As you may already guess, I'm going to say I really couldn't find a steady plotline to follow, and that this movie was weird. Throughout the film, I found many motifs, interesting scenes, and awkward conversations. I took some notes, knowing that I would not be able to keep track in my head!
Soooo I think that there is a plot. I am just not very good at looking at everything in the big picture. I followed a few things although, like how Ignat's family was followed throughout the film. The main character, his mother (I don't know her name), was focused on so much this film. Even when others were talking in a scene, the camera focused on just her. I loved how all the attention was on her, but it got confusing when all the different flashbacks were happening.
Some of the things I noticed, and somewhat understand/don't understand at all:
1- Are all the poems supposed to represent Ignat speaking about his life/mother?
2- When Ignat said "When did father leave us?", did that mean that he went to war or just left?
3- Early in the film, I noticed that the mother's husband said something about her reminding him of his own mother. Yet, later he denied that they were alike when she was looking at a picture of the two. Hmm...
4- A lot of water, raining, showering, playing with the hair, and fire. It was interesting, and I'd like to know what Tarkovsky's thoughts were behind them.
5- Mirrors and doors showed deep into the characters.
6- Black and white for flashbacks.
7- I thought Ignat was somewhat living vicariously through his parents...thoughts?
8- The scene at the print shop was confusing, and the woman who chased the mother intrigued me.
Last but not least, I really thought this movie was a lot like the movie "The Shining", it was such an odd movie and hard to keep up with. "Mirror" was a lot more confusing, yet it totally reminded me of this American thriller.
Im with you on the flashbacks, thats what got me confused. There was times when i didn't even know if that was the kid we were following.
ReplyDeleteThere are dual roles in this film--which I can remember made it particularly difficult for me to understand it the first time around. The narrator's mother and his wife are played by the same woman; and it's the same kid who plays the narrator (Aleksey or "Alyosha") when he was a kid and who also plays his son Ignat.
ReplyDelete1) I think the poems can be applied to the situations in this film--but they were poems written by the director's father (Arsenii Tarkovsky). In fact, that's who is actually reciting the poems. Since the film has a lot to it that's biographical--you can see how much these poems would have meant to Tarkovsky.
2) The father left the family in 1935, which would have been six years before the War. But there is that one scene in the film when he briefly comes from the front during the War (he is in military uniform) to see his son and daughter.
3) And it's funny that he denies the resemblance, because he is clearly translating one onto the other (a psychological element that is conveyed to us by means of the dual roles in this film).
ReplyDelete4) Nobody (and I mean nobody) does the four elements (earth, fire, air (meaning lots of wind!), and water) like Tarkovsky!!! His films are absolutely steeped in them...
5) And did you noticed all of the mirrors on the wall next to the dying narrator at the end--kind of a humorous way of hammering their importance home. Also think of the way we can *reflect* on our past--and how memory can in that way become a mirror of sorts...
6) Actually, the flashbacks are more often in color than they are in black and white. The black and white seems to emerge more when the narrator is either imagining what must have happened (for example, that scene with the mother at the printing factory) or--and this is much more prominent--for dreams. We'll take a look tomorrow at the way Tarkovsky conveys on screen a memory that is casting back and trying to recover details that have been lost over time...it's one of the most fascinating elements of this film's unique narrative technique.
ReplyDelete7) Once again, consider that the narrator as boy and the narrator's son are played by the same kid--so there's something to what you're saying...only perhaps in the reverse?
8) The printer's shop scene is definitely very intriguing...and a bit hard to know whether it actually happened or if this is just a sort of "fantasy memory" or bit of "personal myth" on the part of the narrator. That woman you mention is definitely peculiar--but she does represent a certain Russian type (and perhaps not only Russian) who can turn on a dime and suddenly start biting after having just spent the past two minutes smiling and laughing at you...and the clicking of the heels there also suggests someone who delights in making someone else feel miserable and confused. By the way, did you pick up on the fact that it's Dante she's quoting there as she clicks her heels (..."lost my way at life's mid-point")?