The Sacrifice

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The Sacrifice
British Film Poster.
Directed by	Andrei Tarkovsky
Produced by	Anna-Lena Wibom
Written by	Andrei Tarkovsky
Starring	Erland Josephson Susan Fleetwood Valerie Mairesse Allan Edwall Gudrun Gisladottir Sven Wollter Filippa Franzen Tommy Kjellqvist
Music by	Johann Sebastian Bach Watazumido Shuso
Cinematography	Sven Nykvist
Editing by	Michal Leszczylowski Andrei Tarkovsky
Distributed by	Sandrew (theatrical) Argos Films
Release date(s)	May 9, 1986 May 14, 1986 November, 1986
Running time	149 min
Country	Sweden / UK / France
Language	Swedish / English / French
IMDb profile

This article is about the 1986 Swedish film. For the 2005 U.S. independent film, see The Sacrifice (2005 film)

The Sacrifice (Swedish: Offret, 1986) is the final film by Russian film director Andrei Tarkovsky. He died of lung cancer shortly after completing it.

Contents 1 Synopsis 2 Style 3 Relationship with Bergman 4 Reception 5 External links

[edit] Synopsis

Alexander, an aging psychologist/writer (Erland Josephson) with a younger actress wife, a teenage daughter, and a young son (who is referred to as "Little Man" and is mute until the last shots) experiences the opening throes of the end of the world by a nuclear holocaust. In despair the protagonist vows to God to sacrifice all he loves (what this would mean in reality is not made plain in his prayer, and provides the final surprise of the film) if only this terrible act of fate may be undone, and to this end he sleeps with a local woman whom he believes to be a witch. When he wakes up the next morning everything seems "normal", but whether Alexander dreamt the whole episode is never made explicit. Nevertheless, Alexander sets forth to give up all he loves and possesses, burning his house and being driven off to an institution. One interpretation of the plot is that Alexander chooses to be insane, so that the earlier scenes of war could be his delusions instead of reality. He thus gives up his own sanity in order to spare the world from nuclear destruction. Poignantly, the first words the little boy in the film utters, in the final shot, are: "In the beginning was the word...why is that, papa?"

[edit] Style

The camera work is slow and contains all the hallmarks of Tarkovsky and Nykvist. The film features a haunting soundtrack which has three distinct pieces that stand out: the passionate aria Erbarme dich from Johann Sebastian Bach's Mattheus Passion, soothing Japanese flute music, and eerie traditional chants from the Swedish forests (in the old days farm girls used to call home the livestock from their forest pastures in this way). The film also contains several long closeups of Leonardo da Vinci's Adoration of the Magi.

The film uses long takes more than Tarkovsky's previous films. The opening, post-credits shot (a tracking shot of Alexander, Little Man, and Otto talking and walking) lasts nine minutes and twenty-six seconds, and is the longest take in all of Tarkovsky's work.^{[citation needed]} Shots lasting between six and eight minutes are commonplace in the film, and there are only 115 shots in the entire film.^{[citation needed]}

Most of the film takes place inside or around a house that was specially built for the production. The climactic scene at the end of the film is a long tracking shot in which Alexander burns his house and his possessions. It was done in a single, six minute, fifty second take, often misstated as Tarkovsky's longest shot.^{[citation needed]} The shot was very difficult to achieve. Initially, there was only one camera used, despite Sven Nykist's protest. While shooting the burning house, the camera jammed, ruining the footage. (This disaster is documented in documentary entitled Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky.) The scene had to be reshot, requiring a quick and very costly reconstruction of the house in two weeks. This time two cameras were set up on tracks, running parallel to each other. The footage in the final version of the film is the second take, which lasts for several minutes and ends abruptly because the camera had run through an entire reel in capturing the single shot. The cast and crew broke down in tears after the take was completed.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Relationship with Bergman

The film reflects Tarkovsky's mutual respect for the Swedish director Ingmar Bergman.^{[citation needed]} It is set in Sweden on the island of Gotland, where many of Bergman's films had been shot, and features Bergman's favourite cameraman Sven Nykvist as well as one of Bergman's most well known actors, Erland Josephson, and the scenographer Anna Asp, who had been responsible for the sumptuous interior décor of Fanny and Alexander).

[edit] Reception

The film won a Special Jury Prize at Cannes in 1986.

[edit] External links

• The Sacrifice at the Internet Movie Database
• The Sacrifice at the Arts & Faith Top100 Spiritually Significant Films list
• DVDBeaver comparison of 5 different DVD editions of the film
• About Offret at nosthalgia.com

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

Preceded by Ran

BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Language Film 1987

Succeeded by Babette's Feast