or running water.
Bells and candles are also frequent symbols. These are symbols of film, sight and sound, and Tarkovsky's film frequently has themes of self reflection.
Tarkovsky developed a theory of cinema that he called "sculpting in time". By this he meant that the unique characteristic of cinema as a medium was to take our experience of time and alter it. Unedited movie footage transcribes time in real time
. By using long takes and few cuts in his films, he aimed to give the viewers a sense of time passing, time lost, and the relationship of one moment in time to another.
Up to, and including, his film The Mirror
, Tarkovsky focused his cinematic works on exploring this theory. After The Mirror, he announced that he would focus his work on exploring the dramatic unities proposed by Aristotle
: a concentrated action, happening in one place, within the span of a single day.
Several of Tarkovsky's films have color or black and white sequences, including for example Andrei Rublev
which features an epilogue in color of religious icon paintings, as well as Solaris
, The Mirror
, and Stalker, which feature monochrome and sepia sequences while otherwise being in color. In 1966, in an interview conducted shortly after finishing Andrei Rublev, Tarkovsky dismissed color film as a "commercial gimmick" and cast doubt on the idea that contemporary films meaningfully use color. He claimed that in everyday life one does not consciously notice colors most of the time. Hence in film color should be used mainly to emphasize certain moments, but not all the time as this distracts the viewer. To him, films in color are like moving paintings or photographs, which are too beautiful to be a realistic depiction of life.
, and much of the visual style of Tarkovsky's films can be attributed to this collaboration. Tarkovsky would spend two days preparing for Yusov to film a single long take, and due to the preparation, usually only a single take was needed.
, Tarkovsky worked with cinematographer Sven Nykvist
, who had worked closely with director Ingmar Bergman
on many of Bergman's films. Nykvist complained that Tarkovsky would frequently look through the camera and even direct actors through it.
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
and Russian
Russians
The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....
filmmaker, writer, film editor, film theorist
Film theory
Film theory is an academic discipline that aims to explore the essence of the cinema and provides conceptual frameworks for understanding film's relationship to reality, the other arts, individual viewers, and society at large...
, theatre and opera director, widely regarded as one of the finest filmmakers of the 20th century.
Tarkovsky's films include Andrei Rublev
Andrei Rublev (film)
Andrei Rublev , also known as The Passion According to Andrei, is a 1966 Russian film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky from a screenplay written by Andrei Konchalovsky and Andrei Tarkovsky. The film is loosely based on the life of Andrei Rublev, the great 15th century Russian icon painter...
, Solaris
Solaris (1972 film)
Solaris is a 1972 film adaptation of the novel Solaris , directed by Andrei Tarkovsky. The film is a meditative psychological drama occurring mostly aboard a space station orbiting the fictional planet Solaris. The scientific mission has stalled, because the scientist crew have fallen to...
, The Mirror
The Mirror (1975 film)
The Mirror is a 1975 Russian film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky. It is loosely autobiographical, blending childhood memories, newsreel footage and poems by his father Arseny Tarkovsky...
, and Stalker
Stalker (film)
Stalker is a 1979 science fiction film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky, with a screenplay written by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky, loosely based on their novel Roadside Picnic...
. He directed the first five of his seven feature films in the Soviet Union
Cinema of the Soviet Union
The cinema of the Soviet Union, not to be confused with "Cinema of Russia" despite Russian language films being predominant in both genres, includes several film contributions of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union reflecting elements of their pre-Soviet culture, language and history,...
; his last two films were produced in Italy
Cinema of Italy
The history of Italian cinema began just a few months after the Lumière brothers had patented their Cinematographe, when Pope Leo XIII was filmed for a few seconds in the act of blessing the camera.-Early years:...
and Sweden
Cinema of Sweden
Swedish cinema is known as producing many critically acclaimed movies, and during the 20th century was the most prominent of Scandinavia. This is largely due to the popularity and prominence of the directors Ingmar Bergman, Victor Sjöström, and more recently Lasse Hallström and Lukas...
, respectively. They are characterized by spirituality and metaphysical
Metaphysics
Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world, although the term is not easily defined. Traditionally, metaphysics attempts to answer two basic questions in the broadest possible terms:...
themes, long takes, lack of conventional dramatic structure and plot, and distinctively authored use of cinematography.
Film director Ingmar Bergman
Ingmar Bergman
Ernst Ingmar Bergman was a Swedish director, writer and producer for film, stage and television. Described by Woody Allen as "probably the greatest film artist, all things considered, since the invention of the motion picture camera", he is recognized as one of the most accomplished and...
said of Tarkovsky:
Childhood and early life
Tarkovsky was born in the village of Zavrazhye in Ivanovo OblastIvanovo Oblast
Ivanovo Oblast is a federal subject of Russia .Its three largest cities are Ivanovo , Kineshma, and Shuya.The principal center of tourism is Plyos. The Volga River flows through the northern part of the oblast....
, the son of poet and translator Arseny Alexandrovich Tarkovsky, native of Kirovohrad
Kirovohrad
Kirovohrad , formerly Yelisavetgrad, is a city in central Ukraine. It is located on the Inhul River. It is a motorway junction. Pop. 239,400 ....
, Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
, and Maria Ivanova Vishnyakova, a graduate of the Maxim Gorky Literature Institute
Maxim Gorky Literature Institute
The Maxim Gorky Literature Institute is a higher education institute in Moscow. It is located at 25 Tver Bulvar in Central Moscow.It was founded in 1933 on the initiative of Maxim Gorky, and received its current name at Gorky's death in 1936....
.
Tarkovsky spent his childhood in Yuryevets
Yuryevets, Ivanovo Oblast
Yuryevets is a town and the administrative center of Yuryevetsky District of Ivanovo Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Unzha and the Volga Rivers. Population:...
. He was described by childhood friends as active and popular, having many friends and being typically in the center of action. In 1937, his father left the family, subsequently volunteering for the army in 1941. Tarkovsky stayed with his mother, moving with her and his sister Marina to Moscow, where she worked as a proofreader at a printing press. In 1939, Tarkovsky enrolled at the Moscow School № 554. During the war, the three evacuated to Yuryevets
Yuryevets, Ivanovo Oblast
Yuryevets is a town and the administrative center of Yuryevetsky District of Ivanovo Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Unzha and the Volga Rivers. Population:...
, living with his maternal grandmother. In 1943, the family returned to Moscow. Tarkovsky continued his studies at his old school, where the poet Andrey Voznesensky
Andrey Voznesensky
Andrei Andreyevich Voznesensky was a Soviet and Russian poet and writer who had been referred to by Robert Lowell as "one of the greatest living poets in any language." He was one of the "Children of the '60s," a new wave of iconic Russian intellectuals led by the Khrushchev Thaw.Voznesensky was...
was one of his classmates. He learned the piano at a music school and attended classes at an art school. The family lived on Shshipok Street in the Zamoskvorechye District in Moscow. From November 1947 to spring 1948, he was in a hospital with tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
. Many themes of his childhood - the evacuation, his mother and her two children, the withdrawn father, the time in the hospital - feature prominently in his film The Mirror
The Mirror (1975 film)
The Mirror is a 1975 Russian film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky. It is loosely autobiographical, blending childhood memories, newsreel footage and poems by his father Arseny Tarkovsky...
.
