[HN Gopher] Tarkovsky's films online for free
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Tarkovsky's films online for free
        
       Author : bookofjoe
       Score  : 676 points
       Date   : 2023-05-27 17:46 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (kottke.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (kottke.org)
        
       | tombert wrote:
       | I liked Solaris while watching it, but it's one of those movies
       | that's kind of "stuck" with me. I find myself thinking about it
       | at random moments, just kind of pondering its themes. I've always
       | been interested in the fine line of "real" and "creation" (my
       | favorite movie is Ghost in the Shell (1995)), and I think Solaris
       | does a good job exploring the interesting themes about how our
       | memories of a person an the actual person are different _and_ the
       | same.
       | 
       | It being free on YouTube is as good of an excuse as any to re-
       | watch it.
        
       | perfunctory wrote:
       | If you really want to watch this, do it after the war, after
       | Russia withdraws from Ukraine. Not now.
        
         | parthianshotgun wrote:
         | I wonder, why? I certainly won't be monetarily supporting
         | Russia directly.
        
       | PyWoody wrote:
       | I'm surprised no one has mentioned Tarkovsky's clear influence on
       | Terrence Malick's style. If you like anything by Malick, say,
       | _The Tree of Life_ or the most recent _A Hidden Life_ , you
       | should at least watch _Mirror_ or _Stalker_.
        
         | david927 wrote:
         | He is not just one of the two or three greatest directors ever
         | but also wildly influential. Genius.
         | 
         | Exhibit A: https://vimeo.com/153979733
        
         | nimbleal wrote:
         | Interesting-- I like both but I wouldn't think of Tarkovsky as
         | having an influence on Malick. What would you say are the
         | similarities, for you? Tarkovsky is intensely formal, seems
         | blocked to the point of almost being choreographed, while
         | Malick is quite the opposite in both regards.
        
         | mongol wrote:
         | I saw A Hidden Life within the last month and it is one of the
         | best movies I have seen. I have also seen Stalker and after an
         | interesting start it eventually bored me. I can see why you
         | make the comparison, but I found them very different.
        
           | PyWoody wrote:
           | If you liked _A Hidden Life_ , you should definitely give
           | _Mirror_ a watch. I think you 'd enjoy it!
        
             | mongol wrote:
             | I am willing to give it a try, thanks!
        
       | Eliah_Lakhin wrote:
       | Tarkovsky's "Stalker" is loosely based on the "Roadside
       | Picnic"[1] a sci-fi novel of Strugatsky brothers.
       | 
       | A. and B. Strugatsky are not that much recognized in the western
       | countries as Andrey Tarkovsky, but they made significant
       | contribution to the Russian literature of XX century, and their
       | books are still popular in the post-soviet countries. In
       | particular, the Roadside Picnic influenced many modern sci-fi
       | works too, including, for example, the "S.T.A.L.K.E.R." and the
       | "Metro" video game series.
       | 
       | Tarkovsky's "Stalker" is quite distinctive from Strugatsky's
       | novel both in style and plot, but the screenplay of the movie was
       | written by Strugatsy brothers too. Basically, they made
       | completely different work in the same setting, but following
       | completely different narrative. Also, they included a lot of
       | pieces from their other (lesser famous) work "The Ugly Swans"
       | into the screenplay, which is closer to Tarkovsky's film style.
       | For example, the Writer's monologue[2] is just a direct
       | translation of the same monologue from The Ugly Swans.
       | 
       | "Solaris", another Tarkovsky's famous sci-fi movie, based on
       | Stanislav Lem's novel of the same title, was a more controversial
       | work. Stanislav Lem made quite critical reception of this
       | adaptation that simplifies and distorted his novel's original
       | ideas. However, I think that Tarkovsky's "Solaris" is still the
       | best adaptation of this book we currently have.
       | 
       | Aside from this, I would recommend "Ivan's Childhood" a war movie
       | about orphaned child, and the "Andrei Rublev" a historical movie
       | about the famous Russian Orthdox icon painter set place in the
       | late middle ages, and about survival of artistic people in hard
       | times.
       | 
       | [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roadside_Picnic
       | 
       | [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwIoSI1Eqak
        
         | atombender wrote:
         | The reason Stalker is so different from Roadside Picnic is very
         | simply that Tarkovsky made the film twice, the second time
         | without the original script.
         | 
         | He spent an entire summer filming the Strugatskys' original
         | screenplay. But he was using American Kodak 5247 film stock
         | that was found to be out of date. He tried several times to
         | confirm the problem with the Soviet processing lab, but they
         | were unfamiliar with the stock, and only by the time he was
         | done shooting did they realize that the filmed footage was in
         | fact unusable. Tarkovsky himself suspected it may have been
         | sabotage. Apparently (I've never been able to confirm this) the
         | sepia footage at the beginning of the film is from this
         | footage.
         | 
         | Tarkovsky was at this point despondent, not just unhappy with
         | the destruction of his footage, but also with the direction the
         | film was taking, and with his cinematographer (Rerberg, who was
         | critical of the film and the script), whom he fired shortly
         | thereafter. While negotiating with the Soviet film board to get
         | more money and time to reshoot the film, he had several
         | workshops with the Strugatskys to try to develop a better
         | screenplay. Eventually Boris gave up and flew back home, but
         | Arkady persisted, and finally wrote Tarkovsky a short treatment
         | that suggested reducing the entire film to a bare-bones, more
         | philosophical story with nameless characters and very few overt
         | scifi elements. He then encouraged Tarkovsky to go do his own
         | thing.
         | 
         | This appears to have been the breakthrough that helped
         | Tarkovsky find the direction and inspiration he needed, and he
         | used the treatment as the basis for a new screenplay that ended
         | up having very little to do with the book. He wrote
         | enthuastically to Arkady that for the first time as a director
         | he had a screenplay he could call his own. (His previous films
         | had all been written by others, or collaborations, and mostly
         | adaptations.)
         | 
         | Eventually, Tarkovsky was able to negotiate with the film board
         | to shoot a two-part film instead. They would pretend his first
         | shoot, which had already been financed, was the "first part",
         | and he received the necessary funding to shoot the second half.
         | The Strutgatskys, who were still credited, weren't very happy
         | with the final film.
         | 
         | The whole story of Stalker is complicated. I recommend the book
         | "The Films of Andrei Tarkovsky: A Visual Fugue", by Johnson and
         | Petrie, for more information.
        
         | leoc wrote:
         | (Some of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games
         | https://store.steampowered.com/franchise/stalker happen to be
         | on sale on Steam atm.)
        
       | nathias wrote:
       | always have been
        
       | the-mitr wrote:
       | If you are on mosfilm do watch this gem of a sci-fi dystopian
       | dark comedy film Kin Dza Dza
       | 
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUtZOl_QxvY
       | 
       | and White Tiger
       | 
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soRIjIJAUfA
        
       | jFriedensreich wrote:
       | being on youtube is great, but if you have a chance to see
       | stalker in a cinema or a better digitized higher resolution
       | version, i highly recommend it. this movie has among the most
       | beautiful film grain and colors i have seen and this dimension is
       | mostly absent on the linked digitization. this is also probably
       | the worst movie for this to happen as the pace and composition
       | require a nearly meditative immersion into the scenes, like
       | looking at a great oil painting without enough resolution to see
       | the brush strokes.
        
