Andrei Tarkovsky

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"Tarkovsky" redirects here. For the Russian poet, see Arseny Tarkovsky.
Andrei Tarkovsky

Born: April 4, 1932
Zavrazhye, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
Died: December 29, 1986
Paris, France
Occupation: film director and producer

Andrei Arsenyevich Tarkovsky (Андре́й Арсе́ньевич Тарко́вский) (April 4, 1932 - December 29, 1986) was a Russian film director, opera director, writer, and actor. He is generally regarded as the foremost important and influential filmmaker of the post-war Soviet era in Russia and one of the greatest in the history of cinema.

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[edit] Biography

Tarkovsky, son of the prominent poet Arseny Tarkovsky, was a product of the golden era of Soviet arts education. He received a classical education in Moscow, studying Music and Arabic, before training for over five years at the VGIK film school, studying directly under Mikhail Romm among others. He also worked as a geologist in Siberia. Although the Orthodox Christian symbolism of his films led to interference and occasional suppression of the finished product by the Soviet authorities, the Soviet Mosfilm studio system enabled him to make films that would not have been commercially viable in the West. However, Tarkovsky's principal complaint about his treatment by the authorities was that he had many more ideas in him than he was allowed to bring to the screen, and in 1984, after shooting Nostalghia in Italy, he decided not to return to Russia. He made only one more film, The Sacrifice, a European co-production filmed in Sweden, before dying of cancer in a suburb of Paris at the age of 54.

Andrei Tarkovsky was buried in a graveyard for Russian émigrés in the town of Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, Île-de-France, France. The inscription on Tarkovsky's grave reads "To the man who saw the Angel".

[edit] Work

Tarkovsky's films are characterised by Christian and metaphysical themes, extremely long takes, and memorable images of exceptional beauty. Recurring motifs in his films 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.

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. (The speedy jump-cutting style that is prevalent in music videos and many Hollywood movies, by contrast, overrides any sense of time by imposing the editor's viewpoint.) 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 Mirror, Tarkovsky focused his cinematic works on exploring this theory. After 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. Stalker is, by his own words, the only film that truly reflects this ambition;[citation needed] it is also considered by many to be a near-perfect reflection of the sculpting in time theory.

[edit] Life

"...it seems to me that the individual today stands at a crossroad, faced with the choice of whether to pursue the new technology and the endless multiplication of material goods, or to seek out a way that will lead to spiritual responsibility, a way that ultimately might mean not only his personal salvation but also the saving of society at large; in other words, turn to God." - Andrei Tarkovsky, 1986

[edit] Filmography

[edit] Screenplays

  • The Steamroller and the Violin (1960), co-scripted with Andrei Mikhalkov-Konchalovsky
  • My Name is Ivan / Ivan's Childhood (1961), Vladimir Bogomolov, Mikhail Papava (Andrei Tarkovsky and Andrei Mikhalkov-Konchalovsky both uncredited)
  • Solaris (1972), co-scripted with Fridrikh Gorenshtein
  • Light Wind (Ariel) (1972), co-scripted with Fridrikh Gorenshtein
  • A White, White Day (1968, 1984), co-scripted with Aleksandr Misharin
  • Hoffmanniana (1975, 1984)
  • Stalker (1978), Boris Strugatsky, Arkady Strugatsky (Andrei Tarkovsky uncredited)
  • Sardor (1978), co-scripted with Aleksandr Misharin
  • Nostalghia (1978-1982), co-scripted with Tonino Guerra
  • The Sacrifice (1984)

[edit] Subjects Tarkovsky proposed for future films

(as noted in his diary Martyrlog)

[edit] Stage Productions

[edit] Gallery

Young Andrei Tarkovsky with mother

Andrei Tarkovsky with sister

Andrei Tarkovsky

Andrei Tarkovsky at work

[edit] References

"Martyrlog", 1984

[edit] Bibliography

  • Sculpting In Time, translated by Kitty Hunter-Blair (1987)
  • Time Within Time: The Diaries 1970-1986, translated by Kitty Hunter-Blair (1993)
  • Collected Screenplays, translated by William Powell and Natasha Synessios (1999)

[edit] Books about Tarkovsky

  • Andrei Tarkovsky: Interviews (Conversations With Filmmakers Series), edited by John Gianvito, University Press of Mississippi, 2006, ISBN 1-57806-220-9
  • The Films of Andrei Tarkovsky: A Visual Fugue, by Vida T. Johnston and Graham Petrie, 1994, ISBN 0-253-20887-4
  • Andrei Tarkovsky, by Sean Martin, Pocket Essentials, 2006, ISBN 1-904048-49-8
  • Andrei Rublev, by Robert Bird, British Film Institute, 2005, ISBN 1-84457-038-X
  • Through the Mirror: Reflections on the Films of Andrei Tarkovsky, Cambridge Scholars Press, 2006, ISBN 1-904303-11-0

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Works of Andrei Tarkovsky
Feature films Ivan's Childhood • Andrei Rublev • Solaris • Mirror • Stalker • Nostalghia • Voyage in Time (with Tonino Guerra) • The Sacrifice
Student films The Killers • Concentrate • There Will Be No Leave Today • The Steamroller and the Violin
Books Sculpting In Time • Time Within Time: The Diaries 1970-1986
Cinema of Russia
Cinema of the Russian Empire (Pre 1917)  • Cinema of the Soviet Union (1917-1990)

Actors • Animation • Directors • Films A-Z • Chronology of films • Cinematographers • Composers • Editors • Producers • Screenwriters •
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