The Tarkovsky poll

They start a big series at Toronto's Lightbox on Nov. 9. And Stalker plays for a week, like it's a Marvel movie or something.

The Mirror is the best film ever made. So that.

I really want to hit up one or two at the lightbox! but I am always tuckered after work so I will definitely need a nap an hour into any of these.

I haven't seen Nostalghia or Voyage in Time yet, but the rest are all 10/10. My heart says Stalker or Andrei Rublev, but I feel like I need to watch The Mirror again.

I have only seen half of these but I was the most moved by AR

thanks for making this a month long, need some time to revisit & watch others for the first time. Ivan's Childhood & Stalker are in my pile

Ivan's Childhood is a great movie, not so keen on the real footage of the corpses of Goebbels' dead children at the end tho.

I have napped during Stalker; my goal every time is to keep it nap-free.

lol in her Criterion Closet video, Charlotte Rampling said she always falls asleep during Tarkovsky films

the only one of these that I haven't been able to get from Netflix is Nostalgia.

The Mirror is one of my all time favorite movies

The majority of these are on YT in toto for free, right?

saw stalker abt a month ago in the theater, not really my jam; i like rublev

I tried watching Stalker on youtube a few years ago and it was muddy and gross and I gave up after a few minutes. The new restoration is gorgeous. Hard choice between it and Rublev.

I can't imagine watching an entire tarkovsky on YT

Me neither

Rublev. No, Stalker. No, Solaris.

A couple of these are available thru the Kanopy streaming service as well, I believe.

I come back to Stalker more frequently, but Rublev is probably better.

Haven't ever seen The Mirror

i’m probably gonna be the lone vote for the sacrifice but it’s the only one of these i’ve seen in a theater and it was probably the most powerful cinematic experience of my life

i've watched 3 of them and my vote goes to Not Solaris

Almost all of these are on Filmstruck, as well as The Steamroller and the Violin (1961, 45 minutes) and a documentary about Tarkovsky directed by the editor of The Sacrifice. Most of them will be hanging around on the Criterion side, but Nostalghia, The Sacrifice and the documentary are leaving in 2 weeks.

Mirror.

Hadn't heard of Voyage in Time?

need to see more of these

so far, AR is really good, Stalker is possibly the greatest film of all time, illustrating the step-up from 'genius' to 'master' or something idk

every frame of stalker is extraordinary and yeah the recent blu-ray release is beautiful

best film ever about three guys attempting to walk a short distance across a field

ben wheatley put up a decent challenge on that front tbf

I was poised to vote for Stalker and then remembered that it was actually The Mirror

*shakes head* xp

I like Tarkovsky, but his theories on time don't scan to me (has any filmmaker taken them seriously?), some of the symbolism is cool when you first encounter them at an impressionable age but it can get tiresome. The films are often great, his dodging of the censors to make the kind of the thing he wanted almost miraculous - but I'm far more agnostic on the overall achievement. Parajanov is far more concrete with his flights of imagination.

I like Mirror almost as much for the parts that allude to Soviet politics of a period. It just grounds things, in a way, making the symbolism richer.

Stalker is all time but have found myself thinking about Rublev a lot recently, will re-watch that and finally watch The Mirror before I vote.

I haven't watched The Sacrifice

Either Andrei Rublev or Ivan's Childhood. I rematched Stalker this summer so I don't have to until 2045.

The Mirror

Not enough love ITT for Nostalghia so that one.

I've been going to the TIFF series and have caught Stalker, The Mirror and The Sacrifice, with Solaris and a just-added screening of the full Andrei Rublev still to come. I feel like I've completely lost my ability to rank movies against each other.

that's a blessing imo

Wrote something rly long in response to clemenza not digging stalker but decided to delete it

Anyway, still one of my faves. Will see about buying the criterion ed during xmas

Do they usu come w a digital version?

The Sacrifice's ending/climax reminded me of the mania at the end of Stroszek so I am duty-bound to like it

infinity(∞): Would love to read it. I want to understand, I really do.

>Do they usu come w a digital version?

I don't think any Criterions do, at least none that I've bought. Their <i>Stalker</i> Blu is gorgeous, way ahead of any previous version. Takes my copies of this to 4: VHS, Artifical Eye dvd, AE Blu, Criterion Blu.

