Andrei Tarkovsky’s bizarre philosophical science fiction epic may be his most successful picture overall — every image and word makes its precise desired effect. Three daring men defy the law to penetrate ‘the Zone’ and learn the truth behind the notion that a place called The Room exists where all wishes are granted. Plenty of art films promise profound ideas, but this one delivers.
Stalker
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 888
1979 / Color / 1:37 flat full frame / 161 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date July 18, 2017 / 39.95
Starring: Aleksandr Kaidanovsky, Anatoly Solonitsyn, Nikolai Grinko, Alisa Freindlikh, Natasha Abramova.
Cinematography: Alexander Knyazhinsky
Film Editor: Lyudmila Feyginova
Original Music: Eduard Artemyev
Written by Andrei Tarkovsky and Arkady Struagtsky, Boris Strugatsky from their novel Roadside Picnic.
Produced by Aleksandra Demidova
Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky
If the definition of film artist is ‘one who goes his own way,’ Andrei Tarkovsky qualifies mightily. Reportedly cursed with a halting career...
Stalker
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 888
1979 / Color / 1:37 flat full frame / 161 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date July 18, 2017 / 39.95
Starring: Aleksandr Kaidanovsky, Anatoly Solonitsyn, Nikolai Grinko, Alisa Freindlikh, Natasha Abramova.
Cinematography: Alexander Knyazhinsky
Film Editor: Lyudmila Feyginova
Original Music: Eduard Artemyev
Written by Andrei Tarkovsky and Arkady Struagtsky, Boris Strugatsky from their novel Roadside Picnic.
Produced by Aleksandra Demidova
Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky
If the definition of film artist is ‘one who goes his own way,’ Andrei Tarkovsky qualifies mightily. Reportedly cursed with a halting career...
- 8/19/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Stars: Alexander Kaidanovsky, Anatoli Solonitsyn, Nikolai Grinko, Alisa Freindlich | Written by Boris Strugatsky, Arkadi Strugatsky | Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky
Based on Boris and Arkadi Strugatsky’s novel Roadside Picnic (not to mention the inspiration behind a famous video game series), this 1979 epic is a typically challenging work from Russian auteur Andrei Tarkovsky, but it is worth the effort.
Stalker is ponderous and bleak; demanding without being impenetrable; and guilty of navel-gazing, certainly, but far too intriguing and unsettling to be turned off. Plus, it’s split neatly into two bite-sized parts, so no excuses. The barebones plot involves three men – a Writer and a Professor, led by the titular Stalker – departing the dilapidated city for the forbidden “Zone”, a rural wasteland littered with industrial junk and devoid of people. The Zone is also, perhaps, a sentient entity. The men are searching for the meaning of life. Kinda.
Stalker is true...
Based on Boris and Arkadi Strugatsky’s novel Roadside Picnic (not to mention the inspiration behind a famous video game series), this 1979 epic is a typically challenging work from Russian auteur Andrei Tarkovsky, but it is worth the effort.
Stalker is ponderous and bleak; demanding without being impenetrable; and guilty of navel-gazing, certainly, but far too intriguing and unsettling to be turned off. Plus, it’s split neatly into two bite-sized parts, so no excuses. The barebones plot involves three men – a Writer and a Professor, led by the titular Stalker – departing the dilapidated city for the forbidden “Zone”, a rural wasteland littered with industrial junk and devoid of people. The Zone is also, perhaps, a sentient entity. The men are searching for the meaning of life. Kinda.
Stalker is true...
- 7/25/2017
- by Rupert Harvey
- Nerdly
Stars: Donatas Banionis, Natalya Bondarchuk, Anatoli Solonitsyn, Jüri Järvet | Written by Andrei Tarkovsky; Fridrikh Gorenshtein | Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky
It’s Will Self’s favourite movie, it spawned a good remake which barely nudged the box office, and it has been described as the Soviet answer to 2001: A Space Odyssey. It combines the laid-back, character-based storytelling of the French New Wave with the trippy impulses of late-60s psychedelia. It is a true cult movie, one which played for decades in Soviet cinemas. But what is Andrei Tarkovsky’s Solaris actually like to watch? I hesitate to call it a blast – but I would call it beautiful, dense, mesmerising and moving.