Following high school graduation, from 1951 to 1952, Tarkovsky studied Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
at the Oriental Institute in Moscow, a branch of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Although he already spoke some Arabic and was a successful student in his first semesters, he did not finish his studies and dropped out to work as a prospector for the Academy of Science Institute for Non-Ferrous Metals and Gold. He participated in a year-long research expedition to the river Kureikye near Turukhansk
Turukhansk
Turukhansk is a village in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia. It is located 1474 km north of Krasnoyarsk, at the confluence of the Yenisei and Lower Tunguska rivers. The Turukhan River joins the Yenisei about 20 km northwest. Population: 4,849 ; 8,900 ; 200...
in the Krasnoyarsk Province
Krasnoyarsk Krai
Krasnoyarsk Krai is a federal subject of Russia . It is the second largest federal subject after the Sakha Republic, and Russia's largest krai, occupying an area of , which is 13% of the country's total territory. The administrative center of the krai is the city of Krasnoyarsk...
. During this time in the Taiga
Taiga
Taiga , also known as the boreal forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests.Taiga is the world's largest terrestrial biome. In North America it covers most of inland Canada and Alaska as well as parts of the extreme northern continental United States and is known as the Northwoods...
Tarkovsky decided to study film.
Film school student
Upon return from the research expedition in 1954, Tarkovsky applied at the State Institute of Cinematography (VGIK) and was admitted to the film-directing program. He was in the same class as Irma RaushIrma Raush
Irma Yakovlevna Raush is a Russian actress and the first wife of film director Andrei Tarkovsky. She is best known for her role as Durochka in Andrei Rublev and as Ivan's mother in Ivan's Childhood.-Biography:...
, whom he married in April 1957.
The early Khrushchev
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964...
era offered unique opportunities for young film directors. Before 1953, annual film production was low and most films were directed by veteran directors. After 1953, more films were produced, many of them by young directors. The Khrushchev Thaw
Khrushchev Thaw
The Khrushchev Thaw refers to the period from the mid 1950s to the early 1960s, when repression and censorship in the Soviet Union were partially reversed and millions of Soviet political prisoners were released from Gulag labor camps, due to Nikita Khrushchev's policies of de-Stalinization and...
opened Soviet society and allowed, to some degree, Western literature, films and music. This allowed Tarkovsky to see films of the Italian neorealists
Italian neorealism
Italian neorealism is a style of film characterized by stories set amongst the poor and working class, filmed on location, frequently using nonprofessional actors...
, French New Wave
French New Wave
The New Wave was a blanket term coined by critics for a group of French filmmakers of the late 1950s and 1960s, influenced by Italian Neorealism and classical Hollywood cinema. Although never a formally organized movement, the New Wave filmmakers were linked by their self-conscious rejection of...
, and of directors such as Kurosawa
Akira Kurosawa
was a Japanese film director, producer, screenwriter and editor. Regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema, Kurosawa directed 30 filmsIn 1946, Kurosawa co-directed, with Hideo Sekigawa and Kajiro Yamamoto, the feature Those Who Make Tomorrow ;...
, Buñuel
Luis Buñuel
Luis Buñuel Portolés was a Spanish-born filmmaker — later a naturalized citizen of Mexico — who worked in Spain, Mexico, France and the US..-Early years:...
, Bergman
Ingmar Bergman
Ernst Ingmar Bergman was a Swedish director, writer and producer for film, stage and television. Described by Woody Allen as "probably the greatest film artist, all things considered, since the invention of the motion picture camera", he is recognized as one of the most accomplished and...
, Bresson
Robert Bresson
-Life and career:Bresson was born at Bromont-Lamothe, Puy-de-Dôme, the son of Marie-Élisabeth and Léon Bresson. Little is known of his early life and the year of his birth, 1901 or 1907, varies depending on the source. He was educated at Lycée Lakanal in Sceaux, Hauts-de-Seine, close to Paris, and...
, Andrzej Wajda
Andrzej Wajda
Andrzej Wajda is a Polish film director. Recipient of an honorary Oscar, he is possibly the most prominent member of the unofficial "Polish Film School"...
(whose film Ashes and Diamonds
Ashes and Diamonds (film)
Ashes and Diamonds is a 1958 Polish film directed by Andrzej Wajda, based on the 1948 novel by Polish writer Jerzy Andrzejewski...
was a true experience for him) and Mizoguchi
Kenji Mizoguchi
Kenji Mizoguchi was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. His film Ugetsu won the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival, and appeared in the Sight & Sound Critics' Top Ten Poll in 1962 and 1972. Mizoguchi is renowned for his mastery of the long take and mise-en-scène...
. Tarkovsky absorbed the idea of the auteur
Auteur theory
In film criticism, auteur theory holds that a director's film reflects the director's personal creative vision, as if they were the primary "auteur"...
as a necessary condition for creativity.
Tarkovsky's teacher and mentor was Mikhail Romm
Mikhail Romm
Mikhail Ilych Romm was a Soviet film director.He was born in Irkutsk. His father was a social democrat of Jewish descent who had been exiled there. He graduated from gymnasium in 1917 and entered the Moscow College for Painting, Sculpture and Architecture...
, who taught many film students who would later become influential film directors. In 1956, Tarkovsky directed his first student short film, The Killers, from a short story of Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American author and journalist. His economic and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the...
. The short film There Will Be No Leave Today
There Will Be No Leave Today
There Will be No Leave Today is a 1959 student film by the Russian film directors Andrei Tarkovsky and Aleksandr Gordon. Based on a real postwar incident the film is about an army unit trying to dispose unexploded bombs to save a small town. It was Tarkovsky's and Gordon's second film, produced...
and the screenplay Concentrate followed in 1958 and 1959.
An important influence on Tarkovsky was the film director Grigori Chukhrai
Grigori Chukhrai
Grigori Naumovich Chukhrai was a prominent Soviet film director and screenwriter. He is the father of director Pavel Chukhrai.-Career:He was born in Melitopol in the Zaporizhia Oblast of Ukraine...
, who was teaching at the VGIK. Impressed by the talent of his student, Chukhrai offered Tarkovsky a position as assistant director for his film Clear Skies. Tarkovsky initially showed interest, but then decided to concentrate on his studies and his own projects.
During his third year at the VGIK, Tarkovsky met Andrei Konchalovsky
Andrei Konchalovsky
Andrei Mikhalkov-Konchalovsky is a Soviet-American and Russian film director, film producer and screenwriter....
. They found much in common as they liked the same film directors and shared ideas on cinema and films. In 1959, they wrote the script Antarctica — Distant Country, which was later published in the Moskovskij Komsomolets. Tarkovsky submitted the script to Lenfilm
Lenfilm
Kinostudiya "Lenfilm" is a production unit of the Russian film industry, with its own film studio, located in Saint Petersburg, Russia, formerly Leningrad, R.S.F.S.R. Today OAO "Kinostudiya Lenfilm" is a corporation with its stakes shared between private owners, and several private film studios,...
, which was rejected. They were more successful with the script The Steamroller and the Violin
The Steamroller and the Violin
The Steamroller and the Violin , is a 1960 short film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky and from a screenplay written by Andrei Konchalovsky and Andrei Tarkovsky. The film tells the story of the unlikely friendship of Sasha , a little boy, and Sergey , the operator of a steamroller...
, which they sold to Mosfilm
Mosfilm
Mosfilm is a film studio, which is often described as the largest and oldest in Russia and in Europe. Its output includes most of the more widely-acclaimed Soviet films, ranging from works by Tarkovsky and Eisenstein , to Red Westerns, to the Akira Kurosawa co-production and the epic Война и Мир...
