The News Column

Sunday, November 8, 2009

An invitation from the Istituto Internazionale Andrej Tarkovskij to a series of concerts and readings "Dissidenze Profonde" on the occasion of 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The events take place in Rome on November 3, 6, 10, and December 3. For more details see the PDF invitation here.

There is an article in The Grauniad about the new documentary chronicling Rerberg's work on Stalker (see, e.g., our March 14 News update). As well, here is a link to the festival showing the documentary in the U.K. Thanks to Todd Ramsey for the links.

There is is a special issue of Image & Narrative on the work of Chris Marker, with articles in French and English. Also see the article The Unknown Statue — A suppressed masterpiece by Alain Resnais and Chris Marker, by Jonathan Rosenbaum.

The entertainment web site Review Fix has reviewed Andrei Rublev and Stalker. Check it out!

Our colleagues over at Nostalghia.cz have posted a Czech translation of our article Andrei Tarkovsky's Madonna del Parto (by James Macgillivray).

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

We are very happy to present a new and very detailed translation of the spoken dialogue from The Passion According to Andrei. The author of this translation, Vera Koshkina, is a Ph.D. student in the Slavic department at the University of Chicago and she writes:

My objective was to create an English language version of the dialogue 
in the film that was more nuanced and faithful to the sound score than 
the text provided in the subtitles.
[...]
The resulting translation is probably of greater interest to students 
or scholars of film than to casual viewers, however, I thought that 
there may be some who would find this translation interesting.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Leading the news this evening is Tony Partridge writing from Ireland about Roberto Bolano and Andrei Tarkovsky:

A series of coincidences has again led me to some interesting material
regarding Tarkovsky that may be of interest to you and to visitors to 
your website. This time, it is information about Tarkovsky's influence 
on the writing of a major author.

Last May I went to an evening at the Sligo Spanish Society, Sol y Sombra, 
where a Chilean novelist called Carlos Frank talked and gave readings 
from his work, none of which is as yet translated from Spanish into 
English. At the end of his talk and reading, I asked him about his main 
influences as a writer and he mentioned the Chilean writer Roberto Bolano. 
I did not know about this writer until then and have since learned that 
he was a major South American author who died in 2003 at the age of just 50. 
I purchased some of Bolano's books and the first one I read was a series 
of excellent short stories called "Last Evenings on Earth", translated by 
Chris Andrews and published by Vintage, London, in 2007. Near the end 
of the book there is a short story called "Days of 1978" in which, 
at a pivotal moment in the story, the major character - called B in 
the story - relates an account of a film that has made a big impression 
on him. This film, as it turns out, is Tarkovsky's "Andrei Rublev", though 
the name of the film is never mentioned in the text. In fact, his account 
of the film is a fairly strange and interesting interpretation and the 
account that the character gives of the film seems to have a major effect 
on another major character in the story. Beyond that I will not ruin 
the story for anyone who is interested in reading it by relating what happens.

The other time Tarkovsky influenced a major author is in the Japanese Nobel 
Laureate Oe's novel "A Quiet Life", in which Tarkosvky's film "Stalker" 
plays a very prominent part.

I hope this information is of interest and I remain,

Yours sincerely,

Tony Partridge,
Sligo.

William Miller points us to a new book about Tarkovsky's Mirror:

We haven't got any details on it yet but if you are interested, fnac have it available for 11.88 €.

We are reposting here the latest news from the Institut Andreï Tarkovski in Paris, including an English translation this time (PDF document).

You probably remember Dmitry Trakovsky and his new documentary Meeting Andrei Tarkovsky (shown recently at the Lincoln Center in New York). A video interview with Dmitry has been published by the FilmMaker magazine. Thanks to Keith Rose for the link!

Monday, August 3, 2009

Our humble apologies for delaying the latest news from the Institut Andreï Tarkovski in Paris which includes the schedule of upcoming events through May 2010.

Reid Rosefelt sent us this link to a very interesting article on his blog titled What Andrei Tarkovsky Said About Francis Coppola. (I wish I knew this story when I met Mr. Coppola a couple of weeks ago at the San Rafael Film Center! —JB). Fascinating stuff with a hilarious punchline and photograph.

We couldn't resist: do you like "surreal, bizarre, cult, oddball, fantastique, psychotronic, and the just plain WEIRD" movies? Here is one by your favourite director.

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Layla Alexander Garrett's book Tarkovsky: sobiratel' snov (Tarkovsky: The Collector of Dreams) has been published in Moscow by the publisher AST Astrel. Layla recently traveled to Moscow to promote the book.

Film Society of Lincoln Center in New York City is having a full Tarkovsky retrospective from July 7th to July 14th. All of Tarkovsky's full-length films will be screened and it will all be capped off with the U.S. premiere of the documentary Meeting Andrei Tarkovsky. Programme and ticket information here. Thanks to John P. for the update.

There will be a press screening of Meeting Andrei Tarkovsky at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, NYC, on the 25th, at 11 am. Interested members of the media may contact Dmitry Trakovsky for a press pass.

Please consider supporting Meeting Andrei Tarkovsky. Funds are still needed for music rights, subtitling, and ancillary fees...

Alva Noto: Tarkovski Revisited.

There is reason to believe that some artworks claimed to be by Sergei Paradjanov maybe indeed be fakes. Please check this page on parajanov.com before considering purchasing a Paradjanov collage through any kind of auction, whether online or otherwise.

In Moscow, Yury Samodurov, a human rights activist, and Andrey Erofeev, a museum curator, are facing criminal prosecution for organizing an exhibition entitled "Forbidden Art 2006" at the Andrei Sakharov Museum. The two men could be sentenced to up to five years imprisonment. The Tagansky District Court in Moscow is scheduled to resume hearing the case behind closed doors on June 5, 2009. You may join us in supporting Russian human rights activists by demanding that the charges be dropped.

A couple of items we were unable to report on in a timely manner, due to our exceedingly busy lives: (a) on June 9, there was a performance of François Couturier's Song for Tarkovskij in Rome, Italia. (b) on May 27 there was a screening of Anne Imbert's 2008 documentary Alexandre Sokurov — questions de cinéma.

The following is a sampling of some of the most interesting readers' letters we received over the last little while. Thanks to you all, for your interesting notes and always encouraging words.

Hello,

Many thanks for the excellent site. I can't find any mention on the site of 
an article in a recent edition of the London Review of Books about Tarkovsky so
you might be interested to have the link which is www.lrb.co.uk/v31/n04/pere01_.html.

				All best wishes,
					Declan O' Driscoll.

---

Hello,

I just completed a master thesis about the spiritual connection between the
German artist Joseph Beuys and Andrej Tarkowski, which is, as far as I know, 
a world premiere. I'm very pleased to present you a copy in pdf, which you can
publish on the site if you want to, or simply link to it. But notice that I 
wrote it in Dutch, another beautiful European language. In English there's only
a brief abstract available, until I find the money and the right person to
translate it in English (so if one of your guys is interested in this job - feel
free!) You can have a look at the work here:

Main text: www.freewebs.com/gawano/MASTERPROEF_DEF.pdf.
Abstract (Dutch and English)www.freewebs.com/gawano/ABSTRACT_NL_ENG.pdf.
Image attachement:www.freewebs.com/gawano/MASTERPROEF_Afb. bijlage_DEFcomp.pdf.

Here a brief abstract in English:

Art towards an integral conciousness.
A study based on the work of Joseph Beuys and Andrej Tarkovsky.

