# Rank Andrei Tarkovsky's Feature Films (or those which you've already seen)



## AfterHours (Mar 27, 2017)

Simple thread. Rank Andrei Tarkovsky's 7 feature films in order (or, those which you've seen). 

Has this been done before? If so, let's do it again


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## AfterHours (Mar 27, 2017)

1. Nostalghia (1983)
2. Mirror (1975)
3. Stalker (1979)
4. Andrei Rublev (1966)
5. The Sacrifice (1986)
6. Solaris (1972)
7. Ivan's Childhood (1962)


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## AfterHours (Mar 27, 2017)

If you haven't seen his films, he is a director that I feel would appeal most to the aesthetics and intellectual qualities (both high) on talkclassical, more prevalent on this site than most. In other words, I highly recommend his films. They are very personal, spiritual and existential. 

As correlating points of interest, his films would probably appeal to fans of Beethoven's late Piano Sonatas or String Quartets, as well as, say, Schubert's late works (Late Piano Sonatas, String Quintet, Winterreise...), or Messiaen's works (especially Quartet for the End of Time).

For Rock fans, some pretty close correlations could maybe be drawn as follows:

Nostalghia --> Rock Bottom - Robert Wyatt 
Mirror --> Starsailor - Tim Buckley
Stalker --> Laughing Stock - Talk Talk
Andrei Rublev --> Passion - Peter Gabriel
The Sacrifice --> Spirit of Eden - Talk Talk

Would have to think about Solaris and Ivan's Childhood a bit more...


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

I am not ashamed to say I never heard from the man before, but new / older names always trigger my curiosity.


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## OldFashionedGirl (Jul 21, 2013)

One of my favorites directors. His films are challenging, but at the same time rewarding to watch.

1. Stalker 
2. Nostalghia
3. The Sacrifice 
4. Andrei Rublev 
5. Mirror 
6. Solaris 
7. Ivan's Childhood (1962)
I have problems with Mirror. Probably this is why isn't on a higher position.

AfterHours: I like your avatar photo.


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## AfterHours (Mar 27, 2017)

OldFashionedGirl said:


> One of my favorites directors. His films are challenging, but at the same time rewarding to watch.
> 
> 1. Stalker
> 2. Nostalghia
> ...


Mirror is probably his most challenging film (even if I would say Nostalghia is his deepest), so I understand. Thank you for your selections!


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## AfterHours (Mar 27, 2017)

Pugg said:


> I am not ashamed to say I never heard from the man before, but new / older names always trigger my curiosity.


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## AfterHours (Mar 27, 2017)

OldFashionedGirl said:


> AfterHours: I like your avatar photo.


I appreciate that, thanks for ranking me #1


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

AfterHours said:


>


Oh my goodness, not for the faint hearted I see.


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## WaterRat (May 19, 2015)

Shostakovich objected to the animal cruelty in 'Andrei Rublev', which included a cow being set on fire. This is cinema my soul can do without.


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## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

My own ranking of personal favorites among the seven movies:


1. The Sacrifice (1986)
2. Andrei Rublev (1966) 
3. Solaris (1972)
4. Ivan's Childhood (1962)
5. Nostalghia (1983)
6. Mirror (1975)
7. Stalker (1979)


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## AfterHours (Mar 27, 2017)

WaterRat said:


> Shostakovich objected to the animal cruelty in 'Andrei Rublev', which included a cow being set on fire. This is cinema my soul can do without.


Though I object to that as well, there is no question of the cinematic achievement at hand. Your loss I guess...


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## Xaltotun (Sep 3, 2010)

Oh, Tarkovsky's a genius, pure and simple. There are good directors aplenty but Tarkovsky is a Beethoven of cinema.

1. Andrei Rublev
2. Mirror
3. Nostalghia

...and so I realize I haven't seen the others. I should, but I doubt they would top Nostalghia... and it's almost impossible that they'd top the godly Mirror... and it's completely impossible that ANYTHING would ever top Andrei Rublev.


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## AfterHours (Mar 27, 2017)

Xaltotun said:


> Oh, Tarkovsky's a genius, pure and simple. There are good directors aplenty but Tarkovsky is a Beethoven of cinema.
> 
> 1. Andrei Rublev
> 2. Mirror
> ...