On the surface, Kubrick’s 1968 film and Tarkovsky’s 1972 film couldn’t be more different in their approaches (something Tarkovsky himself was keen to point out). While 2001 looks proudly outward, Solaris delves inward, deeply and directly. But what...
It’s Will Self’s favourite movie, it spawned a good remake which barely nudged the box office, and it has been described as the Soviet answer to 2001: A Space Odyssey. It combines the laid-back, character-based storytelling of the French New Wave with the trippy impulses of late-60s psychedelia. It is a true cult movie, one which played for decades in Soviet cinemas. But what is Andrei Tarkovsky’s Solaris actually like to watch? I hesitate to call it a blast – but I would call it beautiful, dense, mesmerising and moving.
On the surface, Kubrick’s 1968 film and Tarkovsky’s 1972 film couldn’t be more different in their approaches (something Tarkovsky himself was keen to point out). While 2001 looks proudly outward, Solaris delves inward, deeply and directly. But what...
- 4/18/2017
- by Rupert Harvey
- Nerdly
What’s difficult about making this list is finding a balance between a successful Kubrickian film that either predates or pays homage to Kubrick and, for lack of a better term, is a ripoff. Now that we’ve hit the apex, it’s clear that these are, regardless of influence, quality films. What sets them apart is their ability to evoke Kubrick’s greatness (or inspire it), while delivering a stand-alone masterpiece. If Kubrick took the helm for any of these films, the result wouldn’t delineate too much. Still. Kubrick is a genius because he always kept us guessing.
courtesy of theweeklings.com
10. Fitzcarraldo (1982)
Directed by Werner Herzog
What makes it Kubrickian? It’s a film about extreme obsession and the unreasonable lengths a man will go to when consumed by it. Fitzcarraldo is the story of Brian Sweeny “Fitzcarraldo” Fitzgerald (Klaus Kinski) and his entry into the rubber industry.
courtesy of theweeklings.com
10. Fitzcarraldo (1982)
Directed by Werner Herzog
What makes it Kubrickian? It’s a film about extreme obsession and the unreasonable lengths a man will go to when consumed by it. Fitzcarraldo is the story of Brian Sweeny “Fitzcarraldo” Fitzgerald (Klaus Kinski) and his entry into the rubber industry.
- 4/1/2014
- by Joshua Gaul
- SoundOnSight
Nostalghia (1983)
Written by Andrei Tarkovsky and Tonino Guerra
Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky
Italy, 1983
Nostalghia was Andrei Tarkovsky’s penultimate film, and the 1983 movie, made for Italian television, has the tone and scope of a work of contemplation and austere topicality, not at all uncommon for an artist in his or her later portions of life. The notion of this frequent tendency, to broach issues of dire seriousness in concluding creations, doesn’t work seamlessly with Tarkovsky, though. To begin with, while Nostalghia may have been his second-to-last feature, he was only 51 at the time (he tragically passed away just 3 years and one film later). In addition, this type of weighty subject matter had been common thematic territory for Tarkovsky since his first films in the early 1960s. And though only having made seven feature films, each approach was a spiritual level of visual, verbal, and atmospheric transcendence not regularly attempted by many other filmmakers,...
Written by Andrei Tarkovsky and Tonino Guerra
Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky
Italy, 1983
Nostalghia was Andrei Tarkovsky’s penultimate film, and the 1983 movie, made for Italian television, has the tone and scope of a work of contemplation and austere topicality, not at all uncommon for an artist in his or her later portions of life. The notion of this frequent tendency, to broach issues of dire seriousness in concluding creations, doesn’t work seamlessly with Tarkovsky, though. To begin with, while Nostalghia may have been his second-to-last feature, he was only 51 at the time (he tragically passed away just 3 years and one film later). In addition, this type of weighty subject matter had been common thematic territory for Tarkovsky since his first films in the early 1960s. And though only having made seven feature films, each approach was a spiritual level of visual, verbal, and atmospheric transcendence not regularly attempted by many other filmmakers,...