. This film became Tarkovsky's diploma film, earning him his diploma in 1960 and winning first prize at the New York Student Film Festival in 1961.
Film career in the Soviet Union
Tarkovsky's first feature film was Ivan's Childhood in 1962. He had inherited the film from director Eduard Abalov, who had to abort the project. The film earned Tarkovsky international acclaim and won the Golden LionGolden Lion
Il Leone d’Oro is the highest prize given to a film at the Venice Film Festival. The prize was introduced in 1949 by the organizing committee and is now regarded as one of the film industry's most distinguished prizes...
award at the Venice Film Festival
Venice Film Festival
The Venice International Film Festival is the oldest international film festival in the world. Founded by Count Giuseppe Volpi in 1932 as the "Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica", the festival has since taken place every year in late August or early September on the island of the...
in 1962. In the same year, on September 30, his first son Arseny (called Senka in Tarkovsky's diaries) Tarkovsky was born.
In 1965, he directed the film Andrei Rublev
Andrei Rublev (film)
Andrei Rublev , also known as The Passion According to Andrei, is a 1966 Russian film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky from a screenplay written by Andrei Konchalovsky and Andrei Tarkovsky. The film is loosely based on the life of Andrei Rublev, the great 15th century Russian icon painter...
about the life of Andrei Rublev
Andrei Rublev
Andrei Rublev is considered to be the greatest medieval Russian painter of Orthodox icons and frescoes.-Biography:...
, the 15th century Russian icon painter
Iconography
Iconography is the branch of art history which studies the identification, description, and the interpretation of the content of images. The word iconography literally means "image writing", and comes from the Greek "image" and "to write". A secondary meaning is the painting of icons in the...
. Andrei Rublev was not immediately released after completion due to problems with Soviet authorities. Tarkovsky had to cut the film several times, resulting in several different versions of varying lengths. A version of the film was presented at the Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
in 1969 and won the FIPRESCI prize
FIPRESCI
The International Federation of Film Critics is an association of national organizations of professional film critics and film journalists from around the world for "the promotion and development of film culture and for the safeguarding of professional interests." It was founded in June 1930 in...
. The film was officially released in the Soviet Union in a cut version in 1971.
He divorced his wife, Irma Raush
Irma Raush
Irma Yakovlevna Raush is a Russian actress and the first wife of film director Andrei Tarkovsky. She is best known for her role as Durochka in Andrei Rublev and as Ivan's mother in Ivan's Childhood.-Biography:...
, in June 1970. In the same year, he married Larissa Kizilova
Larisa Tarkovskaya
Larisa Tarkovskaya , born Larisa Pavlovna Egorkina, and Larisa Kizilova during her first marriage, was a Russian actress and second wife of the film director Andrei Tarkovsky. She is best known for her role as Nadezhda in The Mirror...
(née
NEE
NEE is a political protest group whose goal was to provide an alternative for voters who are unhappy with all political parties at hand in Belgium, where voting is compulsory.The NEE party was founded in 2005 in Antwerp...
Egorkina), who had been a production assistant for the film Andrei Rublev (they had been living together since 1965). Their son, Andrei Andreyevich Tarkovsky, was born in the same year on August 7.
In 1972, he completed Solaris
Solaris (1972 film)
Solaris is a 1972 film adaptation of the novel Solaris , directed by Andrei Tarkovsky. The film is a meditative psychological drama occurring mostly aboard a space station orbiting the fictional planet Solaris. The scientific mission has stalled, because the scientist crew have fallen to...
, an adaptation of the novel Solaris
Solaris (novel)
Solaris is a 1961 Polish science fiction novel by Stanisław Lem. It is about the ultimate inadequacy of communication between human and non-human species....
by Stanisław Lem. He had worked on this together with screenwriter Fridrikh Gorenshtein, as early as 1968. The film was presented at the Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
and won the Grand Prix Spécial du Jury
Grand Prix (Cannes Film Festival)
The Grand Prix is an award of the Cannes Film Festival bestowed by the jury of the festival on one of the competing feature films. It is the second-most prestigious prize of the festival after the Palme d'Or...
and the FIPRESCI prize
FIPRESCI
The International Federation of Film Critics is an association of national organizations of professional film critics and film journalists from around the world for "the promotion and development of film culture and for the safeguarding of professional interests." It was founded in June 1930 in...
and was nominated for the Palme d'Or
Palme d'Or
The Palme d'Or is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival and is presented to the director of the best feature film of the official competition. It was introduced in 1955 by the organising committee. From 1939 to 1954, the highest prize was the Grand Prix du Festival International du...
. From 1973 to 1974, he shot the film The Mirror
The Mirror (1975 film)
The Mirror is a 1975 Russian film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky. It is loosely autobiographical, blending childhood memories, newsreel footage and poems by his father Arseny Tarkovsky...
, a highly autobiographical film drawing on his childhood and incorporating some of his father's poems. Tarkovsky had worked on the screenplay for this film since 1967, under the consecutive titles Confession, White day and A white, white day. From the beginning the film was not well received by Soviet authorities due to its content and its perceived elitist nature. Russian authorities placed the film in the "third category" which meant severe limitations on its distribution, allowing it to be shown only in third class cinemas and workers' clubs. Few prints were made and the filmmakers received no returns. Third category films also placed the filmmakers in danger of being accused of wasting public funds, which could have serious effects on their future productivity. These difficulties are presumed to have made Tarkovsky play with the idea of going abroad and producing a film outside the Soviet film industry.
During 1975, Tarkovsky also worked on the screenplay Hoffmanniana
Hoffmanniana
Hoffmanniana is a never-filmed 1974 screenplay by Russian film director Andrei Tarkovsky. The screenplay is based on the life and work of German author E. T. A. Hoffmann.- Background :...
, about the German writer and poet E. T. A. Hoffmann. In December 1976, he directed Hamlet
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
, his only stage play, at the Lenkom Theatre
Lenkom Theatre
Lenkom Theatre is the official name of what was once known as the Moscow State Theatre named after Lenin's Komsomol. Designed by Illarion Ivanov-Schitz, it was built in 1907 to house a Merchant's Club, and was home to many theatrical and musical performances...
in Moscow. The main role was played by Anatoly Solonitsyn
Anatoly Solonitsyn
Anatoly Alekseyevich Solonitsyn was a Soviet actor.-Work:Solonitsyn is best known in the west for his roles in several of Andrei Tarkovsky's films, including Dr...
, who also acted in several of Tarkovsky's films. At the end of 1978, he also wrote the screenplay Sardor together with the writer Aleksandr Misharin.
The last film Tarkovsky completed in the Soviet Union was Stalker
Stalker (film)
Stalker is a 1979 science fiction film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky, with a screenplay written by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky, loosely based on their novel Roadside Picnic...
, inspired by the novel Roadside Picnic
Roadside Picnic
Roadside Picnic is a short science fiction novel written by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky between January 18 and November 3 of 1971. As of 1998, 38 editions of the novel were published in 20 countries. The novel was first translated to English by Antonina W. Bouis...
by the brothers Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
The brothers Arkady and Boris Strugatsky are Soviet Jewish-Russian science fiction authors who collaborated on their fiction.-Life and work:...
. Tarkovsky had met the brothers first in 1971 and was in contact with them until his death in 1986. Initially he wanted to shoot a film based on their novel Dead Mountaineer's Hotel
Dead Mountaineer's Hotel
Dead Mountaineer's Hotel is a 1970 science fiction detective novel written by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky...
and he developed a raw script. Influenced by a discussion with Arkady Strugatsky he changed his plan and began to work on the script based on Roadside picnic
Roadside Picnic
Roadside Picnic is a short science fiction novel written by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky between January 18 and November 3 of 1971. As of 1998, 38 editions of the novel were published in 20 countries. The novel was first translated to English by Antonina W. Bouis...