"This research brings together the works of the German artist Joseph Beuys
(1921-1986) and the Russian film director Andrei Tarkovsky (1932-1986) both 
in a visual and philosophical fashion. As both artists refer to the spiritual
catastrophe affecting mankind as a whole, the author investigates the extent to
which this idea relates to the ancestral theme of the lost paradise. Throughout
their endeavors, both artists give art a therapeutical connotation and strongly
believe in its cathartic effect vis-à-vis the crisis of rationalism. This 
departs from the assumption that art is conceptually equivalent to an inner,
divine capacity of creation, which allows men to control their own destiny and
liberate themselves spiritually. This process is firmly grounded on an evolution
towards a aperspective and integral conciousness which, according to the Swiss 
philosopher Jean Gebser (1905-1973), allows mankind to experience reality free
of time and space relations. This expanded experience of reality results into
a new imperative, defined as the free act of sacrifice. Beuys and Tarkovsky are
aiming at a new way of a moral, responsible as well as ego-free spiritual
acting, which allows mankind to reestablish his lost unity with the cosmos,
overcoming the fundamental gap between the human being and his origin. The 
prophet-like position of both Beuys and Tarkovsky is understood as a process of 
desincarnation, pushing man towards a nearly absurdist way of acting, based on a 
radicalization of the artistic activity."

By the way, I wanted to congratulate you with your marvellous website about 
Tarkovski and the other cinematic geniouses, it's really wonderfull work! As you 
can see I referred regularly to your site since the material published there was 
one af my main sources for primary material about Tarkovski.


Sincerely yours,

Gawan Fagard
Free University Brussels, Belgium

Avenue Adolphe Buyllaan 29
B - 1050 Brussel
tel: +32(0)2/646 31 80
e-mail: gawan.fagard[at]projectb.be

---

Hi Trond,

again, thanks for keeping up Nostalghia and all your good work for MoC...
About two years ago, I mailed you an article I wrote on historical echos in
Andrei Rublev, but asked not to share it on the website, because I didn't get a
permission from the publisher (they simply did not answer to my question...).
But, luck is on your side: I by coincidence saw that it is fully available through
Google books.

As I told you before, I'm not happy about language and structure - if I rewrote 
it now, it would be different - but I think my points are made clear.
Feel free to post the link at Nostalghia - and once more: thanks for sharing 
your love for fine movies (and helping us to get decent info and dvds...)

[...] I also found a review that sums it up quite nicely:

"Similarly, Pascal Vandelanoitte's essay, An Icon of Change: Andrei Rublev 
(1966) as a Historical Film about the Birth of Russia, also explores a film 
where historical background is unspoken, in the service of larger historical
statements. The film itself is heavily laden with dates, characters, and events 
familiar to Russian audiences as cultural insiders but which fail to provide 
adequate context for cultural others, allowing history to remain a puzzle.
As a result, Andrei Rublev has frequently been denied status as an historical 
film in Western circles. Vandelanoitte's work unpacks the film's historical 
content, in tandem with the painter's psychological conflict, in order to 
demonstrate Tarkovsky's use of Rublev's story as an allegory of broader social 
change in Russia, in the early 15th century."
Reference:  Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, March 2009.


Yours sincerely,

Pascal Vandelanoitte

---

Dear Trond,

It is with great sadness that I read of Oleg Yankovsky's death, especially as I
spent this afternoon - before reading the news - watching him carry the candle 
again across the sulphur-baths at Bagno Vignoni.

People visiting your site may find it very interesting that this significant 
scene from Tarkovsky's 'Nostalghia' appears in a video collage at an art 
exhibition called "Medium Religion" that just opened in Sligo, Ireland. The
exhibition has just transferred from the ZKM / Center of Art and Media, 
Karlsruhe, Germany. It is curated by Boris Groys and Peter Weibel.


Included in the exhibition is a video collage by Boris Groys, called "Religion 
as Medium". The collage includes the complete candle scene from 'Nostalghia' 
which is overlayed with a talk by Boris Groys. The full text of Groys' talk is 
published in the catalogue for the exhibition. Essentially, Groys suggests that 
the hero of Tarkovsky's film "finds himself in a state of a total lack of 
opinion". Groys says this in the context of his view that religion, in its 
sacred space, "marks and describes the state of opinionlessness." He says that 
people in this state practice repetition as "a ritual of the opinionlessness." 
To this extent, according to Groys, the "inescapable repetitiveness" of 
Tarkovsky's hero marks him as "a medium of this lack of opinion." 

At the opening of this exhibition, I chaired the talk and discussion with Boris 
Groys. I also spoke of Tarkovsky, in particular his comments on "the atrophy of 
the organ of belief" in Western man. (I attach this short talk for your interest 
and please feel free to include any part of this at your website if you find it 
relevant.)

The exhibition "Medium Religion" runs from 23 May 2009 - 16 August 2009 at The 
Model Satellite, Model Arts and Niland Gallery, Sligo, Ireland.

[...] 

Currently I am reading a translation of Simeon Frank's Reality and Man, which 
Vadim Moroz, in his recent book, wrote was an important text for Tarkovsky. 
Certain sections, particularly on art and the artistic process, might have come 
directly from the mouth - or pen - of Andrei Tarkovsky. For example: "The 
artist, of course, creates 'of himself' - mere repetition of other people's 
ideas is not creativeness - but the creative 'self' is not simply the individual 
in his subjectivity, and not an impersonal bearer of consciousness in general: 
it is an individually-human embodiment of the super-human spirit acting in man." 
Or: "At bottom, however, every reality and every spiritual force (in so far as
it acts through the centre of human personality and therefore is merged with 
man's creative freedom) issues from that centre and primary source of reality 
which we call God. ... It is as a creator that man is most conscious of himself 
as 'the image and likeness' of God. ... man as creator is a co-partner in God's 
creativeness." And: "Human spirit is a creative entity to which God as it were 
partly 'delegates' His own creative power, authorising it to be an active 
partner in His own creativeness." And too: "Man is not only the servant of God's 
creativeness. ... God has called man to be not simply His servant, but His free, 
i.e. creative co-worker." I am currently about two-thirds way through this often 
difficult text, but it gives quite an insight into the influences on Tarkovsky, 
particularly during the period of his last two films. The version of the book I 
have was published by Faber and Faber in 1965, and was translated by Natalie 
Duddington.

All the best,

Tony

Tony Partridge,
Sligo, Ireland.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

We regret to inform you that Oleg Yankovsky has died, at the young age of 65. Obituary from Associated Press, here. Our colleague Petr Gajdosik over at Nostalghia.cz wrote this note (Czech).

Some fascinating information on a new HD transfer of The Sacrifice, here.

There is an article on Meeting Andrei Tarkovsky at the always interesting bagatellen site. Also check out the trailer. The film will be fatured in July at New York's Lincoln Center. For running updates, follow on Twitter or log onto the official website.

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Sergei Sviatchenko provided us with the following photos from the opening of his Berlin exhibition (see our previous news update). Special guests Layla Garrett and Aleksander Gordon may be spotted here. In addition, here is a relevant video segment. Sergei has graciously allowed us to post the entire exhibition catalogue as well as this pamphlet containing Mr. Gordon's text, with a very interesting Paradjanov reference (both files in PDF format).

Longtime site follower and contributor Eugene Borzov provided us with the following report from the annual Ivanovo "Andrey Tarkovsky Homage Days":

Dear Trond,
 
I see that despite a huge amount of work in your office you still find time to 
make your great site move on.  I'm sure all Tarkovsky's fans across the world 
do appreciate it.  I'd be pleased if the following information on how Andrey 
Tarkovsky was remembered last week here in the land of his birth may contribute 
to your developments.
 
On April 3, 2009 Shavkat Abdusalamov (worked as scenic artist in "Stalker" for 
some time) came to Ivanovo to talk about his cooperation with Tarkovsky in the 
late 70s. Vitaly Troyanovsky, Director of the "Isles" program on TV Channel 
"Kultura", spoke about his vision of "Ivan's Childhood" and introduced his 
documentary on Shavkat Abdusalamov.
 
On April 4, 2009 all these guests visited Yurievets and participated in the 
Liturgy, dedicated to our great countryman and then in the opening of the photo 
exhibition "Stalker Again".
 
