The Sacrifice (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1986)

8/10
Tarkovsky's relationship with God and Christianity is a complicated one. I've seen almost all his films now and read his own writings and I still can't entirely make heads or tails of it. Maybe he never could himself. The Sacrifice to me seems reflective of this.

In the film, it's the aging Alexander's birthday. An atheist/teacher/actor/philosopher/father/husband, he is shown planting a tree with his young son and ruminating about the lack of spirituality in the world. A nuclear war breaks out in the middle of the night, and Alexander pleads desperately to God, offering everything he has as a sacrifice provided God return things to how they were the day before. A doctor trapped with Alexander's family at the house convinces him to sleep with a local woman, a purported witch. With God seemingly failing him, he does so. The next morning he wakes up, and everything is indeed back to normal - no nuclear bombs. With his family out, Alexander sets fire to the house. His family discovers him and, confessing his actions, he is taken away to be institutionalized.

No matter how I think about the film, I can't seem to penetrate it with any success. Everything is left as a question - was there really a nuclear war at all? Was the woman really a witch (the movie strongly suggests she was not)? Did sleeping with her really change the world? Did Alexander commit a brave, noble, and ultimately tragic sacrifice...or is this just insanity on the part of a man who has given up? I don't fault the film for not providing answers. In fact I applaud Tarkovsky for creating a work that would probably mean something different to every single person who watched it. I thought it was very moving, myself, moreso than anything else I've seen from Tarkovsky. I wish I could put into words more of my feelings about the film, but I'm finding it hard to say exactly what I want to. Maybe I'll have to sleep on it.

The movie reminded me a lot of Ingmar Bergman's Through a Glass Darkly, which isn't much of a surprise considering the film is rife with Bergman connections. I also wondered if maybe Lars von Trier had watched this movie a lot in recent years - many times I was reminded of Antichrist (which von Trier dedicated to Tarkovsky) and especially Melancholia, with its apocalyptic themes.

The Mirror (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1975)

8/10
Andrei Tarkovsky's autobiographical stream-of-conscious film, it's probably as hard as anything to get into, just because of how personal it is. Indeed, the only one who would understand just how everything fits is Tarkovsky himself, the rest of us are on the outside looking in (I could make some flimsy 'mirror' allusion here but alas). Despite the lack of plot or coherance, Tarkovsky is such a magician that it's never a chore to watch what unfolds onscreen, and there are some remarkable images that I won't soon be able to forget.

Andrei Rublev (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1966)

7.5/10
I don't think I've ever watched such a heavy movie in my life. Holy smokes. This thing is loaded less with the beautiful, hypnotic imagery of Stalker & Solaris (though it's there) and stuffed with exceptionally heavy musings on a bunch of different stuff, primarily art and religion...both individually and taken together. Tarkovsky's portrait of Rublev must be one of the most fully realized depictions of a historical figure ever in cinema, but I'll confess I wasn't exactly pulled in for all 3 hours, 41 minutes. I admired it more than I liked it, really. Still pretty staggering though, I can't imagine myself coming back to it any time soon.

Ivan's Childhood (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1962)

8/10
After Solaris, Stalker and now Ivan's Childhood, I'm learning that film rarely looks so beautiful as when it's in the hands of Andrei Tarkovsky. Ivan's Childhood, like the other two, contains some absolutely stunning cinematography...all the more impressive because it's Tarkovsky's first feature and it's shot in black and white. The film feels more restrained than the others and not quite as far-reaching in scope but it's still very satisfying and an ultimately very sad look at a boy's life pre- and post-war.

Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1979)

10/10
I don't even know what I could say to possibly do it justice. I'll be the first to admit I don't understand everything but I've rarely been so fully entranced by a 2h30m movie. This is cinema as art in its highest form. Still under its spell. I got nothing.

Solaris (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1972)

8/10
Liked it a lot for the most part, only gripe was that it was a little needlessly slow at times...still a beautiful, harrowing film and I never saw the ending coming. No real interest in seeing the remake with Clooney, though I hear it isn't half-bad in its own right.