. Work on this film began in 1976. The production was mired in troubles; improper development of the negatives had ruined all the exterior shots. Tarkovsky's relationship with cinematographer Georgy Rerberg
Georgy Rerberg
Georgy Ivanovich Rerberg Soviet Union, – July 28, 1999, Moscow, Russia) was a Russian cinematographer.He is known for his work on Andrey Tarkovsky's Zerkalo...
deteriorated to the point where Tarkovsky hired Alexander Knyazhinsky
Alexander Knyazhinsky
Alexander Leonidovich Knyazhinsky was a Russian cinematographer, noted for his work on Andrey Tarkovsky's Stalker.-External links:* *. Iskusstvo kino 1999....
as a new first cinematographer. Furthermore, Tarkovsky suffered a heart attack in April 1978, resulting in further delay. The film was completed in 1979 and won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
.
In the same year Tarkovsky also began the production of the film The First Day (Russian: Первый День Pervyj Dyen′), based on a script by his friend and longterm collaborator Andrei Konchalovsky
Andrei Konchalovsky
Andrei Mikhalkov-Konchalovsky is a Soviet-American and Russian film director, film producer and screenwriter....
. The film was set in 18th century Russia during the reign of Peter the Great
Peter I of Russia
Peter the Great, Peter I or Pyotr Alexeyevich Romanov Dates indicated by the letters "O.S." are Old Style. All other dates in this article are New Style. ruled the Tsardom of Russia and later the Russian Empire from until his death, jointly ruling before 1696 with his half-brother, Ivan V...
and starred Natalya Bondarchuk
Natalya Bondarchuk
Natalya Sergeyevna Bondarchuk is a Soviet and Russian actress and film director, best known for her appearance in Andrei Tarkovsky's Solaris as "Hari". She is the daughter of the Ukrainian actor Sergei Bondarchuk and the Russian actress Inna Makarova...
and Anatoli Papanov
Anatoli Papanov
Anatoli Dmitrievich Papanov was a popular Soviet film and theatre actor.Papanov starred in some of the best and well-known Soviet films, often together with his friend, Andrei Mironov. Mostly known for his great performances in comedies, he also had serious and dramatic roles, such as that of the...
in the main roles. To get the project approved by Goskino
Goskino
Goskino USSR is the abbreviated name for the USSR State Committee for Cinematography in the Soviet Union...
, Tarkovsky submitted a script that was different from the original script, leaving out several scenes that were critical of the official atheism in the Soviet Union
Religion in the Soviet Union
The Soviet Union was the first state to have as an ideological objective the elimination of religion and its replacement with atheism. To that end, the communist regime confiscated religious property, ridiculed religion, harassed believers, and propagated atheism in schools...
. After finishing shooting of roughly one half of the film, the project was stopped by Goskino, after it became apparent that the film differed from the script submitted to the censors. Tarkovsky was reportedly infuriated by this interruption and destroyed most of the film.
Film career outside the Soviet Union
Voyage in Time
Voyage in Time is a 63-minute feature documentary that documents the travels in Italy of director Andrei Tarkovsky in preparation for the making of his film Nostalghia....
, together with his longtime friend Tonino Guerra
Tonino Guerra
Tonino Guerra is an Italian poet, writer and screenwriter who has collaborated with some of the most prominent film directors of the world.-Biography:Guerra was born in Santarcangelo di Romagna....
. Tarkovsky returned to Italy in 1980 for an extended trip during which he and Tonino Guerra completed the script for the film Nostalghia
Nostalghia
Nostalghia is a 1983 Soviet film, directed by Andrei Tarkovsky and starring Oleg Yankovsky, Domiziana Giordano and Erland Josephson.The plot of the film centers around the meaning of the term nostalgia, which describes a longing for the past, often in idealized form.-Plot:The opening scene is a...
. During 1981 he traveled to the United Kingdom and Sweden. During his trip to Sweden he had considered defecting from the Soviet Union, but ultimately decided to return because of his wife and his son.
Tarkovsky returned to Italy in 1982 to start shooting Nostalghia
Nostalghia
Nostalghia is a 1983 Soviet film, directed by Andrei Tarkovsky and starring Oleg Yankovsky, Domiziana Giordano and Erland Josephson.The plot of the film centers around the meaning of the term nostalgia, which describes a longing for the past, often in idealized form.-Plot:The opening scene is a...
. He did not return to his home country. As Mosfilm
Mosfilm
Mosfilm is a film studio, which is often described as the largest and oldest in Russia and in Europe. Its output includes most of the more widely-acclaimed Soviet films, ranging from works by Tarkovsky and Eisenstein , to Red Westerns, to the Akira Kurosawa co-production and the epic Война и Мир...
withdrew from the project, he had to complete the film with financial support provided by the Italian RAI
RAI
RAI — Radiotelevisione italiana S.p.A. known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane, is the Italian state owned public service broadcaster controlled by the Ministry of Economic Development. Rai is the biggest television company in Italy...
. Tarkovsky completed the film in 1983. Nostalghia
Nostalghia
Nostalghia is a 1983 Soviet film, directed by Andrei Tarkovsky and starring Oleg Yankovsky, Domiziana Giordano and Erland Josephson.The plot of the film centers around the meaning of the term nostalgia, which describes a longing for the past, often in idealized form.-Plot:The opening scene is a...
was presented at the Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
and won the FIPRESCI prize
FIPRESCI
The International Federation of Film Critics is an association of national organizations of professional film critics and film journalists from around the world for "the promotion and development of film culture and for the safeguarding of professional interests." It was founded in June 1930 in...
and the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury. Tarkovsky also shared a special prize called Grand Prix du cinéma de creation with Robert Bresson
Robert Bresson
-Life and career:Bresson was born at Bromont-Lamothe, Puy-de-Dôme, the son of Marie-Élisabeth and Léon Bresson. Little is known of his early life and the year of his birth, 1901 or 1907, varies depending on the source. He was educated at Lycée Lakanal in Sceaux, Hauts-de-Seine, close to Paris, and...
. Soviet authorities prevented the film from winning the Palme d'Or
Palme d'Or
The Palme d'Or is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival and is presented to the director of the best feature film of the official competition. It was introduced in 1955 by the organising committee. From 1939 to 1954, the highest prize was the Grand Prix du Festival International du...
, a fact that hardened Tarkovsky's resolve to never work in the Soviet Union again. In the same year, he also arranged the opera Boris Godunov
Boris Godunov (opera)
Boris Godunov is an opera by Modest Mussorgsky . The work was composed between 1868 and 1873 in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is Mussorgsky's only completed opera and is considered his masterpiece. Its subjects are the Russian ruler Boris Godunov, who reigned as Tsar during the Time of Troubles,...
at the Royal Opera House
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...
in London under the musical direction of Claudio Abbado
Claudio Abbado
Claudio Abbado, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI , is an Italian conductor. He has served as music director of the La Scala opera house in Milan, principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, principal guest conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, music director of the Vienna State Opera,...
.
He spent most of 1984 preparing the film The Sacrifice
The Sacrifice
The Sacrifice is a 1986 film, and the final film by Russian film director Andrei Tarkovsky, who died shortly after completing it.-Synopsis:...
