tarkovsky's stalker

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I should've gone.

― RJG (RJG), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 10:02 (9 years ago) Permalink

don't beat yourself up about it dude.

― chris (chris), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 10:37 (9 years ago) Permalink

you're right and you're right.

― RJG (RJG), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 10:54 (9 years ago) Permalink

you should try to see them in a cinema rather than on a TV too RJG - it helps to be away from other distractions/choices and -> reduce the psychometabolic rate down to the pace of the films
(they do indeed have alot of very long takes and long tracking shots)

in spite of his concerns with the metaphysical/religious/spiritual (maybe implied, or maybe i just misinterpret) not being ones i resonate with, i nonetheless find his films very appealing. i get the same kind of awe as when looking at a magnificent cathedral or stained-glass window - they don't make me believe in god or the afterlife, but they are magnificent.

i got more 'psychological' than spiritual stuff from them - memory, desire, regret - though from certain angles those kinds of feelings sometimes verge on something more 'profound'

he made me appreciate the visual details of things more, and his fascination with rain/trickling/dripping water has something almost sensually/biologically resonant about it (iirc there is a few-seconds shot in 'nostalgia' of rainwater droplets hitting bottles/jars in sunlight - delicate and transitory beauty, all colourbursting microrainbows & gentle chiming , created in the midst of a grotty hovel from 'miserable' weather and a leaky roof...)

solaris is my favourite - it is the only one i have seen more than once - nostalgia second fav - stalker/andrei rublev/the sacrifice all pretty equal to me
i have never got to a cinema to see 'mirror' grrrr

(and ha yes don't go to a hot cinema when short of sleep to see one - this was my downfall at the ica cinema's showing of andrei rublev - iirc (it was 20 yrs ago so i may not) it was at least 3hrs 30min long and i slept through approx 30 mins in the middle...)

― Snowy Mann (rdmanston), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 12:37 (9 years ago) Permalink

I live half a block from the glasgow film theatre and one and a half blocks from the centre for contemporary arts.

I never seem to go to the cinema. : (((

I wish cozen would make me.

I will keep an eye open for showings. thanks, ray.

― RJG (RJG), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 12:59 (9 years ago) Permalink

do you like long takes? really long ones? ... really, really long ones?

I don't know what's happening to me, because my tolerance for long-held shots used to be so low that I needed films like Requiem for a Dream and Run Lola Run. Now, I'm to the point where Stalker's shots didn't really strike me as all that long, all told. Perhaps because so many of them are moving, panning, or tracking shots.

But, yeah, gorgeous film. As of yet one of only two Tarkovskys I've seen (Solaris), but I can't wait to catch Nostalghia and Mirror.

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 13:03 (9 years ago) Permalink

i think it's pretty easy all told to train your eye to new aesthetic experiences, whether that means long held shots or anything else

although i suppose i prefer long shots that have a painterly aspect, that observes one or another principal of interesting composition--which really is most of the long take films that are most respected; i've seen a film by philippe garrel which seemed purposely drab and affectless and even artless in its long takes, and it tested my patience (i take that phrase seriously, i think it's good sometimes to test your patience)

i've never seen "nostalghia" or "the sacrifice"

― amateur!st (amateurist), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 13:13 (9 years ago) Permalink

this 'stalker' was being presented as an architectural film.

― RJG (RJG), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 13:14 (9 years ago) Permalink

RJG, you're totally welcome to come to the cinema whenever I go.

― cozen (Cozen), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 13:26 (9 years ago) Permalink

I'm not gay!

― cozen (Cozen), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 13:27 (9 years ago) Permalink

well, who is, really?

thanks. make me aware of upcoming trips!

― RJG (RJG), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 13:30 (9 years ago) Permalink

when cozen is not at the cinema you will be barred from entry of course

― amateur!st (amateurist), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 13:30 (9 years ago) Permalink

Just piping in... Stalker presented as architectural film is quite spot on, as it is "about" moving in the space of the Zone, searching for the hidden room, moving along oblique routes.

