nostalghia

an improvisation on the theme of the longing one feels for home or a place where one belongs. the bare framework of a narrative is a russian poet visiting italy to research a composer who had spent some time in that country before the yearning for the homeland pushes him back to russia. during the time that the poet spends in italy he meets people and experiences spaces and events that are used allegorically to express the primary themes of the film. much like the other tarkovsky films i have seen (especially ’mirror’) these disjointed fragments are held together by the thin string of a storyline where images are used to create a moving poem of a film.

i know here that by the use of ‘poem’ i fall for the ambiguous generalisation that plagues most critique that appreciates a work of art. how many times have we heard that word used to allow a vague mistiness to envelop our understanding of a piece. however, i cant help but use it in this case because i think that with narrative being only a thin string holding together the images tarkovsky is not trying to ‘tell a story’ at all. instead he is ‘sculpting with time’- to use his term. after watching the film i think i understand what he means.

time is treated almost as physical material shaped by the frame and the edit to create a work of art with its themes, rhythms and movements. the story is just another device used in this process.

the rules by which we are used to seeing films are transformed by this process. no longer do we look for consistency and logic of events, but instead, i think, a mood, a notion, a phenomenon that i can find expressed, much like the appreciation of a piece of music where the lyrics don’t matter.

unforgettable image: the poet trying to carry a burning candle across the tank of a spa.

mukul's post on 'nostalghia'

'nostalghia.com'- an andrei tarkovsky site