. At a press conference in Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
on July 10, 1984, he announced that he would never return to the Soviet Union and would remain in the West. At that time, his son Andrei Jr. was still in the Soviet Union and not allowed to leave the country.
During 1985, he shot the film The Sacrifice
The Sacrifice
The Sacrifice is a 1986 film, and the final film by Russian film director Andrei Tarkovsky, who died shortly after completing it.-Synopsis:...
in Sweden. At the end of the year he was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer
Lung cancer
Lung cancer is a disease characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. If left untreated, this growth can spread beyond the lung in a process called metastasis into nearby tissue and, eventually, into other parts of the body. Most cancers that start in lung, known as primary...
. In January 1986, he began treatment in Paris, and was joined there by his son, who was finally allowed to leave the Soviet Union. The Sacrifice
The Sacrifice
The Sacrifice is a 1986 film, and the final film by Russian film director Andrei Tarkovsky, who died shortly after completing it.-Synopsis:...
was presented at the Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
and received the Grand Prix Spécial du Jury
Grand Prix (Cannes Film Festival)
The Grand Prix is an award of the Cannes Film Festival bestowed by the jury of the festival on one of the competing feature films. It is the second-most prestigious prize of the festival after the Palme d'Or...
, the FIPRESCI prize
FIPRESCI
The International Federation of Film Critics is an association of national organizations of professional film critics and film journalists from around the world for "the promotion and development of film culture and for the safeguarding of professional interests." It was founded in June 1930 in...
and the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury. As Tarkovsky was unable to attend due to his illness, the prizes were collected by his son, Andrei Jr.
In Tarkovsky's last diary
Time Within Time: The Diaries 1970-1986
Time Within Time: The Diaries 1970-1986 are the diaries of the Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky. They cover his life and work in the Soviet Union and the time of his exile in Western Europe. After the 1991 coup several memos surfaced that alleged that the KGB had at times access to the diaries...
entry (December 15, 1986), he wrote: "But now I have no strength left - that is the problem". The diaries are sometimes also known as Martyrolog
Time Within Time: The Diaries 1970-1986
Time Within Time: The Diaries 1970-1986 are the diaries of the Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky. They cover his life and work in the Soviet Union and the time of his exile in Western Europe. After the 1991 coup several memos surfaced that alleged that the KGB had at times access to the diaries...
and were published posthumously in 1989 and in English in 1991.
Tarkovsky died in Paris on December 29, 1986. He was buried on January 3, 1987 in the Russian Cemetery
Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois Russian Cemetery
Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois Cemetery, specifically the one known as Cimetière de Liers, as there are two cemeteries in the city, is a Russian Orthodox cemetery, located on Rue Léo Lagrange in Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, département Essonne, France....
in Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois
Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, Essonne
Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois is a commune in the southern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris.Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois lies just north of junction 42 on the orbital Francilienne autoroute....
in France. The inscription on his grave stone, which was created by the Russian sculptor Ernst Neizvestny
Ernst Neizvestny
Ernst Iosifovich Neizvestny is a Russian sculptor. He currently lives and works in New York City. His last name in Russian literally means "unknown"....
, reads: To the man who saw the Angel.
A controversy emerged in Russia in the early 1990s when it was alleged that Tarkovsky did not die of natural causes, but was assassinated by the KGB
KGB
The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
. Evidence for this hypothesis includes several testimonies by former KGB agents, who claim that Viktor Chebrikov
Viktor Chebrikov
Viktor Mikhailovich Chebrikov ) was a Soviet Union public official and security administrator and head of the KGB from December 1982 to October 1988....
gave the order to eradicate Tarkovsky to prevent what the Soviet government and the KGB saw as anti-Soviet propaganda by Tarkovsky. Other evidence includes several memos that surfaced after the 1991 coup and the claim by one of Tarkovsky's doctors that his cancer could not have developed from a natural cause.
As Tarkovsky, his wife Larisa Tarkovskaya
Larisa Tarkovskaya
Larisa Tarkovskaya , born Larisa Pavlovna Egorkina, and Larisa Kizilova during her first marriage, was a Russian actress and second wife of the film director Andrei Tarkovsky. She is best known for her role as Nadezhda in The Mirror...
and actor Anatoli Solonitsyn all died from the very same type of lung cancer, Vladimir Sharun, sound designer in Stalker
Stalker (film)
Stalker is a 1979 science fiction film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky, with a screenplay written by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky, loosely based on their novel Roadside Picnic...
, is convinced that they were all poisoned when shooting the film near a chemical plant.
Filmography
Tarkovsky is mainly known as a director of films. During his career he directed only seven feature films, and three short films during his time at the film school. He also wrote several screenplays, directed the play HamletHamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
for the stage in Moscow, the opera Boris Godunov
Boris Godunov (opera)
Boris Godunov is an opera by Modest Mussorgsky . The work was composed between 1868 and 1873 in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is Mussorgsky's only completed opera and is considered his masterpiece. Its subjects are the Russian ruler Boris Godunov, who reigned as Tsar during the Time of Troubles,...
in London, and directed a radio production of the short story Turnabout by William Faulkner
William Faulkner
William Cuthbert Faulkner was an American writer from Oxford, Mississippi. Faulkner worked in a variety of media; he wrote novels, short stories, a play, poetry, essays and screenplays during his career...
. He also wrote Sculpting In Time
Sculpting In Time
Sculpting In Time is a book by Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky about art and cinema in general, and his own films in particular. It was originally published in 1986 in German shortly before the author's death, and published in English in 1987, translated by Kitty Hunter-Blair...
, a book on film theory.
Tarkovsky's first feature film was Ivan's Childhood in 1962. He then directed in the Soviet Union Andrei Rublev
Andrei Rublev (film)
Andrei Rublev , also known as The Passion According to Andrei, is a 1966 Russian film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky from a screenplay written by Andrei Konchalovsky and Andrei Tarkovsky. The film is loosely based on the life of Andrei Rublev, the great 15th century Russian icon painter...
in 1966, Solaris
Solaris (1972 film)
Solaris is a 1972 film adaptation of the novel Solaris , directed by Andrei Tarkovsky. The film is a meditative psychological drama occurring mostly aboard a space station orbiting the fictional planet Solaris. The scientific mission has stalled, because the scientist crew have fallen to...
in 1972, The Mirror
The Mirror (1975 film)
The Mirror is a 1975 Russian film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky. It is loosely autobiographical, blending childhood memories, newsreel footage and poems by his father Arseny Tarkovsky...
in 1975 and Stalker
Stalker (film)
Stalker is a 1979 science fiction film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky, with a screenplay written by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky, loosely based on their novel Roadside Picnic...
in 1979. The documentary Voyage in Time
Voyage in Time
Voyage in Time is a 63-minute feature documentary that documents the travels in Italy of director Andrei Tarkovsky in preparation for the making of his film Nostalghia....
was produced in Italy in 1982, as was Nostalghia
Nostalghia
Nostalghia is a 1983 Soviet film, directed by Andrei Tarkovsky and starring Oleg Yankovsky, Domiziana Giordano and Erland Josephson.The plot of the film centers around the meaning of the term nostalgia, which describes a longing for the past, often in idealized form.-Plot:The opening scene is a...
in 1983. His last film The Sacrifice
The Sacrifice
The Sacrifice is a 1986 film, and the final film by Russian film director Andrei Tarkovsky, who died shortly after completing it.-Synopsis:...
was produced in Sweden in 1986. Tarkovsky was personally involved in writing the screenplays for all his films, sometimes with a co-writer. To Tarkovsky, a director who realizes somebody else's screenplay without being involved in it becomes a mere illustrator, resulting in dead and monotonous films.