       | dang wrote:
       | Related. others?
       | 
       |  _How 'Stalker' claimed the life of Andrei Tarkovsky and his
       | wife_ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32588569 - Aug 2022
       | (1 comment)
       | 
       |  _The Drenching Richness of Andrei Tarkovsky_ -
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29782009 - Jan 2022 (79
       | comments)
       | 
       |  _The Drenching Richness of Andrei Tarkovsky_ -
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26132544 - Feb 2021 (1
       | comment)
       | 
       |  _The Drenching Richness of Andrei Tarkovsky_ -
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26126004 - Feb 2021 (44
       | comments)
       | 
       |  _Andrei Tarkovsky's Message to the Young: "Learn to Be Alone"
       | (2015)_ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22196779 - Jan
       | 2020 (91 comments)
       | 
       |  _Andrei Tarkovsky - Poetic Harmony [video]_ -
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11601651 - April 2016 (18
       | comments)
       | 
       |  _Tarkovsky Films Free Online (2010)_ -
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7107215 - Jan 2014 (52
       | comments)
        
       | dho9yr wrote:
       | [flagged]
        
       | dho9yr wrote:
       | [flagged]
        
       | haunter wrote:
       | Funny that he actually already blogged about this back when they
       | became available in 2010 (Mosfilm since introduced a new channel
       | guess that's where the newness come from)
       | 
       | https://kottke.org/10/07/tarkovsky-films-online-for-free-vie...
        
       | rickstanley wrote:
       | If anyone is wondering if there's any relation with the
       | S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games, like me:                 > While not a
       | direct adaptation, the video game series S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is
       | heavily influenced by Roadside Picnic. The first game in the
       | series, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, references many
       | important plot points from the book, such as the wish granter and
       | the unknown force blocking the path to the center of the zone. It
       | also contains elements such as anomalies and artifacts that are
       | similar to those described in the book, but that are created by a
       | supernatural ecological disaster, not by alien visitors.
       | 
       | from Wikipedia:
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roadside_Picnic#Adaptations_an...,
       | unfortunately no concrete reference to actual interview or
       | statement from the developers is provided in the page.
       | 
       | Also, about Metro 2033 (game):                 > The book is
       | referenced in the post-apocalyptic video game Metro 2033. A
       | character shuffles through a shelf of books in a ruined library
       | and finds Roadside Picnic, he states that it is "something
       | familiar". Metro 2033 was created by individuals who had worked
       | on S.T.A.L.K.E.R. before founding their own video game
       | development company. The game was based on a novel of the same
       | name which also took influence from Roadside Picnic.
        
         | AdrianB1 wrote:
         | I read the book and played all the STALKER games, the games are
         | based on the aproximate universe but that is all.
        
         | the_af wrote:
         | I don't think S.T.A.L.K.E.R. bears much relation to Roadside
         | Picnic. There are no monsters in the novel (the zombies are
         | "returned people" and are harmless), and the deadly traps are
         | unknowable and nonsentient things more like forces of nature
         | rather than beasts hunting people. Plus there's no
         | radioactivity nor connection to Chernobyl. The plot happens in
         | an unnamed American city, even!
         | 
         | The novel is not a horror novel. It may be considered
         | existential horror, though.
        
         | thriftwy wrote:
         | The game is more like the Stalker movie than the book.
         | 
         | In the book there were research missions and active urban life
         | as well as smuggling, whereas the movie is spearheaded on going
         | through the Zone while uninvited. The movie also has the post-
         | apoc vibe whereas the book does not. The whole point of book is
         | co-existence of the unknown with normal(ish) human society.
        
         | dclowd9901 wrote:
         | Dang. Now this makes me wonder if Annihilation is based on
         | Stalker.
        
       | Galicarnax wrote:
       | Was re-watching The Limits of Control by Jim Jarmusch recently,
       | and realised it had a reference to Tarkovsky's Stalker in the
       | scene with the "cinema lady".
       | 
       |  _" The best films are like dreams you're never sure you've
       | really had. I have this image in my head of a room full of sand.
       | And a bird flies towards me, and dips its wing into the sand. And
       | I honestly have no idea whether this image came from a dream, or
       | a film"_
        
         | Schiendelman wrote:
         | Jarmusch's "Ghost Dog" takes quite a few ideas from Tarkovsky's
         | work.
        
           | DubiousPusher wrote:
           | And 'Le Samourai' for that matter. Great flick!
        
       | dho9yr wrote:
       | [flagged]
        
       | mdswanson wrote:
       | It might help new viewers to understand that Tarkovsky viewed
       | film as art, not entertainment. As such, he purposely avoided
       | strong narratives or plots, instead focusing on poetry, mood, and
       | time.
       | 
       | From the book "Sculpting in Time" by Tarkovsky himself: "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, rigidly logical
       | development of the 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."
        
         | 1shooner wrote:
         | >He purposely avoided strong narratives or plots, instead
         | focusing on poetry, mood, and time.
         | 
         | Somewhat similar to Terrence Malick in that way (but I'd say
         | Malick is much more approachable).
        
           | tombert wrote:
           | I think we have to agree to disagree; I found The Tree of
           | Life (the only Malick movie I've managed to finish) to be a
           | boring, incomprehensible mess of a movie, while Solaris and
           | Stalker have been, in my opinion, somewhat interesting
           | things.
        
             | 1shooner wrote:
             | You know, I might have had a similar reaction to Tree of
             | life. But I thought the extended versions of The New World
             | and Days of Heaven shared the same relationship between
             | aesthetic and mood vs. narrative that I see in Stalker. You
             | do not, however, get any Tarkovskysque monologues on
             | metaphysics from Richard Gere or Colin Ferrell.
        
             | bag_boy wrote:
             | I need to watch Solaris and Stalker.
             | 
             | Tree of Life was one of my favorite film experiences ever,
             | but I wouldn't care to watch it again.
             | 
             | I'm curious - why did you feel like Tree of Life was
             | incomprehensible?
        
               | tombert wrote:
               | If I'm being 100% honest, I haven't seen the movie in
               | more than a decade and I barely remember it, outside of
               | the general "not liking it" feeling.
               | 
               | If it shows up on Netflix or something I might give it
               | another go; it's not rare for me to like a movie more on
               | a second viewing.
        
               | mistercheph wrote:
               | Realistically, that movie is not going to be on Netflix
               | any time in the next decade
        
             | mongol wrote:
             | The Thin Red Line is one of my top films, and I walked out
             | of The Tree of Life. Only afterwards did I realize they
             | were directed by the same guy. And then this spring I saw A
             | Hidden Life. I thought it was absolutely fantastic. I plan
             | to rewatch The Tree of Life to see if I like it better than
             | first time. Perhaps I was not in the mood for that type of
             | movie that particular evening.
        