Yet another exhibition of Tarkovsky's Polaroid pictures was displayed that 
day in a new gallery in Ivanovo. This project was initiated by the "Klassika" 
Association and the "Konsultant" company. About 60 pictures, made by Andrey 
Tarkovsky  in the early 80s both in Russia and Italy were presented in a big 
screen digital format in the background of live music, performed by Yevgeny 
Borzov (piano) and Svetlana Kunitskaya(cello). This performance was followed by 
a multimedia presentation of the director's "Diaries" prepared by students of 
Ivanovo State University of Chemistry and Technology.  Extracts from Tarkovsky's 
films, citations from his articles and books, as well as poems by Arseny 
Tarkovsky were included in this presentation.
 
On April 5-6, 2009 the local audience could see two documentaries by Yevgeny Borzov 
"The Reflected Time" and "Magnetism of Memory", which concluded these Andrey 
Tarkovsky Homage Days.
 
Please see some pictures of the events featured above in the attachment.
 
Best wishes and a very Happy Easter,
Eugene Borzov
 
Ivanovo
RUSSIA

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Here is the press release for Sergei Sviatchenko's latest work and his Tarkovsky Traveling Exhibition, now in Berlin at the gallery Photo Edition Berlin. Layla Garrett and Aleksander Gordon are attending the Berlin opening.

"Mirror by Mirror" by Sergei Sviatchenko.
A personal tribute to Andrei Tarkovsky, one of the greatest poets of cinematic art.

Exhibition from 03. April - 25. May 2009
Photography - Collages - Installation

The exhibition "Mirror by Mirror", as well as the publication accompanying it, take the film 
"The Mirror" by Russian film director Andrei Tarkovsky as their starting point; a film that 
has strongly influenced the understanding of art and visual formation of Danish visual artist 
and architect Sergei Sviatchenko.  Ukrainian born living and working in Denmark for more than 
20 years, this exhibition traces a path back to the roots of Sviatchenkos visual training at 
the school of architecture in Karkov Ukraine.

Since Sviatchenko's teenage years, Tarkovsky's profoundly poetic and dramatic pictorial 
universe has nourished Sviatchenko's art and philosophy of life. "Mirror by Mirror" crystallizes 
the essence of a never physically realized meeting between two artists, who, from their respective 
places in history, deal with images combining, at the same time, the distance of the imposing 
with the presence of the detail in urgently insistent and relevant attempts to comment on and 
describe the world, as well as the many physical and mental spaces that people enter throughout 
life. By mirroring his own work in Tarkovsky's, Sviatchenko stages his individual narrative as 
autonomous visual statements, borrowing from and referring to "The Mirror".

In search of inspiration and as a preliminary to the exhibition "Mirror by Mirror", Sviatchenko 
went on a study tour to Moscow in June 2008. Receiving invaluable help from Irina Tchmyreva, 
curator and ph.D. in Art History, he got the chance to meet the author of a number of books on 
Andrei Tarkovsky: Tarkovsky's sister, Marina. She was deeply touched by Sergei Sviatchenko's visit, 
describing his art as both profoundly original and fully in accordance with the spirit of Andrei 
Tarkovsky: a striving towards the sublime and a particular sense of capturing and maintaining a 
momentary meeting between the conscious and the unconscious. Another major event for Sviatchenko 
in Moscow was his meeting with his former professor from the school of architecture in Kharkov,
Victor Antonov, whose text on the meeting with Tarkovsky in the Soviet Union during the 80s is a 
special treat for the readers of the exhibition's extravagant catalogue.

Laying the groundwork for the way in which the exhibition was created, the study tour is one of the 
reasons that "Mirror by Mirror" will be displayed in Russia. The exhibition is accompanied by a 
broadsheet catalogue in three languages composed of documentary film material from the shooting of 
"The Mirror" and Sviatchenko's graphic adaptation of this material. The catalogue presents texts 
by Marina Tarkovskaya, Irina Tchmyrva, Victor Antonov, Mark Le Fanu and Per Carlsen, Danish Ambassador 
to Russia. The publication is made of several types of paper, colours, sizes and different type fonts 
created by London based graphic designer James Greenhow.  Furthermore, Marina Tarkovsky has helped 
select the collage works included in the exhibition and in the catalogue.  His Excellency Mr. Teymuraz 
Ramishvili, Russian Ambassador to Denmark, and Marina Tarkovsky, author and sister of Andrei Tarkovsky, 
opened the exhibition in Arhus.

Trine Rytter Andersen curated the exhibition in Arhus and is co-curator together with Gunther Dietrich 
in Berlin.  The exhibition is kindly supported by the russian and danish embassies in Berlin.

Vernisage: 03. April 6-9 pm
Laudatio: Dr. Peter Funken, Berlin and Layla Alexander Garrett, London

The musicpiece, Mirror by Mirror, from Arvo Paert will be performed during the opening.

Interpret: Annette Wiegand

PHOTO EDITION BERLIN, Ystaderstr. 14a, D- 10437 Berlin- Prenzlauer Berg
Tel. 030 41717831 contact@photo-edition-berlin.com / www.photo-edition-berlin.com
Curator: Gunther Dietrich

Monday, March 30, 2009

The Friends of the Tarkovski Institute has announced a change to their April 3, 2009 concert/multimedia event (see our March 14 news update). The event now starts at 20:30 hours, and the location is Théatre des Arts. Here are the directions to get to the venue.

Further, the Intitute has announced a presentation of the audio programme Tarkovski, le son de la terre (see our December 29, 2002 update) on April 8, 2009. Here are the full details. We have an audio recording of this interesting radio program and highly recommend it (as well as the vodkas served after the presentation). We hope to some day obtain permission to post the mp3 file on our site...

Please consider joining the Nostalghia.com community on facebook.

The following announcement just in from the Virginia Commonwealth University:

The VCUarts Cinema Program and the VCU Bookstore are proud to present,

An introduction to Tarkovsky's Theory of Visual Arts, a lecture by Vadim Moroz, author of Andrei 
Tarkovsky about His Film Art.

Sunday April 5th, 2:00pm
Cinema Studio, Pollak Building 520
325 N. Harrison Street
Richmond, VA 23284-2519

Come learn more about the critically acclaimed Russian filmmaker responsible for such important 
films as Stalker, Solaris and Andrei Rublev.

In the 1980s, Vadim Moroz was responsible for organizing several film seminars in Berlin. In 
March 1984 he lectured together with Andrei Tarkovsky during the special film seminar at the college 
Castle Glienicke, Berlin. He also worked as Tarkovsky's personal interpreter and translator. The book 
includes a translation of Tarkovsky's lectures and transcriptions of subsequent questions and answer 
sessions with students.

Copies of Andrei Tarkovsky About His Film Art will be available for purchase and signature following 
the lecture.

Kate Peters
Administrative Coordinator
Cinema Program
VCU, School of the Arts

Saturday, March 14, 2009

The Friends of the Tarkovski Institute has announced an April 3, 2009 concert/multimedia event at L'Apostrophe, Théatre des Louvrais, Place de la Paix à Pontoise, featuring the François Couturier Quartet. Please read the written invitation, view the event poster, and refer to the directions to get to the venue.

The 205-minute version of Andrei Rublev will be showing at the New Beverly, Los Angeles, on April 5, 6, and 7. Thanks to David Sweetman for this update!

Site visitor Michael Lellouche called our attention to a photo book focussing on Mirror. It appears to be a follow up to the italian exhibition in 2007.