Awards
Numerous awards were bestowed on Tarkovsky throughout his lifetime. At the Venice Film FestivalVenice Film Festival
The Venice International Film Festival is the oldest international film festival in the world. Founded by Count Giuseppe Volpi in 1932 as the "Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica", the festival has since taken place every year in late August or early September on the island of the...
he was awarded the Golden Lion
Golden Lion
Il Leone d’Oro is the highest prize given to a film at the Venice Film Festival. The prize was introduced in 1949 by the organizing committee and is now regarded as one of the film industry's most distinguished prizes...
. At the Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
he won several times the FIPRESCI prize
FIPRESCI
The International Federation of Film Critics is an association of national organizations of professional film critics and film journalists from around the world for "the promotion and development of film culture and for the safeguarding of professional interests." It was founded in June 1930 in...
, the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury
Prize of the Ecumenical Jury
The Prize of the Ecumenical Jury is an independent film award for feature films at the Cannes Film Festival since 1974. The Ecumenical Jury is one of three juries at the Cannes Film Festival, along with the official jury and the FIPRESCI jury. The award was created by Christian film makers, film...
and the Grand Prix Spécial du Jury
Grand Prix (Cannes Film Festival)
The Grand Prix is an award of the Cannes Film Festival bestowed by the jury of the festival on one of the competing feature films. It is the second-most prestigious prize of the festival after the Palme d'Or...
. He was also nominated for the Palme d'Or
Palme d'Or
The Palme d'Or is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival and is presented to the director of the best feature film of the official competition. It was introduced in 1955 by the organising committee. From 1939 to 1954, the highest prize was the Grand Prix du Festival International du...
two times. In 1987, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts
British Academy of Film and Television Arts
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts is a charity in the United Kingdom that hosts annual awards shows for excellence in film, television, television craft, video games and forms of animation.-Introduction:...
awarded the BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Language Film to The Sacrifice
The Sacrifice
The Sacrifice is a 1986 film, and the final film by Russian film director Andrei Tarkovsky, who died shortly after completing it.-Synopsis:...
.
Under the influence of Glasnost
Glasnost
Glasnost was the policy of maximal publicity, openness, and transparency in the activities of all government institutions in the Soviet Union, together with freedom of information, introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev in the second half of the 1980s...
and Perestroika
Perestroika
Perestroika was a political movement within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during 1980s, widely associated with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev...
, Tarkovsky was finally recognized in the Soviet Union in the fall of 1986, shortly before his death, by a retrospective of his films in Moscow. After his death, an entire issue of the film magazine Iskusstvo Kino was devoted to Tarkovsky. In their obituaries, the film committee of the Council of Ministers of the USSR and the Union of Soviet Film Makers expressed their sorrow that Tarkovsky had to spend the last years of his life in exile.
Posthumously, he was awarded the Lenin Prize
Lenin Prize
The Lenin Prize was one of the most prestigious awards of the USSR, presented to individuals for accomplishments relating to science, literature, arts, architecture, and technology. It was created on June 23, 1925 and was awarded until 1934. During the period from 1935 to 1956, the Lenin Prize was...
in 1990, one of the highest state honors in the Soviet Union. In 1989 the Andrei Tarkovsky Memorial Prize was established, with its first recipient being the Russian animator Yuriy Norshteyn
Yuriy Norshteyn
Yuriy Borisovich Norshteyn , or Yuri Norstein is an award-winning Soviet and Russian animator best known for his animated shorts, Hedgehog in the Fog and Tale of Tales...
. Since 1993, the Moscow International Film Festival
Moscow International Film Festival
Moscow International Film Festival , is the film festival first held in Moscow in 1959. From its inception to 1995 it was held every second year in July, alternating with the Karlovy Vary festival. The festival has been held annually since 1995....
awards the annual Andrei Tarkovsky Award. In 1996 the Andrei Tarkovsky Museum opened in Yuryevets
Yuryevets, Ivanovo Oblast
Yuryevets is a town and the administrative center of Yuryevetsky District of Ivanovo Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Unzha and the Volga Rivers. Population:...
, his childhood town. A minor planet
Minor planet
An asteroid group or minor-planet group is a population of minor planets that have a share broadly similar orbits. Members are generally unrelated to each other, unlike in an asteroid family, which often results from the break-up of a single asteroid...
, 3345 Tarkovskij
3345 Tarkovskij
3345 Tarkovskij is a main-belt asteroid discovered on December 23, 1982 by Lyudmila Georgievna Karachkina at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory. The asteroid is named after the Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky .-External links:...
, discovered by Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
astronomer Lyudmila Georgievna Karachkina
Lyudmila Georgievna Karachkina
Lyudmila Georgievna Karachkina is a Soviet and Ukrainian astronomer.Working at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory since 1978, she has discovered a number of asteroids, including the Amor asteroid 5324 Lyapunov and the Trojan asteroid 3063 Makhaon. She has received a Ph.D. in astronomy from I. I...
in 1982, has also been named after him.
Tarkovsky has been the subject of several documentaries. Most notable is the 1988 documentary Moscow Elegy
Moscow Elegy
Moscow Elegy is a 1988 documentary film directed by Alexander Sokurov, about the later life and death of Soviet Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky. The film was originally intended to mark the 50th birthday of Tarkovsky in 1982, which would have been before his death...
, by Russian film director Alexander Sokurov
Alexander Sokurov
Alexander Nikolayevich Sokurov is a Russian filmmaker. His most significant works include a semi-documentary, Russian Ark , filmed in a single unedited shot, and Faust , which was honoured with the Golden Lion, the highest prize for the best film at the Venice Film Festival.- Life and work...
. Sokurov's own work has been heavily influenced by Tarkovsky. The film consists mostly of narration over stock footage from Tarkovsky's films. Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky is 1988 documentary film by Michal Leszczylowski
Michal Leszczylowski
Michal Leszczylowski is a Polish film editor who has worked mostly in the Swedish film industry. He has won several awards, including a Guldbagge Award for Creative Achievement in 1989 and a Jussi Award for Best Editing for his work on Tulennielijä in 1999.-Selected filmography:* Mammoth *...
, an editor of the film The Sacrifice. Film director Chris Marker
Chris Marker
Chris Marker is a French writer, photographer, documentary film director, multimedia artist and film essayist. His best known films are La jetée , A Grin Without a Cat , Sans Soleil and AK , an essay film on the Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa...
produced the television documentary One Day in the Life of Andrei Arsenevich
One Day in the Life of Andrei Arsenevich
One Day in the Life of Andrei Arsenevich is a 1999 French documentary film directed by Chris Marker, about and an homage to the Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky. The film was an episode of the French documentary film series Cinéastes de notre temps , which in over ninety episodes since 1966...
as an homage to Andrei Tarkovsky in 2000.
Ingmar Bergman
Ingmar Bergman
Ernst Ingmar Bergman was a Swedish director, writer and producer for film, stage and television. Described by Woody Allen as "probably the greatest film artist, all things considered, since the invention of the motion picture camera", he is recognized as one of the most accomplished and...
was quoted as saying: "Tarkovsky for me is the greatest [of us all], the one who invented a new language, true to the nature of film, as it captures life as a reflection, life as a dream". Film historian Steven Dillon
Steven Dillon
Steven Dillon is an author and Professor of English at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. He is also a film critic and film historian. Dillon's use of the expression "The Solaris Effect", as in the title of his book, referred to the great influence of Andrei Tarkovsky and his films on other film...
claims that much of subsequent film was deeply influenced by the films of Tarkovsky.
