The Sacrifice

The Sacrifice
British film poster
Directed by	Andrei Tarkovskij
Produced by	Anna-Lena Wibom
Written by	Andrei Tarkovsky
Starring	Erland Josephson Susan Fleetwood Allan Edwall Guðrún S. Gísladóttir Sven Wollter Valérie Mairesse Filippa Franzen Tommy Kjellqvist
Music by	Johann Sebastian Bach Watazumido-Shuso
Cinematography	Sven Nykvist
Editing by	Andrei Tarkovsky Michał Leszczyłowski
Distributed by	Sandrew (Swedish theatrical)
Release dates	May 9, 1986 (1986-05-09) (Sweden) November 1986 (1986-11) (United States)
Running time	142 minutes[1]
Country	Sweden United Kingdom France
Language	Swedish English French

The Sacrifice (Swedish: Offret) is a 1986 film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky and starring Erland Josephson. It was the final film by Tarkovsky, who died shortly after completing it.

Synopsis

The film opens on the birthday of Alexander, an aging journalist, theater and literary critic, university lecturer on aesthetics, and former actor. He lives in a beautiful house with an actress wife (Adelaide), a teenage stepdaughter (Marta), and a "mute" young son (who is referred to as "Little Man"). Alexander and Little Man plant a tree, when Alexander's friend Otto, who also works part-time for the post office, delivers a birthday card to him. ("Many happy returns!") In the conversation, Alexander reveals that his relationship with God was "nonexistent". After Otto leaves, Adelaide and Victor--a medical doctor and a close family friend who recently performed a throat operation on "Little Man," which has left the boy unable to speak--arrive at the scene and offer to take Alexander and Little Man home in Victor's car. However, Alexander prefers to stay behind and "chats with" Little Man. In his "monologue", Alexander recounts how he and Adelaide found this beautiful house in the remote area by accident, and they fell in love with the house and surroundings at the first sight.

Back home, families and friends (Otto and Victor) gather in Alexander's beautiful house to celebrate his birthday. Their maid Maria leaves, while the nurse maid Julia stays to help with the dinner. People comment on Maria's odd appearances and behaviors. ("She scares me.") As the guests chat inside the house, where Otto reveals that he is a student of paranormal phenomena, a collector of "unexplainable but true incidences." Just when the dinner is almost ready, the rumbling noise of low flying jet fighters and a TV program announces the beginning of what appears to be all-out war, possibly a nuclear holocaust. In despair the protagonist vows to God to sacrifice all he loves ("I'll give Thee all I have, I'll give up my family, whom I love, I'll destroy my home and give up Little Man") if only this act of fate may be undone. Otto advises him to slip away and sleep with Alexander's maid Maria, whom Otto convinces him to be a witch, "in the best possible sense".

When he wakes up the next morning everything seems "normal", but whether Alexander dreamed the episode is never made explicit. Nevertheless, Alexander sets forth to give up all he loves and possesses. He tricks the family members and friends into going for a walk, and sets fire to his house when they are away. As the group rushes back, alarmed by the fire, Alexander confesses that he set the fire himself, running up and down furiously. Maria, who until then was not seen that morning, appears in the fire scene as Alexander tries to approach her but is restrained by others. Without an explanation, an ambulance appears in this very remote area and two paramedics chase Alexander, who "appears" to have lost control of himself, and drive him off (perhaps to an institution). Maria begins to bicycle away, but stops halfway to observe Little Man watering the tree he and Alexander planted the day before. As Maria leaves the scene, the "mute" Little Man, lying at the foot of the tree, suddenly utters his only line in the entire film, quoting the opening of the Gospel of John: "In the beginning was the Word. Why is that, Papa?" as Johann Sebastian Bach's aria Erbarme dich, mein Gott, (Have Mercy, My God) from the St. Matthew Passion, which also opens the film, plays in the background.