Here is a short clip from the new 2008 documentary by Igor Maiboroda titled "Rerberg and Tarkovsky: The Reverse Side of 'Stalker'. In this clip we are shown Isfara where the original Stalker was to be shot. An earthquake in the area prevented the crew from working there. The 140 mins. documentary focuses not only on "talking heads" (very interesting ones, incidentally) but tries to show the inner world and the artistic background of Georgi Rerberg, the cameraman that photographed Tarkovsky's Mirror and the first version of Stalker. This documentary has been criticised for being "anti-Tarkovsky" but we disagree: in our opinion it merely tries to show how important Rerberg's contributions were. This in no way takes anything away from Tarkovsky.

The Austrian Film Museum (OeFM) is staging a Tarkovsky retrospective, March 4 to 25, 2009. Refer to their web site for additional details. As usual, their event poster is available for 7 Euros.

There was a screening of Stalker at the National Film Theatre, London, on February 10, 2009. It is 28 years since Stalker was first shown in the U.K., at the NFT, when Tarkovsky himself was present on his first visit to the UK. (Apparently, a show of hands revealed that there were about half a dozen people in the packed auditorium who had been there on that night). The film was briefly introduced by Ian Christie. The screening was followed by a discussion with Evgeny Tsymbal and Anatol Lieven. The screening was co-sponsored by Academia Rossica (whose journal will be featuring Stalker in a future issue). See also Danger! High-radiation arthouse!, by Geoff Dyer (The Guardian). Programme notes, page 1 and page 2. Thanks to Tom Cheetham and Vils M. Disanto for contributing to this report.

Some Ivan's related material here. Thanks to Patrick for the pointer.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Nathan Dunne (editor of the recent book Tarkovsky) will be giving a lecture called Andrei Tarkovsky and International Terrorism at 4:30pm on Thursday February 12th at Yale University. All are welcome. The exact location is: Yale Film Study Center, 53 Wall Street, Room B17 (New Haven, CT 06511 USA). He will also be introducing a screening of Solaris at the Yale Film Auditorium at 7pm on the same day, Thursday February 12th.

There is a new essay called Andrei Tarkovsky: Truth Endorsed by Life available at Senses of Cinema. The essay reflects on Tarkovsky's Solaris and Stalker, in the light of the Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset's reference to Man as a "conscious cosmic phenomenon". Thanks to Conrad Steeves for the tip.

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Vadim Moroz wrote us with news about a book he has been working on since 2005, entitled Andrei Tarkovsky about His Film Art (in His Own Words):

In March of 1984, I organized a film seminar in College Glienicke, West Berlin 
and invited Andrei  Tarkovsky as guest lecturer.

For seven days he laid out, day by day his film theory, his philosophy, opinions 
and  principles.  I was his interpreter and the book is based on my translation 
of Tarkovsky's conversations in College Glienicke. During the conversations 
Andrei Tarkovsky created  several drawings, which illustrate his thoughts. 
He presented these drawings to me as a gift.

After the seminar in the summer of 1984, Tarkovsky wrote the manuscript 
Sculpturing in Time, which was published in German by Ullstein, Berlin 
in early 1985. I kept my archives unpublished until the book Sculpturing in Time 
was distributed worldwide. In 2005 I began to work on my archives and discovered that 
many subjects of our conversations were not included in his book.

I hope that Andrei Tarkovsky about His Film Art will provide additional & new information about this 
great film-maker and his films. You can find more information about this book on frostpublishing.net.


Vadim Moroz

A collection of literary screenplays of some classic Mosfilm movies has been released by the Russian publishing house Khudozhestvennaya Literatura (in Russian). One volume (ISBN 978-280-5-03455-6) is titled Zerkalo (Mirror) and includes the screenplay of Tarkovsky's film of the same name. More information here. Thanks to Eugene Starostin, UCL, London for this information.

Andrei Tarkovsky used several of his fathers poems in his movies. Alex Nemser and Nariman Skakov submitted to us new translations of all poems by Arsenii Tarkovsky appearing in Andrei's films. One of the poems appears here in translation for the first time.

Dmitry Trakovsky, director of Meeting Andrei Tarkovsky, sent us the following note. We have seen the film, and we are convinced that a Tarkovsky documentary of great significance has been born. Please consider supporting this project.

The cemetery in which Tarkovsky was laid to rest, Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois Cemetery, may now, sadly, be considered endangered. "Since the 1960s, the municipal authorities have periodically attempted to close the cemetery, claiming that the grounds are needed for public services. There have been reports that some of the graves will be opened and the exhumed remains cremated. As of 2006, the cemetery is not officially considered a landmark and has no legal protection." Please visit it while you can. Thanks to Michal Petricek for the pointer.

There is a new book out in Russia, Nostalgiia, containing "documents and archives, recollections and articles about Andrei Tarkovsky". 528 pages. All in Russian.

Site visitor Jeffrey Meyer sent us some interesting Tarkovsky-related artwork he recently made... see here.

More information on Jeremy Robinson's book The Sacred Cinema of Andrei Tarkovsky can be found here.

There is a new 8xDVD set out, containing a large collection of films by and about Andrei Tarkovsky. More information on this monumental DVD set from mk2 may be found here. We would appreciate hearing from any of our readers who have had the chance to take a closer look at these DVDs. Thanks to Benoît Robinet for the tip.

There is a new Italian 2xDVD release of Nostalghia out. We have no details on the technical qualities (or lack of such), and would again appreciate hearing from any of our readers who have had the chance to take a closer look at the DVD.

Petr, of our sister site Nostalghia.cz, wrote this report after his visit to the location where The Sacrifice was shot. Also refer to our own humble location guide before planning next summer's vacation...

Frequent site visitor and contributor (and filmmaker) Keith Rose's music album Minus One is now out on iTunes. Here is an amazon link as well. We purchased the album, and (being fans of Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Brian Eno, et al.) we loved it!

Wednesday, November 5, 2008 [ Updated Dec 16, 2008 ]

Dmitry Trakovsky's Meeting Andrei Tarkovsky will have its UK premiere at the Leeds International Film Festival. It is being shown on 07/11/08 and 08/11/08. More information here. The film just won a Jury Special Mention at the Sao Paulo International Film Festival. Don't miss this blurb on Dmitry. Finally, here's some more news from Brazil. For more updates, join the Meeting Tarkovsky facebook group.

Offret is being screened at Stockholm Konserthus on November 9 during their annual Tonsättarfestival. More info here. Booklet for the screening (images provided by Nostalghia.com/Löthwall) can be viewed here.

Nathan Dunne's (Ed.) Tarkovsky has been reviewed in the latest issue of film-philosophy.com. Access the review here.

We received the following letter from Mark Le Fanu a few weeks ago:

						October 21, 2008 

Dear Trond
 
"Mirror by Mirror"
 
I meant to tell you about an art exhibition here in Aarhus Denmark 
based on ideas and images from The Mirror. It runs until mid November. 
The artist is a Ukrainian named Sergei Sviatchenko who has been based 
here in Denmark for a number of years. The work is in collage format, 
and will continue to be exhibited at Galleri Image in the city centre 
until the end of November. Marina and Sasha were here a fortnight ago 
to help launch the exhibition. Later it will be going on to Moscow. 
 
I've contributed a short essay to the catalogue.
 
Kindest regards, as always
 
Mark
 

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Three years ago, pre-med student Dmitry Trakovsky sent us an email asking for pointers and advice to help him get his film production off the ground. Meeting Andrei Tarkovsky was born shortly thereafter. This documentary film is an account of Dmitry Trakovsky's exploration of one of Tarkovsky's most enigmatic declarations: that death does not exist. Structurally, the films narrates through a series of interviews that gradually take us from Los Angeles to Yurevets, Tarkovsky's hometown. Among the many people interviewed by Mr. Trakovsky are Andrei Andreevich Tarkovsky, Krzysztof Zanussi, Erland Josephson, Donatella Baglivo, Franco Terilli, Manuele Cecconello, and Domiziana Giordano. The editing of the film was supervised by Michal Leszczylowski, co-editor of The Sacrifce. Dmitry has submitted a work-in-progress screener to several film festivals and is about to begin post-production. Some additional funding is still required in order to complete the project. Please support Dmitry by joining his Meeting Andrei Tarkovsky facebook group (currenly 500 members and counting — the group provides running production updates, screenshots, and more), and by sending any suggestions in regards to funding, festivals, or distribution to Dmitry at email dmitry.trakovsky@gmail.com. A preliminary press-kit can be found here [PDF].