           | 0xr0kk3r wrote:
           | [flagged]
        
       | StrangeATractor wrote:
       | Weird fact about Stalker, they were shooting in disused USSR
       | factories that had just been left as-is -- a lot of people on set
       | got cancer not much longer after shooting, likely from being
       | around so much industrial waste.
       | 
       | It's also way better than the book it was based on IMO (
       | _Roadside Picnic_ ).
        
         | ConanRus wrote:
         | [dead]
        
         | lightdot wrote:
         | > a lot of people on set got cancer not much longer after
         | shooting, likely from being around so much industrial waste
         | 
         | Is there a credible source for this statement?
        
           | jFriedensreich wrote:
           | the main source seems to be the sound technician and two
           | members of the set dying of the same form of cancer.
           | https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/stalker-killed-andrei-tarkovsky
        
             | slackfan wrote:
             | Well also Tarkovsky died from cancer not a whole lot of
             | time after.
        
             | the_af wrote:
             | Interesting...
             | 
             | ... because I was just reading about Michael J. Fox's
             | Parkinson's disease (because of his recent movie "Still")
             | and apparently he and two other people who worked in his
             | earliest TV show (where he was a secondary character) got
             | early onset Parkinson's, and he claims this is a mere
             | coincidence, not enough to consider this a relevant
             | "cluster" of Parkinson's.
             | 
             | In both cases it's three people who worked closely together
             | catching a relatively rare disease. I wonder if it's
             | relevant for Tarkovsky, given that Michael J. Fox thinks it
             | wasn't relevant for him...
        
               | jFriedensreich wrote:
               | well the main difference seems to be that some crew in
               | stalker stated they had the sense of being poisoned in
               | that dust and fume cloud and also developed accute
               | allergic reactions. Its still all just based on the
               | statements of the sound technician, i did not find
               | interviews with other crew that said the same, but i'm
               | sure there are some interview transcriptions in russian
               | print somewhere. In the end the best source would
               | probably be the estonian death statistics for cancer
               | increases closer to those areas or further downstream the
               | same river.
        
         | bookofjoe wrote:
         | That's interesting to me: I found the book far more compelling
         | than the film.
         | 
         | "Roadside Picnic" pdf: https://soviethistory.msu.edu/wp-
         | content/uploads/2015/10/pic...
        
           | Toutouxc wrote:
           | IMO the Stalker game is like the darkest and most raw take of
           | the general theme, the movie is the most philosophical and
           | artsy take and the book is somewhere in the middle. And
           | they're all worth it.
        
             | the_af wrote:
             | I think the Stalker game bears little to no relation to the
             | novel. The novel is not about shooting things up and there
             | are neither monsters nor radioactivity.
        
           | sfpotter wrote:
           | Hard to compare. They're completely different in terms of
           | plot, mood, style... everything, really. Roadside Picnic has
           | the signature Strugatsky Bros dark comedy running through it,
           | while Stalker really has no comedic elements whatsoever. I
           | prefer the book, for what it's worth. OTOH, I prefer the film
           | Solaris to the Lem novel.
        
             | aidenn0 wrote:
             | I need to reread _Solaris_. I read it when I was like 14 so
             | it was a bit beyond me at the time.
        
               | bookofjoe wrote:
               | https://archive.org/details/B-001-001-236
        
             | cubefox wrote:
             | Coincidentally, the German translation of Roadside Picnic
             | has an afterword by Lem.
        
         | pavlov wrote:
         | The Stalker shooting locations are actually close to Tallinn in
         | Estonia, a former Soviet republic that's an EU and NATO member
         | today. So if watching the film turns you into a super fan, it's
         | not too hard to go visit the sites!
        
           | BulgarianIdiot wrote:
           | I want cancer
        
           | jFriedensreich wrote:
           | that is so crazy i was in one of the shooting locations
           | yesterady by accident (it is now a kultural venue location)
           | and wondered why an area there had the name "stalker", of
           | course i thought about my favorite movie but i never
           | considered it being filmed where i live. thanks for this mind
           | blow
        
             | countrymile wrote:
             | I took my wife to be on a week long tarkovsky crawl of
             | Tuscany. The locations used in nostalgia are something
             | else.
        
         | ogurechny wrote:
         | It was initially supposed to be filmed at factories, but there
         | was a change of plans and circumstances (the first of many
         | others which resulted in constant rewriting of the script,
         | succession of three cameramen, and summer of 1978 spent on
         | remaking shots from summer of 1977).
         | 
         | Outdoor shooting happened at Rotermanni Quarter, an old factory
         | area next to the port of Tallinn, at various factories and
         | train stations around the city, and at the old unused dam
         | nearby. Scene of family leaving the bar takes place at the ash
         | pond of Moscow Combined Power Plant #20 (in background) with
         | its drainage chutes:
         | 
         | https://pastvu.com/p/451104
         | 
         | Don't miss the source link, because it's a memoir of second
         | assistant camera technician with lots of photos:
         | 
         | https://immos.livejournal.com/67613.html
         | 
         | As for foamy wastewater, it came from the pulp mill. Its
         | contents and potential toxicity could be anything, depending on
         | part of the cycle that dumped the byproducts. Turpentine was a
         | good candidate, and it could be combined with sawdust
         | particles. However, if spending a couple of months by the river
         | could give people cancer, local people would also have it.
         | 
         | Note that the mill opened in 1938, so, depending on who you
         | ask, either the river had already been dead before Soviet era,
         | or it was constantly being polluted in each year of it. To my
         | unprofessional eye, the flow of Jagala river is way too small
         | to effectively dilute the waste (nor all the little dams help
         | it), but it was an important project economically:
         | 
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kehra#Pulp_Mill
        
         | wahnfrieden wrote:
         | The film was also lost in a lab and completely reshot
         | 
         | edit: by lost I mean the usability was lost. it was destroyed
         | in chemical process. thx for pointing out it was just half. but
         | his textural differences are explained also by technique, he
         | did it in his other works even through his late career (mixing
         | sepia segments, different processing even in his final film)
        
           | Ryder123 wrote:
           | It wasn't lost but something went wrong with the film
           | development on about half of it. I believe that's why it has
           | two such distinct film styles (which also happens to work
           | quite well for the film).
        
       | JenrHywy wrote:
       | The colour grading on Stalker on YouTube seems quite different to
       | other versions floating around. The YT version seems to have lost
       | the heavy yellow cast of the other versions.
       | 
       | Does anyone know which is "correct"? It makes quite a difference
       | to the feel of the film.
        
       | sorokod wrote:
       | Link to the Mosfilm YouTube
       | 
       | https://m.youtube.com/@Mosfilm_eng/videos
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | mark_l_watson wrote:
       | I just bookmarked three of these. I have watched Tarkovsky's
       | version of Solaris at least 3 times (and the American version
       | with George Clooney and Natascha McElhone 5 or 6 times) - I love
       | that story and both movies are so very good!
        