At the enterance to the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography
Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography
The Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography All-Russian State University of Cinematography named after S. A. Gerasimov), VGIK for short, is a film school in Moscow, Russia.-History:...
in Moscow, Russia there is a monument that includes statues of Tarkovsky, Gennady Shpalikov
Gennady Shpalikov
Gennady Fyodorovich Shpalikov was a Soviet Russian poet and a screenwriter.Born in the town of Segezha, he moved to Moscow with his parents in 1939. In the fall of 1941, he was evacuated to the Kirghiz SSR, together with the Academy of Military Engineers, where his father, Fyodor Grigorievich...
and Vasily Shukshin
Vasily Shukshin
Vasily Makarovich Shukshin was a notable Soviet/Russian actor, writer, screenwriter and movie director from the Altay region who specialized in rural themes. Upon his death, Shukshin was interred at Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.-Biography:...
.
Influences
Tarkovsky became a film director during the mid and late 1950s, a period during which Soviet society opened to foreign films, literature and music. This allowed Tarkovsky to see films of European, American and Japanese directors, an experience which influenced his own film making. His teacher and mentor at the film school, Mikhail RommMikhail Romm
Mikhail Ilych Romm was a Soviet film director.He was born in Irkutsk. His father was a social democrat of Jewish descent who had been exiled there. He graduated from gymnasium in 1917 and entered the Moscow College for Painting, Sculpture and Architecture...
, allowed his students considerable freedom and emphasized the independence of the film director.
Tarkovsky was, according to Shavkat Abdusalmov, a fellow student at the film school, fascinated by Japanese films. He was amazed by how every character on the screen is exceptional and how everyday events such as a Samurai cutting bread with his sword are elevated to something special and put into the limelight. Tarkovsky has also expressed interest in the art of Haiku and its ability to create "images in such a way that they mean nothing beyond themselves."
In 1972, Tarkovsky told film historian Leonid Kozlov
Leonid Kozlov
Leonid Kozlov is a former principal dancer of the Bolshoi and New York City Ballet. He is also a choreographer, and the founder of Kozlov Dance International and Youth Dance Festival of New Jersey.-Biography:...
his ten favorite films. The list includes: Diary of a Country Priest
Diary of a Country Priest
Diary of a Country Priest is a 1951 French film directed by Robert Bresson, and starring Claude Laydu. It was closely based on the novel of the same name by Georges Bernanos. Published in 1937, the novel received the Grand prix du roman de l'Académie française...
and Mouchette
Mouchette
Mouchette is a 1967 French film directed by Robert Bresson, starring Nadine Nortier, and Jean-Claude Guilbert. It is based on the novel by Georges Bernanos. "Mouchette" means "little fly" in French...
, by Robert Bresson
Robert Bresson
-Life and career:Bresson was born at Bromont-Lamothe, Puy-de-Dôme, the son of Marie-Élisabeth and Léon Bresson. Little is known of his early life and the year of his birth, 1901 or 1907, varies depending on the source. He was educated at Lycée Lakanal in Sceaux, Hauts-de-Seine, close to Paris, and...
; Winter Light
Winter Light
Winter Light is a 1962 Swedish drama film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman and starring Bergman regulars Gunnar Björnstrand, Ingrid Thulin and Max von Sydow. The film follows Tomas Ericsson , pastor of a small rural Swedish church, as he deals with existential crisis and his...
, Wild Strawberries
Wild Strawberries (film)
Wild Strawberries is a 1957 Swedish film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman, about an old man recalling his past. The original Swedish title is Smultronstället, which literally means "the wild strawberry patch", but idiomatically means an underrated gem of a place...
and Persona
Persona (film)
Persona is a film by Swedish director Ingmar Bergman, released in 1966, and starring Bibi Andersson and Liv Ullmann. Bergman held this film to be one of his most important; in his book Images, he writes: "Today I feel that in Persona—and later in Cries and Whispers—I had gone as far as I could go...
, by Ingmar Bergman
Ingmar Bergman
Ernst Ingmar Bergman was a Swedish director, writer and producer for film, stage and television. Described by Woody Allen as "probably the greatest film artist, all things considered, since the invention of the motion picture camera", he is recognized as one of the most accomplished and...
; Nazarín
Nazarín
Nazarín is a 1959 Mexican film directed by Luis Buñuel and co-written between Buñuel and Julio Alejandro, adapted from the eponymous novel of Benito Pérez Galdós...
, by Luis Buñuel
Luis Buñuel
Luis Buñuel Portolés was a Spanish-born filmmaker — later a naturalized citizen of Mexico — who worked in Spain, Mexico, France and the US..-Early years:...
; City Lights
City Lights
City Lights is a 1931 American silent film and romantic comedy-drama written by, directed by, and starring Charlie Chaplin. It also has the leads Virginia Cherrill and Harry Myers. Although "talking" pictures were on the rise since 1928, City Lights was immediately popular. Today, it is thought of...
, by Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...
; Ugetsu
Ugetsu
Ugetsu is a 1953 Japanese film directed by Kenji Mizoguchi. Set in 16th century Japan, it stars Masayuki Mori and Machiko Kyō, and is inspired by short stories by Ueda Akinari and Guy de Maupassant...
, by Kenji Mizoguchi
Kenji Mizoguchi
Kenji Mizoguchi was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. His film Ugetsu won the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival, and appeared in the Sight & Sound Critics' Top Ten Poll in 1962 and 1972. Mizoguchi is renowned for his mastery of the long take and mise-en-scène...
; Seven Samurai, by Akira Kurosawa
Akira Kurosawa
was a Japanese film director, producer, screenwriter and editor. Regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema, Kurosawa directed 30 filmsIn 1946, Kurosawa co-directed, with Hideo Sekigawa and Kajiro Yamamoto, the feature Those Who Make Tomorrow ;...
, and Woman in the Dunes
Woman in the Dunes
is a film directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara and based on the novel of the same name by Kōbō Abe. The novel was published in 1962, and the film was released in 1964. Kōbō Abe also wrote the screenplay for the film version....
, by Hiroshi Teshigahara. Among his favorite directors were Buñuel, Mizoguchi, Bergman, Bresson, Kurosawa, Michelangelo Antonioni
Michelangelo Antonioni
Michelangelo Antonioni, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI was an Italian modernist film director, screenwriter, editor and short story writer.- Personal life :...
, Jean Vigo
Jean Vigo
Jean Vigo was a French film director, who helped establish poetic realism in film in the 1930s and was a posthumous influence on the French New Wave of the late 1950s and early 1960s.-Biography:...
, and Carl Theodor Dreyer
Carl Theodor Dreyer
Carl Theodor Dreyer, Jr. was a Danish film director. He is regarded by many critics and filmmakers as one of the greatest directors in cinema.-Life:Dreyer was born illegitimate in Copenhagen, Denmark...
.
With the exception of City Lights, the list does not contain any films of the early silent era. The reason is that Tarkovsky saw film as an art as only a relatively recent phenomenon, with the early film-making forming only a prelude. The list has also no films or directors from Tarkovsky's native Russia, although he rated Soviet directors such as Boris Barnet, Sergei Paradjanov and Alexander Dovzhenko
Alexander Dovzhenko
Aleksandr Petrovich Dovzhenko , was a Soviet screenwriter, film producer and director of Ukrainian descent. He is often cited as one of the most important early Soviet filmmakers, alongside Sergei Eisenstein and Vsevolod Pudovkin.- Biography :...
highly.