― Janne (Janne), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 13:30 (9 years ago) Permalink

ok. you know I go to the cinema too much tho, right?

― cozen (Cozen), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 13:31 (9 years ago) Permalink

I know. I won't feel the pressure to match you, film-for-film.

they are presenting 'alphaville' as an architectural film, here, too. they say it is a reorganisation of the city [paris] and its component parts. they also said something about strewn and 'like a situationist map'!!!! I've seen it.

― RJG (RJG), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 13:34 (9 years ago) Permalink

"alpha-VILLE, alpha-VILLE, it's only a deri-VÉ!"

― cozen (Cozen), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 13:36 (9 years ago) Permalink

it's going to be another long summer.

― cozen (Cozen), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 13:36 (9 years ago) Permalink

haha, I can't wait.

― RJG (RJG), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 13:38 (9 years ago) Permalink

Whatever you do, don't try and smoke pot while watching Stalker, you'll go into a trance and loose track. See it in a theater.

― J2Dancer, Wednesday, 3 March 2004 23:05 (9 years ago) Permalink

I can't wait.

― RJG (RJG), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 23:10 (9 years ago) Permalink

Nothing to do with Stalker but I just watched Andrei Rublev tonight. That's quite some film.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 17 March 2004 06:25 (9 years ago) Permalink

...and then some?

Huh, I now recall the peculiar circumstances (the very early 80s, Moscow of all places) of watching Rublev myself...

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Wednesday, 17 March 2004 10:18 (9 years ago) Permalink

yeah that chapter about the bell is madness. i like the end bit most i think.

stalker, funnily enough, was the film i had least patience. like, ive seen most of his films but that was the first time i got a bit fidgety. but i really wanted to fall asleep.

― ambrose (ambrose), Wednesday, 17 March 2004 11:00 (9 years ago) Permalink

what about the shot where he follows the horses' hooves and then pans down to the battle below? yow

― !!!! (amateurist), Wednesday, 17 March 2004 11:58 (9 years ago) Permalink

i think the part in the bell chapter where they are waiting to see if it will ring is one of the most suspenseful moments in all of film.

― ryan (ryan), Wednesday, 17 March 2004 20:36 (9 years ago) Permalink

Yeah, I was about to say, that was incredibly well-handled, and even better, I had no idea whether it would in fact ring or not -- it could have easily gone either way.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 17 March 2004 21:01 (9 years ago) Permalink

or the part with the geese flying by?

― !!!! (amateurist), Wednesday, 17 March 2004 22:17 (9 years ago) Permalink

2 years pass...

soooooooooooooo booooooooooooooorrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnggggggggg

― renegade bear shot by cops on frat row (vahid), Monday, 29 May 2006 19:41 (6 years ago) Permalink

and i enjoyed "solaris"!

― renegade bear shot by cops on frat row (vahid), Monday, 29 May 2006 19:41 (6 years ago) Permalink

this is like "mindwalk" with a pedigree.

― renegade bear shot by cops on frat row (vahid), Monday, 29 May 2006 19:42 (6 years ago) Permalink

the zone is sweet!

― jhoshea (scoopsnoodle), Monday, 29 May 2006 20:41 (6 years ago) Permalink

i really like this film! i somehow watched it in one sitting.

― gear (gear), Monday, 29 May 2006 21:08 (6 years ago) Permalink

yes the zone is sweet. i would have just as happily have watched a documentary on decaying abandoned soviet factories. still, i didn't need like TWENTY MINUTES of rusting guns underwater when FIVE would have done just as well.

it just seems like lots of things in this movie were absurdly stretched out for minimal payoffs. how many times do i have to watch stalker take a nap??

exceptions: the trolley ride into the zone was great, the part where they are taking a nap in the creek is great, too, where we see all the different bits of detritus in the stream.

― renegade bear shot by cops on frat row (vahid), Monday, 29 May 2006 21:16 (6 years ago) Permalink

actually, this was sort of like solaris - 1st half totally watchable, 2nd half same shit as the 1st half happens over and over again w/ minimal development until the last 10 minutes when some big sci-fi revelation happens.