         | noisy_boy wrote:
         | Natascha McElhone - a timeless beauty. Became a fan of her
         | since The Truman Show.
        
         | cubefox wrote:
         | Sounds like you would also like the novel. The Kindle version
         | is a new translation by Bill Johnston. The previous one was a
         | flawed retranslation (from Polish to French to English).
        
           | mark_l_watson wrote:
           | Thanks, I just got that translation. I had read the previous
           | translation.
        
       | archagon wrote:
       | Unlike most other cinema I've experienced, I find Tarkovsky's
       | films tedious to watch, but tremendously meaningful in
       | retrospect. One of the greatest directors of all time, to be
       | sure.
        
       | hamilyon2 wrote:
       | English hardsub is a savage move.
       | 
       | Looks like all movies are hardsubbed
        
         | haunter wrote:
         | Mosfilm actually has 2 channels and the original older one has
         | normal YT subs, but the movies are more geolocation restricted,
         | they are not available in the US, UK, Canada.
         | 
         | Solaris for example
         | 
         | https://youtu.be/6-4KydP92ss
         | 
         | https://polsy.org.uk/stuff/ytrestrict.cgi?ytid=https%3A%2F%2...
        
           | jwilk wrote:
           | What's the other channel's URL?
        
             | haunter wrote:
             | https://youtube.com/@MosfilmRuOfficial
        
         | JKCalhoun wrote:
         | Better than harddubbed?
        
       | anonymfus wrote:
       | The best way to watch these movies would be by pirating them from
       | the RuTracker, as that way you will be sure that you are not
       | contributing any views or advertisement money to the Mosfilm,
       | with a bonus of much higher bitrates.
       | 
       | Here are the links:
       | 
       | Solaris -- https://rutracker.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6191155
       | 
       | Stalker -- https://rutracker.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6182463
       | 
       | Ivan's Childhood --
       | https://rutracker.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6194960
       | 
       | The Mirror -- https://rutracker.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6194964
       | 
       | Andrei Rublev --
       | https://rutracker.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6194948
       | 
       | The Passion According to Andrei --
       | https://rutracker.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5820633
       | 
       | Battleship Potemkin by Sergei Eisenstein is in public domain, and
       | so you can legally watch any other upload on YouTube instead of
       | Mosfilm's, for example
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsQcljysO-8
        
         | thrdbndndn wrote:
         | Why? What's wrong with Mosfilm?
        
           | rgbgraph wrote:
           | [flagged]
        
             | justsomehnguy wrote:
             | > , been churning out glorified war films
             | 
             | Should I never ever pay for a Hollywood film?
        
               | rgbgraph wrote:
               | [flagged]
        
         | themodelplumber wrote:
         | Nice
         | 
         | Plus if you are not in an a t m o s p h e r i c mood, you can
         | watch Moscow - Cassiopeia (kids space film) and Kuryer (coming
         | of age comedic drama in EOL CCCP) instead.
         | 
         | And then The War of the Worlds: Next Century with Iron Idem for
         | dark comedy that's even less a fan of Soviet stuff
        
           | AdrianB1 wrote:
           | Kuryer was a movie that impressed me much when I saw it
           | first, back in ~ 1988. I searched for it for 30 years and I
           | found it on Internet a few years ago, I saw it again and I
           | got the same hit in the head as in '88. It is not a light
           | movie to see, a bottle of vodka aside might help if you were
           | of that age in Eastern Europe in the 80-es.
        
           | 082349872349872 wrote:
           | As you're interested in identity and profiles, do you have
           | any comments on how Ivan and Katya had (realistically or
           | mistakenly) thought the other would have affected their own
           | identities? (and where does Kolya see himself in 5-10 years?
           | "most likely to become a New Russian"?)
        
             | themodelplumber wrote:
             | Interesting q. It's been a while since I last saw the film.
             | 
             | But I saw Katya as a distant, hidden ideal for Ivan. In
             | terms of her reflection on him being hidden from his
             | consciousness.
             | 
             | She's far more idealistic in terms of silent goodness /
             | valuing mindset. This is like the Stanislav Kurilov
             | mindset. Calm, but knowing deeply that things like
             | repression and conscription for short-sighted power goals
             | are not ultimately acceptable.
             | 
             | Refined in character, nearly angelic, but how? And what
             | does it mean? This is Ivan's unconscious puzzle.
             | 
             | To her, he seems to ground her. She understands him almost
             | as a pet, so this perhaps explains a bit. But in this
             | situation she can't yet express to him fully what the above
             | implies for him. Her deeper consciousness is not available
             | to him.
             | 
             | IMO this is where we got a lot of the emergent criminality
             | in the 90s chaos (beyond what existed already), this
             | disconnect. Those who can make values conscious but who
             | will not force the message, formed the moralistic vitality
             | of change. And those who will take action but who do not
             | naturally tend to values form the vitality of force seeking
             | direction. This contributes to broad chaos toward a
             | structural vacuum. Something must be done in the idea space
             | in order to propagate the values further. A very difficult
             | problem for most of humanity at this point in time.
             | 
             | Just some thoughts though. Hope I understood some of what
             | you were getting at. Please share your own thoughts if you
             | would like.
        
               | 082349872349872 wrote:
               | I'm afraid I don't have the same analytic toolbox that
               | you do, so I had no thoughts on them to this depth,
               | thanks.
               | 
               | Something that did strike me is that, as a teenager on
               | the other side of the iron curtain, I had been chasing
               | girls at the local residential private school, who
               | introduced me to anime -- so the scene where Katya's
               | friends are watching live-action japanese media seemed
               | like a nice parallel (at least post-Glasnost) in our
               | lives.
        
               | themodelplumber wrote:
               | That's awesome :-) It's a wonderful film for that kind of
               | retrospective cultural tourism.
        
         | AdrianB1 wrote:
         | Having these movies, and many others, on YouTube is a net
         | positive. I already saw most of Tarkovsky's movies, but I found
         | on Mosfilm's account on YT a few more good movies, it will be a
         | good way to spend the nights during this summer.
         | 
         | I would like to have a simple way to get these movies offline
         | without paying YT premium for 720p, so your links are welcome.
        