Great to see some serious Tarkovsky fans around these parts! Whenever you get around to it, you surely won't be disappointed by the others.


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## Xaltotun (Sep 3, 2010)

WaterRat said:


> Shostakovich objected to the animal cruelty in 'Andrei Rublev', which included a cow being set on fire. This is cinema my soul can do without.


The cow was not harmed, it had a protective coat. One horse, which was bought from an abattoir and would have been shot anyway, was shot.


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## WaterRat (May 19, 2015)

Xaltotun said:


> The cow was not harmed, it had a protective coat. One horse, which was bought from an abattoir and would have been shot anyway, was shot.


Some may say that the technical term for that is cover story. Have you seen the footage of the cow on fire? I don't recommend it to anyone. If it's not being harmed it's a terrific actor.

The horse was killed with a spear, which has been edited out of more recent cuts of the film.


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## AfterHours (Mar 27, 2017)

WaterRat said:


> Some may say that the technical term for that is cover story. Have you seen the footage of the cow on fire? I don't recommend it to anyone. If it's not being harmed it's a terrific actor.
> 
> The horse was killed with a spear, which has been edited out of more recent cuts of the film.


Well, it's understandable that you would find this reprehensible. I am certainly not an advocate of animal cruelty. There are many extraordinary artists I wouldn't want to meet (Wagner anyone?), and works of art who's content is reprehensible (for instance, plenty of Rock albums and films that I consider incredible artistically, but feature pretty ghastly, highly disagreeable content). Tarkovsky was a true genius -- a very spiritual individual of tremendous intellect and insight into art and life. These are very brief moments in a tremendous, over 3-hour film, and if you can ever get past this, you would be rewarding yourself by seeing one of the truly great movies ever made. His other films, too.


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## AfterHours (Mar 27, 2017)

A great quote from Tarkovsky I wanted to share (not directed at anyone in particular):

“The beautiful is hidden from the eyes of those who are not searching for the truth, for whom it is contra-indicated. But the profound lack of spirituality of those people who see art and condemn it, the fact that they are neither willing nor ready to consider the meaning and aim of their existence in any higher sense, is often masked by the vulgarly simplistic cry, 'I don't like it!', 'It's boring!' It is not a point that one can argue; but it like the utterance of a man born blind who is being told about a rainbow. He simply remains deaf to the pain undergone by the artist in order to share with others the truth he has reached.”

--Andrei Tarkovsky


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

I finally started watching Andrei Rublev, I find his style very strange. It is not showy like I would expect from an art film.


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## AfterHours (Mar 27, 2017)

Phil loves classical said:


> I finally started watching Andrei Rublev, I find his style very strange. It is not showy like I would expect from an art film.


I think blockbuster/popular films are much more pointlessly showy on average. Tarkovsky's style becomes increasingly personalized as his career continued, especially from 1974/75 (Mirror) on. He was already a substantial artist with Ivan's Childhood, Andrei Rublev and Solaris up to that point but his last 4 may be the most extraordinary consecutive stretch in film history. It will be interesting to see if you appreciate him more and grasp the extent of his art or not. Many find him quite challenging and difficult to get a grip on.


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

AfterHours said:


> I think blockbuster/popular films are much more pointlessly showy on average. Tarkovsky's style becomes increasingly personalized as his career continued, especially from 1974/75 (Mirror) on. He was already a substantial artist with Ivan's Childhood, Andrei Rublev and Solaris up to that point but his last 4 may be the most extraordinary consecutive stretch in film history. It will be interesting to see if you appreciate him more and grasp the extent of his art or not. Many find him quite challenging and difficult to get a grip on.


I read somewhere that we just need to watch his films and there isn't necessarily any deep, hidden meaning to get. Some art films strain to achieve some kind of deep meaning, and I don't buy many analyses, where everything you see is Symbolic for something.


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## AfterHours (Mar 27, 2017)

Phil loves classical said:


> I read somewhere that we just need to watch his films and there isn't necessarily any deep, hidden meaning to get. Some art films strain to achieve some kind of deep meaning, and I don't buy many analyses, where everything you see is Symbolic for something.