I really enjoyed Geoff Dyer's Zona too; he says this about the penultimate scene where the stalker carries his daughter home on his shoulders:

'From here on we are in a realm of loveliness unmatched anywhere else in cinema. We are able to believe in something blatantly untrue, an amendment to the idea that men were put on earth to create works of art: that the cinema was invented so that Tarkovsky could make Stalker, that our greatest debt to the Lumiere brothers is that they enabled this film to be made.'

bill

ya i own a few criterion blurays i just don't remember. they're packed up in boxes right now. you're probably right, though

clemenza, i just ordered the criterion edition bluray from amazon (it's on sale for $22 if anyone is interested)

i will write something more coherent after i rewatch it

gonna watch Stalker tonite but I voted for Solaris anyway I can't imagine it's better than that masterpiece

you might be surprised tbh

and not even quality-wise; every new-to-me tarkovsky film i watch changes my perception of the others

That's been my experience on this run, for sure.

Stalker was cool but I don't regret voting early. Solaris > Ivan's Childhood > Stalker

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

SOLARIS

god what can you say about a movie like that

that its boring?

https://i2.wp.com/giant.gfycat.com/HelpfulOrneryBaleenwhale.gif

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DP1yMbEWkAYFF31.jpg

saw the full Andrei Rublev tonight for the first time in nearly a decade. the bell chapter is the most astonishing stretch of any Tarkovsky film I've seen (still haven't caught Nostalghia)

i’m probably gonna be the lone vote for the sacrifice but it’s the only one of these i’ve seen in a theater and it was probably the most powerful cinematic experience of my life

I voted for it, too. I love Stalker, but The Sacrifice is the one that moved me the most.

can confirm that it rules

I was for Andrei Rubelev too tonight (second time). I thought the best sequence was the attack--harrowing. Overall, very impressive. Did have the usual half-hour drift-time about 30 minutes into the film.

Of the five I caught, I only drifted a bit during the first two (The Sacrifice and The Mirror), ironically the shortest ones. The attack sequence is horrifying, not surprised much of it was censored in the original cut

Finally watched Mirror, some unforgettable moments and the way it works variously as a companion piece to Ivan's/Stalker/Rublev is stunning, not sure I feel the same love for it that I do those though. In the end I closed my eyes and voted Rublev.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

aw Ivan's Childhood deserved a vote

I'm happy that Stalker and Rublev beat Solaris. guess i need to watch the mirror.

Booo

I'm happy that Stalker and Rublev beat Solaris.

weird thing to be happy about.

I think both Nostalghia and The Sacrifice are underrated and Stalker (which I still think is great) is overrated.

Should see Ivan's Childhood again, been years, but I remember it didn't work on me the way his other films do.

The Mirror or Rublev worthy of the top spot IMO.

just watched Nostalghia. all I can say is I'm so grateful a filmmaker like Tarkovsky existed. it really helped me in a lot of ways.

ooh la la

New restoration of Tarkovsky's epic ANDREI RUBLEV is premiering @FilmLinc on 8/24! pic.twitter.com/X5hdnME75j

— Janus Films (@janusfilms) May 29, 2018

Delighted to be able to see Mirror at a theater today (yay Drafthouse and RaMell Ross citing it as an inspiration for Nickel Boys and his work in general). Have the Criterion Bluray but a full-screen watch, even better. (Equally great: they're screening The Sacrifice in two weeks! And after seeing Nykvist's cinematography for Persona there yesterday, what an opportunity to see this film this way.)

I finished my Tarkovsky upgrade project - now all Criterion BDs excepting the Kino 4K of NOSTALGHIA - and now I just have to watch them all!

** I just watched the Kino 4K of "Nostalghia," and I'm glad I sprang for the 4K instead of the Blu-ray - it looks AMAZING. The detail and film grain! (FWIW, out of the 20-ish 4Ks I have, I probably would've been just as happy with the Blu-ray versions with half of them.) My previous viewing was standard def on a CRT, years ago, so this upgrade really blew me away.

** This was new to me - Stan Brakhage's account of meeting Tarkovsky, including a private screening of Brakhage's works in a tiny hotel room (Zbigniew Rybczynski was there, too!): http://www.nostalghia.com/TheTopics/Brakhage_and_Tarkovsky.html
Tarkovsky HATED Brakhage's films! But apparently he couldn't stop thinking about them and talking about them, afterwards. It's a great article, and I can just picture them all crammed into that hotel room.