         | ogurechny wrote:
         | There are things more important in life than ad revenue, and
         | MosFilm can't directly get it from YouTube at the moment
         | anyway.
         | 
         | RuTracker should always be one of the first options to
         | consider, but I wouldn't be that zealous. Official subtitles
         | might be the biggest problem, as they don't seem to have a
         | definite source. Some are expressive (up to metrical
         | translation of the songs) but too liberal, some were certainly
         | made by cheapest freelancers they could find. The user has to
         | know beforehand that better translations can sometimes be
         | found, and that it is possible to use extensions to load
         | subtitles from local files. Re-uploading the videos as distinct
         | native and translated versions, and changing softsubs to
         | hardsubs and vice versa is another problem resulting in link
         | rot. Video itself usually seems to be fine, though one of the
         | SD masters of "Stalker" was known for relying on digital film
         | stabilization which resulted in artifacts on faster panning
         | shots, but in that case it was the same on DVDs.
         | 
         | For comparison, LenFilm also uploaded movies to YouTube, and
         | they had masterpieces of Alexei German in 1080p, but either
         | recorded with botched brightness correction through some kind
         | of screen capture software at superfast settings, or
         | watermarked with landline phone number (in a second decade of a
         | 21st century) of some subcontracting studio. The whole thing
         | probably relied on some clueless intern uploading files from
         | their office PC. However, LenFilm has been banned as vile and
         | daaangerous "state-controlled media", and neither German, nor
         | popular Soviet adventure movies for kids, nor dull and boring
         | soc-realistic factory life dramas are officially there.
         | 
         | Personally, I am a bit skeptical about the image of a regular
         | multi-tasking user seeing the scene of a interrogation, a
         | remark about the suicide of Mayakovsky, and a dinner, and
         | getting it all.
         | 
         | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFZa9CVBeJY&t=2669
         | 
         | Three decades of talking about multimedia, and we still don't
         | have a convenient commentary system to hold all the
         | explanations and notes.
        
       | xixixao wrote:
       | I watched a random segment from Stalker, the embedded movie, and
       | at 15:10 the woman gets in the car and the subtitles say "Come
       | with me", while the character clearly says "Go!". Very confusing.
       | The auto-generated subtitles got this one word right but have
       | other gaps. So warning if you're gonna watch these that the
       | subtitles might not be perfect.
        
         | jamal-kumar wrote:
         | I've found subtitles in general to be really off the mark after
         | learning a few more languages, but at least it's actually
         | possible to tell that they got it wrong if it's a subtitle and
         | not a dub I guess?
         | 
         | It's still insanely jarring and really messes with the
         | experience if you speak the subtitled language and notice that
         | over and over.
        
       | nologic01 wrote:
       | The cinema of directors like Tarkovsky and Bergman can only
       | nominally be termed "movies".
       | 
       | A combination of deep introspection, reflection on the human
       | condition and achingly beautiful photography makes them all-time
       | masterpieces, up there with the most important achievements of
       | human culture.
        
         | 2h wrote:
         | [flagged]
        
           | pizza wrote:
           | If you're cringing to the description "achingly beautiful" by
           | cringing, you're saying you find their description
           | beautiful..
        
         | joemi wrote:
         | I often add Ozu to this list, too, although his works tend to
         | be a bit closer to "movies" than Tarkovsky or Bergman.
        
       | shakow wrote:
       | More generally, heaps of old Soviet movies are available in HD
       | (and often subtitled) on Mosfilm YT channel, putting you a yt-dlp
       | away from a movies night.
       | 
       | https://www.youtube.com/@Mosfilm_eng
        
       | murtio wrote:
       | Time for some rewatch! He was my favorite filmmaker, and he's a
       | really good one. I considered his films a form of arts. I still
       | consider them arts, but now I think that arts should not be
       | boring.
        
       | Jun8 wrote:
       | IMHO, if you'll be watching your first Tarkovsky film start with
       | _Stalker_ , which is how my girlfriend (now wife of 27 years),
       | introduced me to him many years ago. I was very much a Fellini
       | person, and the Bergman-Tarkovsky school seemed cryptic (at best)
       | at the time. When finished, ask yourself (1) if you would have
       | gone into the room and (2) what the dreamlike sequences with
       | Stalker's son meant.
       | 
       | Second one should be _Solaris_ , if you're into SciFi or _The
       | Mirror_ if you're not of if you'd like a challenge. I think _The
       | Mirror_ is the better movie, the woman (stand in for T's mom)
       | looking at the wheat field (T had these _specifically_ planted
       | for the film!) haunts me to this day.
       | 
       | I personally couldn't relate to The Sacrifice, perhaps his most
       | personal film. His earlier films (Ivan and Rublev) I could not
       | watch at all.
       | 
       | To be a genius artist like him in the Soviet Union meant
       | privileges unheard for art film directors in Europe (let alone
       | US), eg see the wheat field thing above. It also meant you're at
       | the mercy of the "masses". I had read an article once that
       | included a comment for _The Mirror_ from a regular filmgoer,
       | saying after 30mins it caused such a headache! The funding was
       | based on such feedback and the movie was labeled as elitist (it
       | is) which greatly impacted his career. It's infuriating to think
       | T lost time due to such petty interference (OTOH, I could only
       | finish the film on my third try, falling asleep in first two
       | attempts! So she had a point)
        
         | myth_drannon wrote:
         | The wind in the field scene is mesmerizing, one of my
         | favourites as well.
        
         | EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK wrote:
         | >> Stalker's son
         | 
         | Um, daughter.
        
           | Jun8 wrote:
           | You're absolutely right, called Martyshka (little monkey)
           | same as in the book. As I was searching for material on her
           | on Google I came across this interesting article:
           | https://przekroj.pl/en/society/the-stalkers-daughter-
           | renata-...
        
             | [deleted]
        
         | lordfrito wrote:
         | > what the dreamlike sequences with Stalker's son meant
         | 
         | I though he had a daughter, am I misremembering?
         | 
         | Interesting tidbit, after a year of filming scenes the prints
         | were damaged in processing and were unusable. [1] He had to
         | completely (almost) reshoot the film a second time. I always
         | wondered about the difference between the original shoot and
         | the reshoot, what no one got to see.
         | 
         | [1] https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0079944/trivia
        
         | thriftwy wrote:
         | [flagged]
        
           | f6v wrote:
           | I don't get what you're talking about.
        
             | thriftwy wrote:
             | You start dating someone, you become another person with
             | different customs and passions. The more you invest in
             | relation, the more is the difference, unless you had
             | exactly the same prior background.
        
               | weekendvampire wrote:
               | Yes, that is a good thing.
        
               | thriftwy wrote:
               | Go watch Marvel then. Objectively good guys on display,
               | always getting the bad ones.
        
               | upsetdiscourse wrote:
               | Ok, tell us what you know about personal volition
               | protectionism. I'm interested.
        
               | dingusdew wrote:
               | This is literally how all social relationships work,
               | including non-romantic ones. Mimicry is the basis of how
               | social groups are formed.
               | 
               | You're literally participating in it (whether you know it
               | or not) by communicating with others, period.
               | 
               | This is an instance where the statement "if you think you
               | think outside of the box, you're trapped in one" applies.
        
             | coldtea wrote:
             | He's talking about how some "alpha/sigma" male types fear
             | that women are after their money and worry about that
             | (that's what I understand the grandparent to mean by
             | "mercantile fears"), but (surprisingly to him) they don't
             | fear that they will affect their psyche/personality.
             | 
             | A paradox which I don't think exists in the real world, as
             | these types, absolutely do fear women will do that (e.g.
             | they fear that women would effeminate them, or make them
             | docile, or p...whip them, and so on).
        