"Just needing to watch it" is assuming the viewer has the capacity to assimilate what he is seeing. If one has little understanding of visual art and Tarkovsky's language of cinema (which is a very personal extension of himself), than "just watching it" is almost guaranteed to lead to boredom, the conclusion that "nothing is happening" or "just art for art's sake" etc. If one is in alignment with the language and purpose of Tarkovsky's cinema, than "just watching it" is much more likely to lead to astonishment, as one will be observing it from a point of understanding -- and then the statement is true. Tarkovsky's films are highly philosophical and metaphorical. Though like a great, all encompassing truth, they are not particularly difficult to figure out once one unlocks the essence of his language; everything flows from there.

Some quotes to consider when watching his films...

"We can express our feelings regarding the world around us either by poetic or by descriptive means. I prefer to express myself metaphorically." --Andrei Tarkovsky

"If there are some who talk the same language as myself, then why should I neglect their interests for the sake of some other group of people who are alien and remote? They have their own 'gods and idols' and we have nothing in common. ... If you try to please audiences, uncritically accepting their tastes, it can only mean that you have no respect for them: that you simply want to collect their money." --Andrei Tarkovsky

"Modern mass culture, aimed at the 'consumer', the civilisation of prosthetics, is crippling people's souls, setting up barriers between man and the crucial questions of his existence, his consciousness of himself as a spiritual being." --Andrei Tarkovsky

"Never try to convey your idea to the audience - it is a thankless and senseless task. Show them life, and they'll find within themselves the means to assess and appreciate it." --Andrei Tarkovsky

"...art must must carry man's craving for the ideal, must be an expression of his reaching out towards it; that art must give man hope and faith. And the more hopeless the world in the artist's version, the more clearly perhaps must we see the ideal that stands in opposition - otherwise life becomes impossible! Art symbolises the meaning of our existence." --Andrei Tarkovsky

"Poetry is an awareness of the world, a particular way of relating to reality." --Andrei Tarkovsky

"I find poetic links, the logic of poetry in cinema, extraordinarily pleasing. They seem to me perfectly appropriate to the potential of cinema as the most truthful and poetic of art forms. Certainly I am more at home with them than with traditional theatrical writing which links images through the linear rigid logical development of plot. That sort of fussily correct way of linking events usually involves arbitrarily forcing them into sequence in obedience to some abstract notion of order. And even when this is not so, even when the plot is governed by the characters, one finds that the links which hold it together rest on a facile interpretation of life's complexities." --Andrei Tarkovsky

"When less than everything has been said about a subject, you can still think on further. The alternative is for the audience to be presented with a final deduction (...) no effort on their part. What can it mean to them when they have not shared with the author the misery and joy of bringing an image into being?" --Andrei Tarkovsky

"The director's task is to recreate life, its movement, its contradictions, its dynamic and conflicts. It is his duty to reveal every iota of the truth he has seen, even if not everyone finds that truth acceptable. Of course an artist can lose his way, but even his mistakes are interesting provided they are sincere. For they represent the reality of his inner life, of the peregrinations and struggle into which the external world has thrown him." --Andrei Tarkovsky

"The beautiful is hidden from the eyes of those who are not searching for the truth, for whom it is contra-indicated. But the profound lack of spirituality of those people who see art and condemn it, the fact that they are neither willing nor ready to consider the meaning and aim of their existence in any higher sense, is often masked by the vulgarly simplistic cry, 'I don't like it!', 'It's boring!' It is not a point that one can argue; but it like the utterance of a man born blind who is being told about a rainbow. He simply remains deaf to the pain undergone by the artist in order to share with others the truth he has reached." --Andrei Tarkovsky


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

True, many viewers have their own preconceptions what a film should show them. I finished watching. Tarkovsky is not pretentious at all to my surprise, and he does have very clear messages. It deals more with Christianity and art. I prefer the Seventh Seal for its themes.


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## AfterHours (Mar 27, 2017)

Phil loves classical said:


> True, many viewers have their own preconceptions what a film should show them. I finished watching. Tarkovsky is not pretentious at all to my surprise, and he does have very clear messages. It deals more with Christianity and art. I prefer the Seventh Seal for its themes.


Right on  The Seventh Seal is amazing too


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