Andrey Tarkovksy seemed to value the photogenic aspect while filming The Mirror. I found that after reading up on Tarkovsky and thinking more critically about what was really happening throughout the film that Tarkovsky is quite the genius. Just as Vertov strove to develop a film with a universal theme with The Man With the Movie Camera, The Mirror seems to have a similar effect. We are not forced to follow a characters family problems, love life, or awkward teen years but rather are allowed a glimpse of various stages and important events that occurred throughout his life.
The movie obviously had no apparent plot but it did seem to continually revert back to images of childhood and clips from the news. Many of these images and scenes formed a general connection of overall feeling towards certain ideas. I also noticed that the film portrayed different images from various stages of the war. I wasn't sure if Tarkovsky purposely had some scenes be long with little action while others seemed short and action packed. It may have been set up to demonstrate the longing and passing time families spent waiting for family members to return home versus the life of war which is intense and fast paced.
I believe that Tarkovsky doesn't give most of the cast names because he doesn't want us to relate to multiple characters. He keeps most of the focus on Alexi. I thought that this film may be portraying some twisted, unchronological biography of Alexi. I found myself getting very confused as to which parts of the film were following Alexi's life versus some other character. It seemed to splice into pieces of his childhood, man hood, and elderly stages. It was interesting that he showed Alexi on his deathbed near the end of the film because this would then follow somewhat of a chronological order which the rest of the film hadn't exactly done
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And I think one of the crucial things to realize is that Alexei *himself* is having trouble distinguishing his identity and his life from his son Ignat's--just as his mother and wife have melded in his thoughts and reflections.
ReplyDeleteAnd keep in mind that memory itself (which in many ways I think this film is designed to replicate) is "twisted" and "unchronological." When we recall various events from our past we rarely if ever proceed in a nice, neat narrative line. The memories come at us in shards (shards of a mirror, if you will, especially when these are memories of ourselves) and very often the memories can spin out of control, turning into dreams, distortions, fantasies, etc.
From your blogpost here I think Tarkovsky would really appreciate the way in which you are trying to approach his film.
I really dont understand why he would try to put the film in a twisted and unchronological manner. It is quite unnecessary and overall is what made the movie so confusing.
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