               | thriftwy wrote:
               | Paradoxically, having relations with women will not
               | effiminate one (etc) any more than NOT having these
               | relations would.
               | 
               | For all what it is worth, incel community is strikingly
               | _peculiar_ in comparison to other males.
               | 
               | Truth is that we do really need each other.
        
           | Zardoz89 wrote:
           | An embarrassment of riches y'all
        
         | 0xr0kk3r wrote:
         | Same here. That was the gateway film for me. It reminds me of
         | the Southern Reach Trilogy (Annihilation, Authority,
         | Acceptance).
        
           | Sharlin wrote:
           | Annihilation is pretty clearly "heavily influenced" by
           | Stalker.
        
         | dclowd9901 wrote:
         | I consider myself a person who really loves and appreciates
         | film, but I could not parse Stalker. It's clearly dense with
         | meaning and subtext, but I think I had too much going on in my
         | head when I was watching it to appreciate what was going on.
        
         | virgulino wrote:
         | >To be a genius artist like him in the Soviet Union meant
         | privileges unheard for art film directors in Europe (let alone
         | US), eg see the wheat field thing above. It also meant you're
         | at the mercy of the "masses".
         | 
         | It also meant being at the mercy and whims of the Communist
         | party. Like Polish genius director Andrzej Zulawski, who filmed
         | almost his entire magnum opus "On the Silver Globe," only to
         | have the Communist government cancel the project and order the
         | destruction of what was filmed.
         | 
         | The greatest science fiction movie never made. I get goosebumps
         | every single time I watch these trailers:
         | 
         | https://youtu.be/zBFRiSlcBAg
         | 
         | https://youtu.be/HFf5BGNpnJ0
         | 
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Silver_Globe_(film)
        
           | layer8 wrote:
           | It's coming out on Blu-ray this year:
           | https://eurekavideo.co.uk/movie/andrzej-zulawski-three-
           | films...
           | 
           | A Japanese release already exists (JP subs only):
           | https://www.amazon.co.jp/On-the-Silver-Globe-Blu-
           | ray/dp/B077...
        
             | thriftwy wrote:
             | It's also on torrents and English subtitles should exist
             | (if they are needed at all)
        
               | layer8 wrote:
               | There is an older DVD release (2007?) from before the
               | remaster, which I've heard has bad English subtitles. Not
               | sure what you'll get via torrents.
        
               | thriftwy wrote:
               | It is obvious that you may get the Awesome Edition via
               | torrents.
               | 
               | https://blog.codinghorror.com/oh-you-wanted-awesome-
               | edition/
        
           | tinideiznaimnou wrote:
           | Zulawski is amazing! He manages to strike the right balance
           | between abstraction and action; between soulful Slavic
           | opaqueness and, well, viewers wanting to understand what's
           | happening on the screen without having to read the
           | characters' minds through an inverted Christology or some
           | such implied cultural context.
           | 
           | Zulawski's movies contain enough mystery to thrill the
           | imagination, yet it is crystal clear that they are telling a
           | particular story, with an intended authorial meaning, the
           | further implications of which we are free to ponder - not
           | simply painting a vast, inhospitable landscape for us to
           | project our own meaning onto, like Tarkovsky does, or many
           | West European filmmakers like Bunuel or the aforementioned
           | Bergman.
           | 
           | Now I want to get me a projector and organize a pirate
           | Zulawski marathon in a warehouse, culminating with a
           | screening of On the Silver Globe, once someone's brought a
           | decent pusher to the party and the shit has started to kick
           | in... Eh, if only my city's avant-garde art scene and I
           | hadn't recognized each other for the pretentious good-for-
           | nothing wankers that we are. More effectual personalities can
           | be found among the wannabe gangsters, for fuck's sake - but
           | those lives are little movies in their own right, and avant-
           | garde cinema's got nothing on them.
           | 
           | Unfortunately, without an overt repressive apparatus for
           | people to struggle against, it seems their finest qualities
           | end up going down the drain a little bit. Creative people end
           | up inventing novel schemes for making money out of ever more
           | primitive illusions, instead of dedicating their brain cells
           | to creating those increasingly elaborate visions that kept
           | our forefathers struggling onward with dignity against
           | inhuman conditions. Which leads us to the big question: if
           | the Communist authoritarian project was a necessary condition
           | to get all these fascinating, singular (anti-/post-)Communist
           | works of art... was it worth the millions of lives sacrificed
           | or devastated?
        
         | omazurov wrote:
         | My personal recommendation for a Tarkovsky's first is his
         | diploma film _The Steamroller and the Violin_ (1960, 46 min,
         | co-written with Andrei Konchalovsky). It was surprisingly
         | watchable [for me] and I wish I had watched it first myself
         | before I was exposed to _the Mirror_ when I was 16.
         | 
         | [0]
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Steamroller_and_the_Violin
        
           | jwilk wrote:
           | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7jiwaPYslA
        
         | the_gipsy wrote:
         | > (1) if you would have gone into the room and (2) what the
         | dreamlike sequences with Stalker's son meant
         | 
         | (3) did the stalker / Tarkovski just bring _you_ to the room
        
         | coldtea wrote:
         | > _His earlier films (Ivan and Rublev) I could not watch at
         | all._
         | 
         | Those also require a familiarity and understanding of the
         | relevant culture of those places.
        
         | dr_kiszonka wrote:
         | Stalker is a beautiful movie but perhaps not the easiest one to
         | watch, especially if you are not used to 10 min long shots of
         | nature (e.g., water in a stream). Possibly Solaris, which you
         | recommend too, would be an easier movie to watch first.
        
           | canjobear wrote:
           | Instead of 10 minute long nature shots, Solaris has a 10
           | minute long car ride on Tokyo freeways
        
             | rurban wrote:
             | It's Moskow, not Tokyo!
        
               | wozer wrote:
               | It was filmed in Tokyo, but is possibly supposed to
               | depict a futuristic Moscow.
        
             | biztos wrote:
             | That is one of my favorite scenes ever, and I think of it
             | whenever I'm in a big freeway system or tunnel.
             | 
             | But yeah probably not easy if you're not already fairly
             | deep into art-house films.
        
             | 35997279 wrote:
             | It's only five minutes.
        
           | kamranjon wrote:
           | I've tried twice now to watch Solaris and fell asleep both
           | times - someone let me know if it's worth it! I've seen every
           | other Tarkovsky film and love his work, this one just felt
           | particularly difficult for me.
        
             | biztos wrote:
             | You could -- at the risk of being burned at the stake by
             | purists -- try the other one [0] which is faster paced but
             | touches on the same ideas. Then if you're really intrigued
             | by that, go back to the original.
             | 
             | [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solaris_(2002_film)
        
               | dr_kiszonka wrote:
               | I found the 2002 Solaris very moving and would recommend
               | it to others. (And, in case there has been some burning
               | at the stake, I am up-voting your comment.)
        