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

The 2nd International Tarkovsky Film Festival took place in Ivanovo May 26 to June 11, 2008. Andrei Rublev Director of Photography Vadim Yusov turned up in order to screen his recent digital restoration of Andrei Rublev. This version supposedly contains additional material and "reflects Tarkovsky's original intentions". We have no further details (or comments) at this point in time.

We received the following from our man in Paris, Michael Lellouche:

Hi Trond,

[...]

The french DVD of Nostalghia has been released this week and it is a great
surprise. I've watched it and this is by far my favorite master until now. 
Image is very similar as the old R1 Fox Lorber, but I would say maybe sharper,
colors are rich, the contrast is very good too, especially in dark areas which
are respected.

I would say the only downfall is that it is 16/9 compatible to 4/3, but image
seems slightly resized from 1.66 (which seems to me the original format) to 1.77. This is quite
minor and the DVD is gorgeous to me. The best to date in Region 2 and PAL, with french subtitles.

I have a few captures here including one with subtitles: [ i | ii | iii | iv | v | vi ]

Here is a link to get it.


Regards,
Michael Lellouche

The French newspaper Le Monde occasionally includes movies on cheap DVDs. One of the films thusly released is Le sacrifice. (Incidentally, magazines in Poland do the same thing — e.g., Wajda's Wedding is, as far as we know, available on DVD only in this form, at the moment.)

Opfer (The Sacrifice) was also released in Germany, back in April. Details here. This 2-disc DVD set is released by absolut MEDIEN in Berlin. Also have a look at their interesting catalogue [PDF].

We received the following interesting note from site visitor Tony Partridge of Ireland:

Dear Jan and Trond,

I inadvertently came across the following information today, information 
that I hope you will find interesting.

I was in my local bookshop and spotted a book on the shelf and found an
interesting three page article in it on Tarkovsky's "Solaris". The article 
is called "Solaris and the White, White Screen" by Lilya Kaganovsky (who 
is an assistant professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Comparative
Literature and Cinema Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
and is in the book called, "Picturing Russia Explorations in Visual Culture"
edited by Valerie A. Kivelson and Joan Neuberger and published in 2008 by Yale 
University Press. The article is on pages 230-232 and there are two coloured
stills from "Solaris" in the centre of the book.

The article itself has some inconsistencies in it. For instance it names "The
Steamroller and the Violin" as one of Tarkovsky's five Soviet films and leaves 
"Mirror" from this initial list. Then, later, there is a short discussion of The 
use of Leonardo's portrait of the young lady with the juniper in the film 
"Mirror". However, more important is that, in discussing "Solaris", the author
says that one of Tarkovsky's "perennial concerns" is "the consequences of 
confrontation with an incomprehensible and alien Other." Surely this is one of 
Lem's "perennial concerns" rather than one of Tarkovsky's. Then I'm afraid that 
the rest of this article seems predicated on this initial mis-reading of 
Tarkovsky's film(s). The points made are interesting, but they are hardly 
central and important points in a discussion about Tarkovsky's oeuvre in a major 
anthology like this one.

Other articles on film included in the anthology are on "The Cinema Pastoral of 
the 1930s", on Eisenstein's Ivan the Terrible, and on Mikhail Romm's Ordinary
Fascism. I haven't read any of these articles yet.

All the best,

Tony Partridge,
Sligo, Ireland.

Some of our readers have asked us about the differences between the books Instant Light (Thames & Hudson) and Bright, bright day (White Space Gallery). We have had the chance to review both books and can confirm that they are indeed very different. While the former preserves the original size of the Polaroids, the latter reproduces them in glorious full-page format (making it, in a sense, more of a coffee-table book). As well, the actual photo selection is somewhat different, and the selection of essays and interviews is different. Here is a scan of the title page, which also provides a table of contents. The cover is here [PDF]. And, here is a sample Polaroid (2640x2676 pixels), kindly provided by the White Space Gallery. The book comes highly recommended. White Space Gallery informs us that it has also recently been published in Russian.

This year's Moscow International Film Festival (MIFF) premiered a fascinating new documentary, Rerberg and Tarkovsky: The Reverse Side of Stalker (Igor Maiboroda, 2008, 140 min), a film about Tarkovsky's feud with cinematographer Georgy Rerberg.

Site visitor Pilar Carrera informs us that she has recently published an essay about Tarkovski. The essay, written in Spanish, is called "Andrei Tarkovski. La imagen total". It can be purchased via this link. It is published with support from Fondo de cultura económica.

Guido Gräsel of Germany sent us a collection of beautiful East German (GDR) lobby cards. We are pleased to present them, here. Thanks, Guido!

Still looking for an excuse to buy that Blu-Ray player? Stay tuned...

Black Dog Publishing is offering our readers a special academic discount of 40% on all orders for the book Tarkovsky [Dunne, ed., 2008].

Considering the above mentioned discount, there should be no excuse for not picking up this truly excellent — we dare say essential — tome, which we have already made frequent reference to in this news column. Here is a brief review. Tarkovsky  [Nathan Dunne (ed.), 2008] is filled with easily readable, challenging essays which explore possible new inroads to Tarkovsky's works while raising awareness of his contribution to the language of cinema. The degree of rigor and experimentation seen in these essays is, frankly, quite refreshing, and the book succeeds quite well in establishing a framework within which future research on Tarkovsky can be undertaken in a more truly interdisciplinary context. The book is richly illustrated, it contains a filmography, a timeline, a genealogy, as well as excellent new translations of the poems of Arseny Tarkovsky appearing in Tarkovsky's films. The book is divided into four sections, each organized according to certain themes and ideas [ Table of Contents: Pg. 1 | Pg. 2 ]. The section Russia and Religion attempts to examine Tarkovsky's journey into religious themes and ideals. The section Art and Nature explores from various angles the line of intersection of the two planes of Art and Physical phenomena, as seen in his oeuvre. The third section, Music and Modernity, investigates the role of music in his films, and its implications of influence and interpretation. James Quandt's essay Tarkovsky and Bresson: Music, Suicide, Apocalypse is particularly interesting. The final section, alone worth the price of the book, Memory and Awakening, contains a series of memoirs from crew members, students, and fellow directors. For example, Stalker's production process is set out in detail. Marc Forster also contributes an essay to this section. We're proud of the fact that, in the Introduction section, when describing KGB's surveillance of Tarkovsky and his family, Mr. Dunne uses an excerpt from Tarkovsky's Diaries [ August 7, 1983 ] which is found only on Nostalghia.com. This intriguing entry (which presumably refers to the KGB) is omitted from the officially released, "definitive", versions of the Diaries. Here are some high-res (1800 x 1200 pixels) press photos issued in connection with the book's release, for your enjoyment: [ i | ii | iii | iv | v | vi | vii | ix | x | xi | xii | xiii ]. As will often be the case with ambitious projects such as this Volume, there is bound to be the odd problem — and we would be amiss if we didn't point some of them out: The quality level of academic analysis and discussion is consistently high, but often when technical detail, or easily verifiable facts, are dealt with, there are numerous, easily spotted errors. The book contains an illustrated filmography, an example page of which is shown here. Vadim Yusov would be horrified to find himself replaced by one E. Shvedov as the camera operator. Layla Alexander-Garrett (interpreter on the set of The Sacrifice) sums up some of these concerns in this piece, wherein she also issues a call for higher standards in academic works, in an effort to prevent the perpetuation of factual inaccuracies. The Introduction claims that the famous Sartre letter has been translated into English for the first time, for this book. However, we have had a faily decent translation of the Sartre letter on our site for more than half a decade. Finally, a few of the photographs in the book are marred by colored Moiré patterns. The publisher responded to our concern as follows: "Regarding the colour registration issue, its something we are aware of and concerns the original images supplied to us, they were shots taken of a screen showing the film. In the advent of any further printing of the book this would be rectified through further picture research to obtain alternative images to replace them with." Having said that, this book is essential and definitely not to be missed!