This is the Synopsis according to the Cannes website:

"I wanted to show that one can resume life by restoring the union with oneself and by discovering a spiritual source. And to acquire this kind of moral autonomy, where one ceases to consider solely the material values, where one escapes from being the subject article of experimentation between the hands of society- a way- among others- is having the capacity to offer oneself in sacrifice."

It does not confirm whether it is a quote by Tarkovsky or not.

Cast

• Erland Josephson as Alexander
• Susan Fleetwood as Adelaide
• Allan Edwall as Otto
• Guðrún S. Gísladóttir as Maria
• Sven Wollter as Victor
• Valérie Mairesse as Julia
• Filippa Franzén as Marta
• Tommy Kjellqvist as Gossen (Little Man)
• Per Källman, Tommy Nordahl as ambulance drivers

Music

• Johann Sebastian Bach
  "Matthäus-Passion" Erbarme Dich
  Wolfgang Gönnenwein (conductor) / Julia Hamari (alto)
  EMI-Electrola GmbH LC 0233

• Watazumido-Shuso, Hotchiku flöjt (海童道祖　法竹)"
  "Shingetsu"　(心月)
  "Nezasa No Shirabe" (根笹調)
  "Dai-Bosatsu"　(大菩薩)
  The Everest Records Group 3289

• "Locklåtar från Dalarna och Härjedalen"
  Elin Lisslass, Karin Edvards Johansson, Tjugmyr Maria Larsson, o.a.
  SR Records RELP 5017

Style

The camera work is slow, containing the hallmarks of Tarkovsky and cinematographer Sven Nykvist. The film's soundtrack includes three distinct pieces: the passionate aria Erbarme dich from Johann Sebastian Bach's St. Matthew Passion, soothing Japanese flute music played by Watazumi Doso Roshi, 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 often than in 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, the longest single take in all of Tarkovsky's work. Shots lasting between six and eight minutes are commonplace in the film, and there are only 115 shots in the entire film.

Production

The Sacrifice originated as a screenplay entitled The Witch, which preserved the element of a middle-aged protagonist spending the night with a reputed witch. However, in this story, his cancer was miraculously cured, and he ran away with the woman. Tarkovsky wanted personal favorite and frequent collaborator Anatoly Solonitsyn to star in this picture, as was also his intention for Nostalghia,^[2] but when Solonitsyn died from cancer in 1982, the director rewrote the screenplay into what would become The Sacrifice and also produced Nostalghia with Oleg Yankovsky as the lead.^[3] Sacrifice lead Erland Josephson played major character Domenico in the 1983 production.

Most of the film takes place inside or around a house 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 incorrectly identified as Tarkovsky's longest take. The shot was very difficult to achieve. Initially, there was only one camera used, despite Sven Nykvist's protest. While shooting the burning house, the camera jammed, ruining the footage. (This disaster is documented in documentary entitled Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky and the documentary One Day in the Life of Andrei Arsenevich.)

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.^[4]

Relationship with Bergman

The film reflects Tarkovsky's respect for the Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman. It was set in Sweden on the island of Gotland, close to Fårö, where many of Bergman's films had been shot. Tarkovsky wanted to film it on Fårö, but was denied access by the military.^[5]

Erland Josephson was a recurring figure in Bergman productions, especially from Hour of the Wolf onwards; counting that 1968 production, he acted in nine of his films before The Sacrifice. The film's production designer, Anna Asp, had previously won an Academy Award along with Susanne Lingheim for the sumptuous décor of Fanny and Alexander, and also worked on Autumn Sonata and Bergman's 1984 television film After The Rehearsal. The Sacrifice was filmed by Bergman's favourite cinematographer, Sven Nykvist. Additionally, one of Bergman's sons, Daniel Bergman, worked as a camera assistant.

Awards

The film won the Grand Prix and the FIPRESCI Prize at the 1986 Cannes Film Festival.^[6]

References

External links

• The Sacrifice at the Internet Movie Database
• The Sacrifice at the Swedish Film Database
• DVDBeaver comparison of 5 different DVD editions of the film
• The Sacrifice at nostalghia.com