             | crazydoggers wrote:
             | You have to approach the movie like sitting down with a
             | good book. Make a day around it! Brew some tea/coffee ahead
             | of time, watch it when you are refreshed and can soak it
             | in. And not just the plot.. but the art of what's on the
             | screen; how it's shot. You'll be rewarded in the end.
        
             | emmelaich wrote:
             | I liked Solaris well enough, but in the end it was far less
             | interesting than say the better Star Trek episodes.
        
             | tleilaxu wrote:
             | When I rewatch Solaris I always skip the first 30 minutes
             | or so (the part on Earth). Makes it a much easier and less
             | slow watch!
        
             | joemi wrote:
             | The first time I watched it, I fell asleep part way through
             | and woke up at the end. But then I decided I really wanted
             | to watch it, so I immediately restarted it and and stayed
             | awake and LOVED it. I think it's worth it.
        
               | MattPalmer1086 wrote:
               | Same. Definitely worth watching.
               | 
               | You have to allow yourself to be immersed in it. It's a
               | slower pace than commercial film makers adopt, but the
               | atmosphere builds.
        
             | gyrovagueGeist wrote:
             | The book is excellent, but I also find that both
             | adaptations drag a bit and can be a boring watch.
        
             | tleilaxu wrote:
             | The Mirror is one of my favourite films but I always fall
             | asleep 2-3 times while watching it!
             | 
             | I find it so relaxing that I've just learnt to enjoy the
             | whole experience and enjoy the dozing as part of the
             | experience of watching the film.
        
               | grugagag wrote:
               | Perhaps the dreamy effect is inducing a magic like
               | experience as if we as a viewer are seeing through a
               | dream
        
               | rafalages wrote:
               | Great to hear that, I'll plan to watch it on those nights
               | that I need to sleep but my brain keep having the best
               | idea ever
        
             | the_oh_of_ples wrote:
             | It's worth it.
        
         | signa11 wrote:
         | stalker is based on the beautiful book 'roadside picnic' iirc.
         | just a lovely, lovely read.
        
         | kodt wrote:
         | Andrei Rublev is by far his best film in my opinion.
        
           | rwmj wrote:
           | The version on youtube is 20.48GiB(!) so I hope it's the best
           | possible quality.                 Input #0, matroska,webm:
           | Metadata:           ENCODER         : Lavf59.27.100
           | Duration: 03:02:38.36, start: -0.007000, bitrate: 11990 kb/s
           | Stream #0:0(eng): Video: vp9 (Profile 0), yuv420p(tv, bt709),
           | 3840x2160, SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9, 24 fps, 24 tbr, 1k tbn (default)
           | Metadata:             DURATION        : 03:02:38.333000000
           | Stream #0:1(eng): Audio: opus, 48000 Hz, stereo, fltp
           | (default)           Metadata:             DURATION        :
           | 03:02:38.361000000
        
         | PyWoody wrote:
         | > ...eg see the wheat field thing above
         | 
         | Not the same but it made me think of Akira Kurosawa spends 12
         | hours on a single shot...only to cut it[0]
         | 
         | [0]https://old.reddit.com/r/criterion/comments/pamqsd/akira_kur
         | ...
        
           | tomcam wrote:
           | As a modern American, I confess I start to go to sleep after
           | the first 6 or 8 hours of shots like that
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | DubiousPusher wrote:
       | I remember watching Adrei Rublev for the first time, getting more
       | and more pissed the whole time. It wasn't the technique. I had
       | already seen Solaris. It was the hapless passiveness of the main
       | character. However, the bell making sequence really drew me in. I
       | had this immense tension waiting to see how it would turn out.
       | The ending broke me and suddenly the whole movie clicked for me.
       | 
       | I don't wish to spoil it or taint someone else's experience so
       | I'll just say, many films have a plot twist at the end but I
       | can't really think of another movie that manages that kind of an
       | emotional turn. Not without something pretty hammy like a
       | surprise betrayal or death. Andrei Rublev will always stick with
       | me.
        
       | ecks4ndr0s wrote:
       | His book(Sculpting in Time) is a great read btw!
        
       | a-b wrote:
       | fuck russia
        
       | rurban wrote:
       | And while we are here: There used to be a huge Tarkowsky copycat
       | movement at the film festivals, which flamed out just 10 years
       | ago.
       | 
       | But just now another one appeared, the Quinzaine premiere "Inside
       | the Yellow Cocoon Shell" by Thien An Pham which I attended. The
       | guy is also seriously depressed (as Tarkowsky) and would need
       | professional help, but the critics are still flocking to it. And
       | I didn't fall asleep as with other similar films.
       | 
       | https://variety.com/2023/film/reviews/inside-the-yellow-coco...
       | https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/inside-the-yellow-cocoon...
        
       | pavlov wrote:
       | It's actually five films because "The Passion According to
       | Andrei" is simply the original longer cut of "Andrei Rublev".
       | 
       | I believe Tarkovsky himself preferred the final cut which is 20
       | minutes shorter (but still over three hours, so not exactly a
       | cinematic snack).
        
       | milar wrote:
       | I love Tarkovsky, but this is equally valuable as a sleep aid for
       | some.
        
       | galaxyLogic wrote:
       | Tarkovski's movies have what you could call a Russian sentiment.
       | Hard to put in words what exactly that means but perhaps some
       | fatalism and melancholy, how things are what they are and do not
       | easily change except in our dreams. Looking back at Soviet Union
       | and now Putin's Russia, and even the autocratic Czarist Russia
       | before revolution, it is easy to understand where that sentiment
       | comes from. But it makes for great, thoughtful art.
       | 
       | Another great Russian movie from a contemporary director of
       | Tarkovski is "A Few Days from the Life of I.I. Oblomov":
       | 
       | https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079619/
        
         | tpm wrote:
         | And that sentiment is replicated by the director Andrey
         | Zvyagintsev, in e.g. The Return (2003) or Leviathan. Both great
         | movies with beautiful cinematography and very Russian feeling.
        
         | rdtsc wrote:
         | Well put. Fatalism and melancholy are great descriptions of it.
         | 
         | One such interesting culture clash happened when the Soviets
         | went to Cuba to shoot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_Cuba.
         | A beautiful movie, fantastic cinematography by Kalatozov, but
         | the Cubans just never liked it. The portrayal of Cubans is very
         | much what Russians thought Cubans might be like, as opposed to
         | how Cubans see themselves.
        
       | triska wrote:
       | _Solaris_ in particular seems more relevant than ever with the
       | rise of ChatGPT and other generative AI services that do not
       | understand what their outputs mean to us, and often produce eery
       | simulacra of life.
       | 
       | The final scenes of Solaris show this situation brilliantly in
       | that their content matches the way it is shown: The scenes
       | themselves mirror the depicted content with perplexing
       | compositions, zooms and transitions, almost as if they were
       | themselves created by an entity that does not understand the
       | content or medium:
       | 
       | https://youtu.be/Z8ZhQPaw4rE?t=9489
       | 
       | Quoting from the book:
       | 
       |  _" QUESTION: Do you mean, for example, that the hands didn't
       | move as human hands would move, because the joints were not
       | sufficiently supple?
       | 
       | BERTON: No, not at all. But . . . these movements had no meaning.
       | Each of our movements means something, more or less, serves some
       | purpose . . . "_
        
         | Der_Einzige wrote:
         | Solaris is by far his best movie, even better than STALKER
         | (which is itself excellent). It seems many have not seen it.
         | They are missing out.
        