Petr Gajdosik of nostalghia.cz provides a short review of the Russian edition of the book Il cinema di Tarkovskij e la tradizione russa by Simonetta Salvestroni (see our April 14, 2006 update). And here is a travel log from Petr's trip to Fårö.

The Netherlands Socety of Cinematographers has a page referencing our piece on Sven Nykvist's book, here.

Russa! Magazine is both fun and clever (for those so inclined). They recently included some Tarkovsky related content — see the poster featured on this page. You may have to look closely to spot it.

The following just in from artist Cecilia Westerberg. Stunning!

Dear Nostalghia.com

I would like to forward my art work inspired from Ivan's Childhood for your
interest and information. I had a solo exhibition in Frankfurt, Germany in
February 2008 called Darkness Moves. All the images are from the film Ivan's
childhood. As an artist I work with unforgettable images that have had an long 
lasting impact on me. The everlasting impression and the almost empty and sacral 
space is something I have tried to transfer to the paintings. The theme I worked 
with in the exhibition was "loss" as in loss of childhood, innocence and of 
course life itself. Almost every single frame in Tarkovsky's movies can be transfered to a painting as 
the composition in the images are so strong.


I hope you or any of your readers would find it interesting to view. It would great to have viewers with 
the same passion.

I have attached a low quality pdf file but can mail better quality if needed.

Images from the exhibition can also be viewed on the gallery's website 

Kind regards
 
Cecilia Westerberg
+45 20919097
cwesterberg[at]yahoo.com

We received the following request from Terence McSweeney. We encourage those of our readers so inclined to get in touch with him asap.

Dear Nostalghia.com,

I hope you don't mind me contacting you. I have been a long time admirer of the
site. My name is Terence McSweeney and I am a PhD candidate at the University of
Essex in England where my thesis is on Andrei Tarkovsky and called 'Beyond the
Frame: The Films and Film Theory of Andrei Tarkovsky.' Some of my work was
included in the volume Through the Mirror: Reflections on Tarkovsky (Cambridge
Scholars Press, 2006) and some is also due to be published in the book Faith and
Spirituality in Masters of World Cinema due in early 2009.

My PhD is due for completion in December 2008 and I was wondering if it would be
appropriate to use your site as a way to find if there are any Tarkovsky 
scholars out there who would be interested in reading the document? I should
make it clear that I don't require a proof reader, rather an informed opinion on
the work as it stands. Perhaps suggestions, comments and criticism in as little
or as much detail as the reader prefers.

I haven't seen any requests like this on the site before so if it is
inappropriate please feel free to discard it. If not I can be contacted at this
address tmcswe[at]essex.ac.uk.

Thank you very much for your time.

Regards

Terence McSweeney

London, England 

We got this tip from an anonymous reader:

Hi,

Some of the leading musicians in the electronics musics field have some
recordings for a homage to Tarkovsky.

Entitled In Memoriam Andrey Tarkovsky

The compilation is available as a free download at the site below. 
It may be of interest to you:

Link: excentrica.org

Artwork is also available.

Friday, June 13, 2008

Those wishing to acquire the new Russian edition of the diaries Martyrolog have undoubtedly discovered how elusive this book can be (it sold out at Ozon.ru in one day, for example). Fortunately — as the Tarkovsky Institute in Italy informs us — about 500 copies are still available. They can be sent worldwide and the price is € 40 + shipping. To order, please contact:

Andrei Tarkovsky International Institute
via San Niccolò, 91
50125 Florence
Italy
 
e-mail: info@tarkovskij.com

Our quick look at this edition can be found here.

Thursday, May 1, 2008

The April 2008 news update from Les Amis de l'Institut Andreï Tarkovski can be found here [PDF format].

The Russian edition of Martyrolog (Tarkovsky's diaries) has finally landed on our desk and we are preparing a review. In the meantime, here is an interview with Andrei Tarkovsky Jr. at Radio Kultura [Russian]. Some important items:

• One reason for the delay of the Russian edition was the Tarkovsky Foundation's wish to publish it complete, with all drawings and images included. That's about 700 pages and there was no money to do it right until now,
• The edition turned out very demanding from the editorial point of view,
• There will be more printings of the book if the first one sells out,
• The Tarkovsky archive will be made accessible to "anyone interested". The entire archive (which combines the Italian, French, and other archives) is in Florence under the care of Italian Ministry of Culture. It is currently being scanned. It is Tarkovsky Foundation's wish to make the entire archive available in Russia in digital form,
• Further publications are planned: Sculpting in Time, then a screenplay collection as well as the work diaries (presumably for Mirror and Stalker).

Among many pleasures of running a web site like this are the e-mails we receive. They provide insight into events of the past which would be very hard to obtain in any other "systematic" way. The Internet serendipity is the key! Here is one example of an interesting postscript to Tarkovsky's trip to the 1983 Telluride film festival. On our The 1983 American Visit page there is a reference to a filmmaker from the Philippines. The same trip is described by Olga Surkova in her book Tarkovsky and I. Diary of a Girl Scout:

Everything went exactly according to Tom's plan. First we all met in
Las Vegas, including Krzysztof Zanussi who not only went with us on this
remarkable journey but also became Andrei's friend, conversation partner,
guide, and translator. [...]

We took off in two cars, a Jeep and one typical American comfortable sedan
in which they put both Tarkovskys and myself, and which Tom drove at first.
Soon, however, he got tired of our Russian babbling and quite sensibly
decided it would be more fun for everyone if he switched places with Zanussi,
whom we joyfully received in our bear hugs. Tom reunited in the Jeep with
three American screenwriters — one of which called herself "the last
American hippie" — also on festival's invitation, and with a film
director from the Philippines who was coming with them. And a bit
later we were joined by the third car with a Chinese director and his
wife, and also, if I remember correctly, another couple from Israel.

Olga Surkova writes that Zanussi turned out to be a great partner for Tarkovsky and she listened to them with great pleasure while travelling through Monument Valley:

Zanussi knew everything: from history and customs of every Indian tribe
to the type of meat used for making hamburgers. [...]

[Tarkovsky:] But listen, Americans are really strange... To have under your
nose this sort of landscape and never being able to photograph it properly?!
Well? Ford? "Stagecoach"? No. In the end it's just a western and he shot it
in those places! What deafness! What vulgarity! No, this is such an astonishing
lack of the sense of vision and hearing, isn't it? [...] Here one ought to film
the Ghost appearing to Hamlet.

Two photos from Olga Surkova's book: Image 1 (from L to R: Andrei Tarkovsky, Olga Surkova, Krzysztof Zanussi, Larissa Tarkovskaya), Image 2 (Andrei, Larissa, Marco Bellocchio).

And here is the e-mail we received on April 19, 2008:

Dear Nostalghia.com, 

I am a film critic from the Philippines and a faithful follower of your 
great work at Nostalghia.com (you have many readers here among my friends). 
I just thought I would pass on this link.

The stills are from a film called Bakit Dilaw ang Gitna ng Bahaghari (English 
title: Why  is Yellow the Middle of the Rainbow), sometimes known as I Am 
Furious... Yellow, by Filipino filmmaker Kidlat Tahimik. Kidlat is best known 
for his first feature, Perfumed Nightmare (1977), which won the Critic's Prize 
in Berlin and was distributed in the US by Francis Ford Coppola's Zoetrope.