Although strongly opposed to commercial cinema, in a famous exception Tarkovsky praised the blockbuster film The Terminator
The Terminator
The Terminator is a 1984 science fiction action film directed by James Cameron, co-written by Cameron and William Wisher Jr., and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Biehn, and Linda Hamilton. The film was produced by Hemdale Film Corporation and distributed by Orion Pictures, and filmed in Los...
, saying its "vision of the future and the relation between man and its destiny is pushing the frontier of cinema as an art". He was critical of the "brutality and low acting skills", but nevertheless impressed by this film.
Cinematic style
Tarkovsky's films are characterised by metaphysicalMetaphysics
Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world, although the term is not easily defined. Traditionally, metaphysics attempts to answer two basic questions in the broadest possible terms:...
themes, extremely long take
Long take
A long take is an uninterrupted shot in a film which lasts much longer than the conventional editing pace either of the film itself or of films in general, usually lasting several minutes. It can be used for dramatic and narrative effect if done properly, and in moving shots is often accomplished...
s, and memorable images of exceptional beauty. Recurring motifs are dreams, memory, childhood, running water accompanied by fire, rain indoors, reflections, levitation, and characters re-appearing in the foreground of long panning movements of the camera. He once said, “Juxtaposing a person with an environment that is boundless, collating him with a countless number of people passing by close to him and far away, relating a person to the whole world, that is the meaning of cinema.”
Tarkovsky included levitation scenes into several of his films, most notably Solaris. To him these scenes possess great power and are used for their photogenic value and magical inexplicability.
Water, clouds, and reflections were used by him for its surreal beauty and photogenic value, as well as its symbolism, such as waves or the form of brooks or running water.
Bells and candles are also frequent symbols. These are symbols of film, sight and sound, and Tarkovsky's film frequently has themes of self reflection.
Tarkovsky developed a theory of cinema that he called "sculpting in time". By this he meant that the unique characteristic of cinema as a medium was to take our experience of time and alter it. Unedited movie footage transcribes time in real time
Real-time (media)
Real time within the media is a method of narratology wherein events are portrayed at the same rate that the audience experiences them. For example, if a movie told in real-time is two hours long, then the plot of that movie covers two hours of fictional time...
. By using long takes and few cuts in his films, he aimed to give the viewers a sense of time passing, time lost, and the relationship of one moment in time to another.
Up to, and including, his film The Mirror
The Mirror (1975 film)
The Mirror is a 1975 Russian film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky. It is loosely autobiographical, blending childhood memories, newsreel footage and poems by his father Arseny Tarkovsky...
, Tarkovsky focused his cinematic works on exploring this theory. After The Mirror, he announced that he would focus his work on exploring the dramatic unities proposed by Aristotle
Aristotle
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
: a concentrated action, happening in one place, within the span of a single day.
Several of Tarkovsky's films have color or black and white sequences, including for example Andrei Rublev
Andrei Rublev (film)
Andrei Rublev , also known as The Passion According to Andrei, is a 1966 Russian film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky from a screenplay written by Andrei Konchalovsky and Andrei Tarkovsky. The film is loosely based on the life of Andrei Rublev, the great 15th century Russian icon painter...
which features an epilogue in color of religious icon paintings, as well as Solaris
Solaris (1972 film)
Solaris is a 1972 film adaptation of the novel Solaris , directed by Andrei Tarkovsky. The film is a meditative psychological drama occurring mostly aboard a space station orbiting the fictional planet Solaris. The scientific mission has stalled, because the scientist crew have fallen to...
, The Mirror
The Mirror (1975 film)
The Mirror is a 1975 Russian film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky. It is loosely autobiographical, blending childhood memories, newsreel footage and poems by his father Arseny Tarkovsky...
, and Stalker, which feature monochrome and sepia sequences while otherwise being in color. In 1966, in an interview conducted shortly after finishing Andrei Rublev, Tarkovsky dismissed color film as a "commercial gimmick" and cast doubt on the idea that contemporary films meaningfully use color. He claimed that in everyday life one does not consciously notice colors most of the time. Hence in film color should be used mainly to emphasize certain moments, but not all the time as this distracts the viewer. To him, films in color are like moving paintings or photographs, which are too beautiful to be a realistic depiction of life.
Vadim Yusov
Tarkovsky worked in close collaboration with cinematographer Vadim YusovVadim Yusov
Vadim Ivanovich Yusov is a Soviet and Russian cinematographer and a professor of the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography, who worked with Andrey Tarkovsky on The Steamroller and the Violin, Ivan's Childhood, Andrei Rublev and Solaris, and with Georgi Daneliya on I Step Through Moscow...
, and much of the visual style of Tarkovsky's films can be attributed to this collaboration. Tarkovsky would spend two days preparing for Yusov to film a single long take, and due to the preparation, usually only a single take was needed.
Sven Nykvist
In his last film, The SacrificeThe Sacrifice
The Sacrifice is a 1986 film, and the final film by Russian film director Andrei Tarkovsky, who died shortly after completing it.-Synopsis:...
, Tarkovsky worked with cinematographer Sven Nykvist
Sven Nykvist
Sven Vilhem Nykvist was a Swedish cinematographer. He worked on over 120 films, but is known especially for his work with director Ingmar Bergman...
, who had worked closely with director Ingmar Bergman
Ingmar Bergman
Ernst Ingmar Bergman was a Swedish director, writer and producer for film, stage and television. Described by Woody Allen as "probably the greatest film artist, all things considered, since the invention of the motion picture camera", he is recognized as one of the most accomplished and...
on many of Bergman's films. Nykvist complained that Tarkovsky would frequently look through the camera and even direct actors through it.
Films about Tarkovsky
- Ebbo Demant: Auf der Suche nach der verlorenen Zeit.Andrej Tarkowskijs Exil und Tod. Documentary. Germany, 1988.
- One Day in the Life of Andrei ArsenevichOne Day in the Life of Andrei ArsenevichOne Day in the Life of Andrei Arsenevich is a 1999 French documentary film directed by Chris Marker, about and an homage to the Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky. The film was an episode of the French documentary film series Cinéastes de notre temps , which in over ninety episodes since 1966...
: 1999 French documentary film directed by Chris MarkerChris MarkerChris Marker is a French writer, photographer, documentary film director, multimedia artist and film essayist. His best known films are La jetée , A Grin Without a Cat , Sans Soleil and AK , an essay film on the Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa... - Voyage in TimeVoyage in TimeVoyage in Time is a 63-minute feature documentary that documents the travels in Italy of director Andrei Tarkovsky in preparation for the making of his film Nostalghia....
: documents the travels in Italy of Andrei Tarkovsky in preparation for the making of his film Nostalghia, Tonino GuerraTonino GuerraTonino Guerra is an Italian poet, writer and screenwriter who has collaborated with some of the most prominent film directors of the world.-Biography:Guerra was born in Santarcangelo di Romagna....
, 1983.
External links
- Andrei Tarkovsky at Senses of CinemaSenses of CinemaSenses of Cinema is a quarterly online film magazine founded in 1999 by filmmaker Bill Mousoulis. Based in Melbourne, Australia, Senses of Cinema publishes work by film critics from all over the world, including critical essays, career overviews of the works of key directors, and coverage of many...