           | wheelerof4te wrote:
           | STALKER created an entire franshise on it's own. Which to
           | date has a very dedicated community.
           | 
           | It is one of the best psy-films of all time.
        
             | neffo wrote:
             | It also inspired a related post-disaster urban-exploration-
             | style culture around the Chernobyl exclusion zone.
             | 
             | https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2014/09/the-stalkers-
             | ins...
        
           | tezka wrote:
           | It's one of his most accessible movie, and usually resonates
           | with tech people for obvious reasons. His best movies imo are
           | Mirror, Ivan's Childhood, Andrei Rublev, Stalker and then
           | Solaris, Nostalgia and Sacrifice.
           | 
           | Now Solaris book by Lem is far superior to Tarkovsky's
           | rendition.
        
           | jimbob45 wrote:
           | I really didn't enjoy the ending of Solaris and, for that
           | matter, The Little Prince. You don't need to have a punchy
           | ending for me not to feel like I wasted my time with your
           | movie. It's okay to let the journey stand on its own rather
           | than throwing in a climax that feels haphazard and
           | spontaneous.
        
             | cubefox wrote:
             | The original Solaris novel had a different ending, a
             | disillusioned reflection by Kelvin, which I found much
             | better. It was probably not dramatic enough for a movie,
             | too analytical.
        
               | triska wrote:
               | Personally, I always found that the novel ends on a
               | comparatively hopeful note, especially given the
               | circumstances, the final word being _cudow_ ( "of
               | miracles").
        
               | Eliah_Lakhin wrote:
               | Aside from this, perhaps another reason why the first
               | part of the movie looks and feels more promising than the
               | second one is more trivial. As far as I know they
               | experienced a budget shortage at some point of
               | production.
        
           | pmoriarty wrote:
           | I love _Stalker_ , and I'm a huge Tarkovsky fan, but hated
           | _Solaris_. It doesn 't hold a candle to _Stalker_.
           | 
           | I also like Tarkovsky's _Mirror_ and _The Sacrifice_.
        
             | tombert wrote:
             | Wait, you _hated_ Solaris? It was the first Tarkovsky movie
             | that I watched and I really connected with its themes of
             | the  "real" vs "memories". It's hard for me to imagine
             | anyone hating Solaris...
             | 
             | I still have not seen Mirror, though a few of my film
             | friends have told me to check it out for years.
        
               | mongol wrote:
               | I started watching it tonight, because of this thread. It
               | was my second attempt. I quit about 40 minutes in and
               | started to browse IMDB user reviews in hope to understand
               | it. The 1 star reviews resonated a lot with me. Hate is a
               | strong word but definitely not my cup of tea.
        
               | tombert wrote:
               | Fair enough! You've definitely given it the college try
               | and I won't criticize that!
               | 
               | Out of curiosity, is there anything in particular about
               | it you didn't like or was it a "just not my thing" kind
               | of thing?
        
               | mongol wrote:
               | I did not feel engaged to the plot. The dialogue felt
               | abstract and kind of went over my head. Someone mentioned
               | that the film is "very Russian" and perhaps that is part
               | of it. I have extremely limited exposure to Russian
               | culture but it feels quite introspective to me. I noticed
               | the dialogue sounding a little like Putin, just sound-
               | wise. Lots of "mmm" sounds which in my language people
               | make when they are considering their next words. Somehow
               | I see a connection there (that probably don't exist, if I
               | am being rational)
        
               | TedDoesntTalk wrote:
               | You might try the Solaris novel instead. The movie was
               | based on it, but as you know books can be very different.
        
               | relaxing wrote:
               | I found the first part with all the meetings and
               | philosophical debates on earth to be boring and hard to
               | follow too, but if you stop there you're missing out on
               | the payoff of all that exposition. It really picks up
               | once he gets to the space station.
               | 
               | But I found the opening shot of the plants in the stream
               | to be revelatory, a tiny bit of film making that changed
               | the way I viewed life.
        
             | effie wrote:
             | You might like the original book Solaris better. It has a
             | unique atmosphere, isolation and mystery of the alien
             | planet, and explores a different idea of alien life than we
             | usually get in movies. This is hard to communicate in a
             | movie, Tarkovsky did well, but it does not hold up as well
             | as the book.
        
           | wahnfrieden wrote:
           | (His worst and most overrated)
           | 
           | edit re: slowness, it's a lot less slow than his final few
           | works which I also adore. they're all great I just think the
           | rest of his catalog gets less good word simply for
           | drastically less popular exposure.
        
             | [deleted]
        
             | amanaplanacanal wrote:
             | It's definitely a lot slower paced than our current ADD
             | society is used to. An esteemed director like Kubrick's
             | movies would seem unbearably slow to many.
        
               | addled wrote:
               | I think Kubrick's movies are fantastic, deep,
               | atmospheric, thought provoking. True art.
               | 
               | I have never made it all the way through one without
               | falling asleep. 2001, Blade Runner, Dr. Strangelove....
               | Even movies loosely associated with Kubrick like A.I.
               | cause me to nod off. I have to stop when I'm nodding off
               | and come back later fresh in order to finish.
               | 
               | Maybe it would be different if I had seen them in
               | theaters.
        
               | 2-718-281-828 wrote:
               | > 2001, Blade Runner, Dr. Strangelove....
               | 
               | Gladiator was also amazing!
        
               | 4ndrewl wrote:
               | Love that film. "No, I'm Spartacus!" Classic.
        
               | 2-718-281-828 wrote:
               | spartacus, spartacus the merciful \o/
        
               | twelve40 wrote:
               | Gladiator was shot by Ridley Scott, just like Blade
               | Runner. Kubrick (who i love) is so legendary, he really
               | should just get credit for every great movie in existence
               | ))
        
               | pmoriarty wrote:
               | I've never fallen asleep while watching 2001. It's
               | definitely slow, but riveting for me, because (like
               | Tarkovsky's film) there's a lot of meaning in the scenes,
               | and they give me a lot to think about.
        
               | tezka wrote:
               | Blade Runner is not a Kubrick film.
        
               | addled wrote:
               | You're right. My mistake for lumping that in there.
        
               | Reason077 wrote:
               | > _" Maybe it would be different if I had seen them in
               | theaters."_
               | 
               | There's still chances to see 2001 in cinemas! It gets re-
               | released somewhat regularly for anniversaries and Kubrick
               | retrospectives, etc. I was born long after 2001 came out,
               | but I've seen it on cinema screens many times. It was so
               | far ahead of it's time and looks so incredibly good in
               | 70mm that it's mind boggling to consider that it was
               | actually made in the 1960s!
        
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