- 1/24/2014
- by Jeremy Carr
- SoundOnSight
Andrei Tarkovsky's Andrei Rublev Andrei Tarkovsky, Audrey Hepburn, Clara Bow Movies: Packard Campus May 2012 Schedule Friday, April 27 (7:30 p.m.) Solaris (Magna, 1972) An alien intelligence infiltrates a space mission. Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky. With Natalya Bondarchuk and Donatas Banionis. Sci-fi psychological drama. Black & White and color, 167 min. In Russian and German with English subtitles. Saturday, April 28 (7:30 p.m.) To Kill A Mockingbird (Universal, 1962) A Southern lawyer defends a black man wrongly accused of rape, and tries to explain the proceedings to his children. Directed by Robert Mulligan. With Gregory Peck, Mary Badham, Phillip Alford, Brock Peters and Robert Duvall. Drama. Black & white, 129 min. Selected for the National Film Registry in 1995. Thursday, May 3 (7:30 p.m.) The Little Giant (Warner Bros., 1933) A Chicago beer magnate about to lose his business with the repeal of Prohibition, moves to California and tries to join society's upper crust, but his gangster origins prove tough to shake.
- 4/21/2012
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
On what would be his 80th birthday, we take a look back at Andrei Tarkovsky and his profound mark on cinema.
“The director’s task is to recreate life, its movement, its contradictions, its dynamic and conflicts. It is his duty to reveal every iota of the truth he has seen, even if not everyone finds that truth acceptable. Of course an artist can lose his way, but even his mistakes are interesting provided they are sincere. For they represent the reality of his inner life, of the peregrinations and struggle into which the external world has thrown him.” ― Andrei Tarkovsky
As a young man, filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky visited a gypsy to have his fortune told, specifically, about his cinematic future. She bluntly told him he would only live to make seven films, but that each one would be an important and cherished work. The details surrounding this urban legend...
“The director’s task is to recreate life, its movement, its contradictions, its dynamic and conflicts. It is his duty to reveal every iota of the truth he has seen, even if not everyone finds that truth acceptable. Of course an artist can lose his way, but even his mistakes are interesting provided they are sincere. For they represent the reality of his inner life, of the peregrinations and struggle into which the external world has thrown him.” ― Andrei Tarkovsky
As a young man, filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky visited a gypsy to have his fortune told, specifically, about his cinematic future. She bluntly told him he would only live to make seven films, but that each one would be an important and cherished work. The details surrounding this urban legend...
- 4/4/2012
- by jpraup@gmail.com (thefilmstage.com)
- The Film Stage
Chances are you've never heard of "Stalker," the landmark science-fiction film from 1979. Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky, perhaps Russia's greatest movie director, the movie tells the tale of an unnamed and enigmatic man known only as the Stalker, who leads people through "the Zone," a government-enclosed area that had contact with an alien force and no longer holds itself to the rules of physics. On his latest journey, the Stalker takes two people through the Zone, avoiding military forces and invisible dangers to reach something known only as "the Room," a location where you can fulfill your most desired wishes. Essayist Geoff Dyer has recently published Zona: A Book about a Film about a Journey to a Room, which doesn't just break down "Stalker" scene-by-scene, but also details how the movie has impacted his life and how films can impact all of us. To celebrate the release of Zona, our friends...
- 3/9/2012
- by Eric Larnick
- Moviefone
For a filmmaker who completed only seven feature films in his lifetime, Andrei Tarkovsky has made an enormous impact. In addition to his artistry, perhaps the enduring fascination with his work has to do with the story of a life cut short. After all, several European filmmakers who were born before Tarkovsky, like Jean-Luc Godard and Alain Resnais, are still around and making new films. Each of Tarkovsky’s seven films are brilliant works that each possess an ambition towards perfection and cinematic transcendence, but when bringing the filmmaker’s abrupt death by lung cancer into the equation it’s difficult to avoid the saddened feeling that there’s a great deal more time-sculpting he had left to share. So it makes sense then that the number of documentaries about Tarkovsky (or prominently feature the filmmaker) far exceed the number of films the director himself completed, and this fact gives a clear indication of his broad cinematic...