― renegade bear shot by cops on frat row (vahid), Monday, 29 May 2006 21:17 (6 years ago) Permalink

is it true that they all died from cancers they picked up while filming in that place?? i can't imagine how wading neck-deep in sewer water in an abandoned hydroelectric plant could have seemed like a good idea ... didn't they have an actor's union?

― renegade bear shot by cops on frat row (vahid), Monday, 29 May 2006 21:19 (6 years ago) Permalink

it must be the best film I ever seen. the subject, the concentrated dramatic intensity, and something else about the image and time, that was cinema yet advancing in another territory, I don't know. I haven't thought much about it but I think I'll get a copy for myself.

― S. (Sébastien Chikara), Monday, 29 May 2006 21:29 (6 years ago) Permalink

it could be a good film for Bun-O-Vision parody.

― S. (Sébastien Chikara), Monday, 29 May 2006 21:40 (6 years ago) Permalink

I have never seen this movie

― RJG (RJG), Monday, 29 May 2006 22:22 (6 years ago) Permalink

This is still the only Tarkovsky I've watched. Loved it then, but sort of feel resistant towards the idea of watching any more, diminishing returns, et al.

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Monday, 29 May 2006 23:45 (6 years ago) Permalink

One of my favourite films. Indeed the last couple scenes are among the most beautiful film I would imagine.

Maybe I will go rent Rublev tonight!

― The Boy Who Cried YSI? (Freud Junior), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 02:33 (6 years ago) Permalink

i would have just as happily have watched a documentary on decaying abandoned soviet factories.

how about a 9-hour documentary on decaying abandoned chinese factories??

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 04:51 (6 years ago) Permalink

Stalker is my favorite movie. I've watched it about ten times, once in
slow motion, and I designed my own edition of Roadside Picnic (google for
Roadside Picnic - pick the first PDF result).
I general hate all theists, but I actually like the Christian symbolism
in Stalker. Mostly because it isn't preachy - Tarkovsky fills his movies
with religious questions, not answers. And it isn't the simplistic "Christ
Cliff Notes" retelling on the core mythos that's so common in religious art.
Aside from Stalker... Nostalghia and Rublyov are brilliant, Ivan & Mirror
are very good, Solaris is good, Sacrifice sucks. Steamroller & Violin is
of historic interest only.

― shieldforyoureyes (shieldforyoureyes), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 14:49 (6 years ago) Permalink

Just thinking about this movie makes me want to pull on my hair and roll around on the floor and throw a temper tantrum - anything to prevent anouther twelve hours of watching dudes wallow around in puddles. ANYTHING.

I liked Andrei Rublev, though.

― Safety First (pullapartgirl), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 15:28 (6 years ago) Permalink

What is the purpose of watching it in slow motion?

(genuinely curious, not be snarky)

― erklie (erklie), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 17:33 (6 years ago) Permalink

More time to appreciate the photography.

― shieldforyoureyes (shieldforyoureyes), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 18:55 (6 years ago) Permalink

it's not twelve hours. less than three, i think.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Wednesday, 31 May 2006 03:35 (6 years ago) Permalink

1 year passes...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.T.A.L.K.E.R.:_Shadow_of_Chernobyl

― ☪, Thursday, 5 July 2007 16:33 (5 years ago) Permalink

this movie is also at fantasia film fest... everyone seems to say it's worth checking so i may do so! i amde a thread for the fest, as well.

― Will M., Thursday, 5 July 2007 19:15 (5 years ago) Permalink

this is one of the best films ever!

and it's not boring!

― poortheatre, Thursday, 5 July 2007 19:24 (5 years ago) Permalink

I should've gone.

― RJG, Thursday, 5 July 2007 19:25 (5 years ago) Permalink

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Roadside Picnic coming back into print (in English) for the first time in 30 years fwiw

― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 3 May 2012 23:55 (1 year ago) Permalink

bought it at B&N a couple of weeks ago actually!

― I cannot host as my wife hates Walker (latebloomer), Friday, 4 May 2012 07:42 (1 year ago) Permalink