How Tarkovsky Ruined Sci-Fi Novels To Make Redemptive Cinema
The cinema of Andrei Tarkovsky functions as a rigorous investigation into the intersection of personal memory, metaphysical estrangement, and the spirituality of the natural world. By prioritizing the rhythmic duration of a shot over traditional montage, he sought to capture the pressure of time within the frame.
I always thought his work depicts a specific experience of Russian identity characterized by a slow decay and a focus on the internal life that distinguishes his films from the traditions of all other Russian art. While similar themes appear in the poetry of Pushkin, Lermontov, and Yesenin, Tarkovsky used the unique properties of film to explore these sentiments.
His filmography is shaped by the factual details of his childhood, the literary influence of his father, and his personalized interpretations of two science fiction classics.
Mirror as Autobiography
Mirror is the most factual representation of the director’s internal life and childhood. The film utilizes a non linear structure to replicate the mechanism of human memory. Tarkovsky cast his own mother Maria Vishnyakova to play the elderly version of the protagonist’s mother. He also included his wife Larisa in a supporting role. To achieve visual accuracy the crew reconstructed the country house where Tarkovsky lived as a child using old photographs as a guide. The film includes newsreel footage of the Spanish Civil War and Soviet balloon expeditions to connect his private memories to the broader historical events of the twentieth century. This approach allowed Tarkovsky to treat his own biography as a document of the Soviet experience.
Stalker
The 1971 novel Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky served as the inspiration for the 1979 film Stalker. The cinematic adaptation diverges significantly from the source material. Aside from the basic premise and the names of certain characters, the film ignores the satirical plot and social commentary found in the science fiction of the novel. The movie is a hyper personalized work. While the Strugatsky brothers saw the Zone as a site of alien debris and physical danger, Tarkovsky saw it as a mirror for the internal moral state of the characters. The pacing is intentionally slow and many viewers find the film difficult to watch due to its long takes. In the Soviet Union, watching the Tarkovsky canon functioned as a rite of passage for the intelligentsia.
The initial version of Stalker was lost after Soviet laboratories incorrectly processed experimental Kodak film stock. Tarkovsky secured a new budget by expanding the project into a two part film. Though the extended production would have severe health consequences for the crew and Tarkovsky himself.
Solaris
Tarkovsky filmed Solaris in 1972 as a direct response to Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 A Space Odyssey. He viewed the Western approach to science fiction as cold and sterile because of its focus on technological achievement. Soviet authorities also encouraged the project as a socialist counterpoint to Kubrick’s film. To oppose the polished aesthetic of the American production, Tarkovsky purposely undermined the visual conventions of the genre. He presented the space station as a cluttered and decaying environment that resembles a lived in apartment or a messy garage rather than a modern laboratory.
By grounding the extraterrestrial setting in these mundane details, he sought to highlight the character’s inability to escape his own earthly history. This focus on the human conscience led him to rarely show the sentient ocean that serves as the central mystery of the original novel. Stanislaw Lem expressed dissatisfaction with the result because he believed the director had ignored the scientific and philosophical problems of his writing in favor of a personal emotional drama.
Relationship to Father’s Poetry
The poetry of Tarkovsky’s father, Arseny Tarkovsky, provided the structural foundation for many of his films. The director viewed his father’s work as a source of moral and aesthetic authority. In films such as Stalker and Mirror the poems are read aloud often by Arseny himself. This integration served to ground the films in a specific Russian literary tradition. The poems usually deal with themes of immortality and the persistence of the essence of the self through nature.
Exile and Later Career
Tarkovsky moved to Italy in 1982 to begin work on Nostalghia. During this period the Soviet film agency Mosfilm attempted to block his international success and restricted his ability to work freely. In 1984 Tarkovsky held a press conference in Milan to announce that he would not return to the Soviet Union. This defection resulted in his films being banned from Soviet screens for several years. He spent his final years in Western Europe while his son was denied permission to leave the USSR to join him. This separation lasted until the director was on his deathbed in Paris in 1986. His exile turned his artistic focus toward the theme of irreconcilable loss.
Hazards of Filming Stalker
The production of Stalker in 1979 involved significant physical risks for the cast and crew. They filmed several sequences near a hydroelectric station on the Jägala River in Estonia. Upstream from this location stood a chemical plant that discharged toxic waste into the water. Crew members reported the presence of white foam on the river and many suffered from allergic reactions during the shoot. Tarkovsky and his wife Larisa along with the actor Anatoly Solonitsyn later died from lung cancer. Sound recordist Vladimir Sharun stated in interviews that the environmental conditions at the plant were the likely cause of these illnesses.
Conclusion
Tarkovsky identified Robert Bresson and Ingmar Bergman as the two directors who most successfully used film as a medium for existential truth. He rejected the influence of Sergei Eisenstein because he believed that rapid editing destroyed the natural flow of time. His own influence is visible in the work of contemporary filmmakers such as Lars von Trier and Nuri Bilge Ceylan. These directors adopt his use of the long take and his focus on the tactile qualities of the environment. His theory of sculpting in time remains a foundational text for students of cinema.
The career of Andrei Tarkovsky contains many other significant elements. While this essay does not provide an extensive analysis of Andrei Rublev, that film remains a central part of his legacy. Direct observation of his work is more effective than my descriptions. Luckily, many of his films are currently available free and in HD on YouTube.