- 8/17/2011
- by Landon Palmer
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
Your Weekly Source for the Newest Releases on Blu-Ray
Tuesday, July 5th, 2011
13 Assassins (2010)
Synopsis: Cult director Takashi Miike (Ichi the Killer, Audition) delivers a bravado period action film set at the end of Japan’s feudal era in which a group of unemployed samurai are enlisted to bring down a sadistic lord and prevent him from ascending to the throne and plunging the country into a wartorn future. (Courtesy of MagPictures.com)
Special Features: Deleted Scenes; Interview with Director Takashi Miike; Theatrical Trailer; Trailers for Hobo With A Shotgun, Rubber, Troll Hunter, and The Perfect Host.
Bloodrayne: The Third Reich – Unrated Director’s Cut (2010)
Synopsis: Rayne fights against the Nazis in Europe during World War II, encountering Ekart Brand, a Nazi leader whose target is to inject Adolf Hitler with Rayne’s blood in an attempt to transform him into a dhampir and attain immortality. (Courtesy of Blu-Ray.com)
Special...
Tuesday, July 5th, 2011
13 Assassins (2010)
Synopsis: Cult director Takashi Miike (Ichi the Killer, Audition) delivers a bravado period action film set at the end of Japan’s feudal era in which a group of unemployed samurai are enlisted to bring down a sadistic lord and prevent him from ascending to the throne and plunging the country into a wartorn future. (Courtesy of MagPictures.com)
Special Features: Deleted Scenes; Interview with Director Takashi Miike; Theatrical Trailer; Trailers for Hobo With A Shotgun, Rubber, Troll Hunter, and The Perfect Host.
Bloodrayne: The Third Reich – Unrated Director’s Cut (2010)
Synopsis: Rayne fights against the Nazis in Europe during World War II, encountering Ekart Brand, a Nazi leader whose target is to inject Adolf Hitler with Rayne’s blood in an attempt to transform him into a dhampir and attain immortality. (Courtesy of Blu-Ray.com)
Special...
- 7/4/2011
- by Travis Keune
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
While we may have a bias as to who we all think does some of the best DVD and Bu-ray releases around, Kino is slowly cementing their name as one of the biggest and best players in the arthouse DVD and Blu-ray game. The company has now announced two of their most interesting releases to date.
First up, the company will be releasing a newly remastered version of Sergei Eisenstein’s classic, Strike, on Blu-ray. The release will hit shelves on August 30, and has a list price of $35.95, but is available on Amazon right now to pre-order for a low $25.99. The film was Eisenstein’s first, and “deals with a widespread labor strike in a rural factory.”
Finally, the company will also be making available a new Blu-ray of the Andrei Tarkovsky masterpiece, The Sacrifice. This release will come along with a documentary from Tarkovsky’s oft-collaborator Michal Leszczylowski entitled Directed By Andrei Tarkovsky,...
First up, the company will be releasing a newly remastered version of Sergei Eisenstein’s classic, Strike, on Blu-ray. The release will hit shelves on August 30, and has a list price of $35.95, but is available on Amazon right now to pre-order for a low $25.99. The film was Eisenstein’s first, and “deals with a widespread labor strike in a rural factory.”
Finally, the company will also be making available a new Blu-ray of the Andrei Tarkovsky masterpiece, The Sacrifice. This release will come along with a documentary from Tarkovsky’s oft-collaborator Michal Leszczylowski entitled Directed By Andrei Tarkovsky,...
- 6/15/2011
- by Joshua Brunsting
- CriterionCast
The Sacrifice Review Part II Aside from the thankful dearth of arrogant and ignorant talking heads and the peek into the making of The Sacrifice, what makes Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky so terrific is that it delves not only into Tarkovsky’s greatness as an artist, but also his flaws. Tarkovsky, we learn, was too obsessed with ideas of art as a form of spirituality (in effect limning his own artistic limits) and on getting things just right, with no compromises at all — rather than letting the power of the artwork itself take a hold. For instance, the penultimate fire scene had to [...]...
- 5/31/2010
- by Dan Schneider
- Alt Film Guide
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