Kidlat often compiles and collects footage, shooting without a script and 
without synch sound, dubbing in lines and putting the story together concretely 
on the editing table; often changing the context of the images to suit his fancy. 
According to Kidlat, the footage of Tarkovsky from the link above was taken in 
the US on the way to the Telluride Film Festival in 1983.

Telluride would commonly bring together a few filmmakers on a road trip before 
the festival, and he and Tarkovsky happened to be together on this one. He didn't 
know of Tarkovsky's grand stature in the filmmaking world at the time (he found 
out soon later), and simply saw him as a quiet and gentle filmmaker from Russia. 
They didn't communicate much, Kidlat said, but he did shoot some footage of him 
and put it in his film, referring to Tarkovsky in it as "the seeker".

Tarkovsky has an extremely strong fan base here in the Philippines, which includes 
filmmakers such as Lav Diaz, Raya Martin and Sherad Anthony Sanchez. Raya was, at 
one point, looking into undertaking a project with Ed Piano, a former teacher of 
his at the University of the Philippines who studied in Russia and is a fellow 
Tarkovskyite, a project looking into Tarkovsky's influence on, or connections with, 
filmmakers from the Philippines; ex. Filipino filmmaker Lino Brocka was a member of 
the Jury in 1986 that awarded the Sacrifice the Grand Prix Spécial du Jury. 

We don't have a Philippine Tarkovsky society, yet, but it is a grand dream (grand 
because of rental and shipping costs of the prints) of a few friends and I to put 
together a Tarkovsky retrospective here someday.

Warm regards,
Alexis A. Tioseco

Site visitor Taimo Joots from Estonia provided us with the following brief translation of an article which appeared in the April 25 edition of the Estonian newspaper Eesti Päevaleht:

Company Rotermann City,  which is developing the Rotermann district
in Tallin, wishes to give the name "Stalker's Way" to a street in honour
to the great movie that was partly shot in that area.

"We want to keep the "Stalker's" spirit, because part of the movie was
shot here," marketing manager of the company Marika Mäsak says.
The City Government will say its decision at the end of May, when
next meeting of name-committee will be held. The street as well as the
whole area is planned to be car-free.

In addition, Bernard Beck provided us with this link.

We saw this article and thought of Andrei Rublov.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

We are pleased to present a new, fascinating article by Mark Le Fanu and Sally Laird: The Tarkovsky Family Background.

Tarkovsky (Nathan Dunne, ed.) was the Book of the Month in the May issue of Sight & Sound, which also carried a long review. The Times provided a review of the book (as well as of Robert Bird's book) this past Saturday. There are also some comments in the Scottish periodical The List.

The full program of the Tarkovsky Tate event can be seen here. A very interesting list of speakers has been confirmed, and we are told that tickets are selling fast.

We regret to inform you that Aleksandr Misharin died in Moscow on Sunday April 13. He was born on April 6, 1939. A Russian news item may be found here. Thanks to Eugene Starostin of London, England for the pointer. Aleksandr Misharin worked together with Tarkovsky on the script of Mirror. He had a cameo in Solaris and can be spotted as the doctor at the end of Mirror. There is an excellent 33-minute interview with Misharin on the Artificial Eye Mirror DVD (RusCiCo). He was a Gentleman with class — may he rest in peace.

We recently posted a brief Tarkovsky/Abbado related clip on youtube. Claudio Abbado turns 75 this year. There is another interesting Tarkovsky related item here.

The publisher's note on the new Russian Martyrolog mentions some of the publications that are going to follow: Sculpting in Time and then — among others — the Work Diaries. We have been aware of, and longing to read, the Stalker work diary ever since we (8 years ago) read the May 26, 1980 entry in the Polish extended version of Martyrolog (not included in the English edition): "May 26, Monday: I must start another diary to write down everything pertaining to my work. Just as I did with Mirror and Stalker."  The Mirror Work Diary has been published in a stunning, and now much sought-after, Japanese edition which faithfully reproduced Tarkovsky's own diary "layout". It has also been published in German, translated by Kurt Baudisch and Ute Spengler (Verlag Ullstein, 1993). Though facsimiles of a few diary pages are provided, the German edition made no attempt at reproducing the original look & feel of Tarkovsky's original diary: [ example i | example ii | example iii ]. Let's hope the Russians try to outdo the Japanese with their upcoming Work Diary releases...

Michal Petricek recently related to us the interesting history of the first Czech translation of the Martyrolog: "It was made by Marek Seckar in 1997 from a French translation(!) of the book. Well, on one hand, he did a lot of work and many Tarkovsky's admirers in the Czech Republic have been grateful to him (including me, of course), on the other hand, his work has many serious imperfections. You can imagine, a translation of another translation... It's risky, to put it mildly. Mrs. Galina Kopaneva was really furious with the work and wrote a list of errors of the translation in a special 8 pages long article in the journal Film a doba in 1998." (Our readers may recall that we had our reservations with regards to the completeness of the French "definitive" edition; we will provide a similar assessment of the new Russian edition)

We have had the chance to take a first-hand look at the new Czech release of The Sacrifice (Zona-Aerofilms, 2008). This is a 2-disk set which includes as bonus materials Michal Leszczylowski's documentary, the documentary Sätta Ljus, (Lighting), as well as text biographies. Czech subtitles can be turned off, and the DVDs are PAL, Region 0 (i.e., no region coding). We compare it to the Spanish Collector's Edition, which currently may be considered the "Gold Standard" as far as The Sacrifice DVD releases are concerned. The main feature sports wonderful image quality, identical to what is seen in both the Spanish release and in SFI's own DVD release, with very natural skin tones. Differences in image quality between the Spanish release and the Czech release are non existent: [ Spanish | Czech ]. The release avoids all the problems associated with some earlier releases: [ example i | example ii | example iii ]. The Image quality seen in the Michal Leszczylowski documentary is identical to that of the Spanish release as well (the best available to date). The presence of the priceless documentary Sätta Ljus — which appears to be below the radar beam of every major DVD production company (who understandably enough don't have the resources to follow Nostalghia.com on a regular basis) — always bears witness to the fact that there are real Tarkovsky devotees behind the production of the DVD. In the case of the Spanish release, it was the always enthusiastic Gonzalo Blasco. In the case of this Czech release, it is the equally enthusiastic Petr Gajdosik and Petr Soukup. Kudos to these guys!! The image quality on this documentary is identical to that of the version appearing on the Spanish release, except for a minor problem with the original beta tape resulting in synchronization problems at the very bottom of the frame throughout, not seen in the Spanish release. More information about the Czech release here. Purchase link, here.

The following note just in from site visitor Taimo Joots of Estonia:

Hello,

In a posting from year 2006 you asked for translation of an Estonian webpage. 
I will try to give you a little overview about it. This is a website
of Estonian version of geocaching game. For those who don't know, it's
a game of seeking hidden "treasures" or "caches" with GPS device. As
an honour to the great film and great director a geocache was hidden into a 
tube under the building of hydroelectrical plant, where "Stalker" was shot.

The hiders say, that an amateur movie was being shot on the same location when
they arrived. These filmmakers didn't know that "Stalker" was filmed there. 
More images of the cache-hiding-trip can be seen here.

In January 2006 the cache was gone and the renovation of the hydroelectric power
station started. Some photos from this time can be seen here. As the building 
was not suitable for a cache any more, a new geocache was hidden a little further
from that location. The new cache is called "Tarkovski is dead, long live
Tarkovski!". See here and here.

A friend of mine visited the location again last weekend. The renovation work
has been stopped and the building of the hydroelectrical station stays abandoned
again. Some images here. We should give the owners idea to make the place 
tourist attraction for Stalker fans instead of working hydroelectrical station.

I would also like to say a few words about the legend of poisonous
water of the Jägala river, that caused cancer and deaths for members
of the film crew. There was and still is a paper plant about 20km
upstreams in Kehra. It's waste-water makes the river foam and the air
smells quite bad depending on the wind direction. A waterfall near the
shooting location makes also foam on the surface of water. But there
is no way the water could be poisonous enough to cause cancer.
Otherwise the population downstreams must be dead long ago.

Regards,

Taimo
from Estonia

Saturday, March 29, 2008

The book Tarkovsky, edited by Nathan Dunne, is hitting the shelves as we speak. The book is featured in The Independent as one of The Ten Best Film Books. The Creative Review website features an excerpt. The Telegraph has posted a special picture gallery. The book is available via amazon. Please also consider joining Nathan Dunnes excellent Tarkovsky group on facebook, for updates on related Tarkovsky events in the U.K.

The Art of Andrei Tarkovsky, a symposium examining Andrei Tarkovsky's films in the context of contemporary art, is set to take place on Friday May 9th. Additional details and a complete programme may be found on the Tate Modern website.

There's yet another interesting conference on May 10th, at Queen Mary College in London. Details here.

Robert Bird is organizing a small symposium dedicated in large part to Tarkovsky's 1983 production of Boris Godunov. The symposium, Performance and Mediation: At the Interstices of Opera and Film, takes place at The University of Chicago on May 3rd, 2008. Here is a preliminary program [PDF].

A copy of Robert Bird's book Andrei Tarkovsky: Elements of Cinema has landed on newsdesk. Beautifully illustrated, and printed on high-quality glossy paper, this book is highly recommended for all those who love the works of Andrei Tarkovsky and are interested in an analytical approach to the poetics of his films. The book is available at amazon.ca, at 35% off. Also available through amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, etc.

The Danish company Another World Entertainment released five Tarkovsky titles on March 10th. They are all RusCiCo transfers. Details here. Thanks to Nicolai Fentz of Denmark for the update!

More on the launch of the first Russian edition of Martyrolog here [Russian]. See also our February 3 update. More information here. We have still not succeeded in obtaining a copy. A friend with contacts in St. Petersburg writes, "Tarkovsky's book has been delayed to arrive at the stores and [...] everyone is asking for a copy, it [appears] that people are buying it right from the printer's before it even gets to the stores!". (Quite reminiscent of the Communist days, no?)

We regret to inform you that Sofiko Chiaureli (Sayat Nova) recently passed away. Some kind soul posted a small memorial on youtube.

We have just received one of the Chris Marker DVDs from Wexner Center, and it confirms that One Day in the Life of Andre Arsenevich is forthcoming...

There is a documentary about Tarkovsky and Paradjanov on Kino's new Paradjanov box set. For details, see the DVDBeaver review. Thanks to Eric Levy of Chicago for the pointer.

More about the above mentioned documentary in the following note from site visitor Tony Partridge. We welcome additional information on this documentary from our readers.

Dear Jan and Trond,

After many years searching I finally managed to get a copy of Paradjanov's
"Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors" on DVD, a version made by Kino in 2007. As a
special feature on this DVD I found a documentary called "Andrei Tarkovsky and
Sergei Paradjanov - Islands" that contains some very interesting interviews with
Alexander Antipenko, Inna Gens, Kora Tserateli and Levon Grigoryan. I don't know
if you know about this documentary so I thought it worthwhile contacting you about it.

I am unsure who made the documentary (the subtitles list the film crew as Levon
Grigoryan and a list of others, the DVD box says the documentary was made in
2003, but at the end of the documentary the year 2002 is quoted). It is very
difficult to work out who is who in the documentary, but many of the anecdotes
and comments quoted are fascinating and new to me. For one quotation alone it is
worth watching the documentary: one of the men say, "I first heard of Andrei
Tarkovsky in Paradzhanov's house. It was the time when the film Ivan's Childhood
came to Kiev. Sergey Grigoryevich said that today he would admit into his house
only those who had seen Tarkovsky's Ivan's Childhood." 

There are many other quotes about the relationship between Tarkovsky and
Paradjanov and the documentary is then interspersed with clips from the films of
each, clips that often contrast their mutual depictions of, say, water or
horses. 

Thanking you for your time and attention, I remain,

Yours sincerely,

Tony Partridge

Ok, how about a wonderful 2000 x 6000 pixel Solaris poster [5 MB], courtesy of site visitor Guido Gräsel of Germany? Thanks, Guido! The poster will be added to our Posters section upon next update.

Those of our readers who appreciate Tarkovsky and Sokurov may also appreciate Italian director Manuele Cecconello's stunning Olga and Time, which won the prize for "Best Long Documentary" at the VII International Documentary Film Festival "FLAHERTIANA-2007". We received a screener DVD of the film here at newsdesk last year, and urge you to, if at all possible, catch the April 5 screening at The British Museum. Details here.

We received the following note from Petr at sister-site nostalghia.cz:

Dear Trond,

today, I wrote a Czech review of new book on spiritual cinematography by
Jaromir Blazejovsky. The review is found here
 
It's a very interesting look at spiritual cinema, also about Dreyer, Bresson,
Tarkovsky, Ozu, Sokurov, Zvyagintsev and other world directors, 
as well as Czech directors (Vlacil, Zabransky, Tyc). 

Here is an English summary [PDF].

 
Best regards,

Petr

P.S.: Petr of nostalghia.cz has also posted a travel log from his summer road trip across some relevant parts of Russia: part i | part ii.

Saturday, February 9, 2008

Our readers might be interested in a recent issue of the Italian journal Materiali di Estetica (no. 13), which is devoted entirely to Tarkovsky. The volume contains 13 articles, of which two are in English — one by Robert Bird and one by Daniel Kieckhefer (both of University of Chicago). The other articles are in Italian. (Bird's and Kieckhefer's excellent papers are published in both languages.) The issue is dated December 2006 but it actually came out July 2007. The publisher is Librerie CUEM, and the journal may be purchased from, e.g., libreriauniversitaria.it (here).

Sunday, February 3, 2008

Dr. Robert Bird reports that his upcoming book, Elements of Cinema, has been slightly delayed but should be out in late February. In the meantime, MK2 et al. is releasing a French translation of his indispensable little volume on Andrei Rublev. The release will be marked on February 5th by an event in Paris.

The documentary film The Mystery of Andrei Rublev recently aired on Russian satellite TV channels. Michal Petricek sent us two snippets from the documentary: [ clip 1 |  clip 2 ]. Clip 1 speaks about the original author of the basic idea of shooting film about Andrei Rublev, Vasili Livanov. The documentary is, according to Michal, very interesting, in that it reveals several heretofore unknown facts about the circumstances surrounding the production of Andrei Rublev. [UPDATED: Thanks to Marcis Berzins for correcting Mr. Livanov's name for us].

Further to our December 10 update, the cover art for the first Russian edition of Martyrolog (limited to 5,000 copies) can be seen here. Very nice, indeed! Nowhere to be found on ozon.ru,... could some of our Russian friends snag us a couple of copies for our archives, please (reimbursement by PayPal)?

Pascal Vandelanoitte of Belgium informs us that an article he wrote was published in Perspectives on European Film and History last autumn. Says Pascal, "In my article, I demonstrate that a deeper knowledge about early Russian history helps to understand Andrei Rublev on a historical level as well, and that in the movie, the historical level about the early birth of a unified Russia and the personal story about Rublev's catharsis are beautifully intertwined and reinforce each other."

Site reader Dan Jones recently completed his Ohio University Ph.D. dissertation on Andrei Tarkovsky's films and philosophy. The dissertation may be accessed online, through this link.

Many, many thanks to the kind anonymous soul from Norway who sent me Nuri Bilge Ceylan's Distant (Uzak), as well as Pirjo Honkasalo's The 3 Rooms of Melancholia. Most of our readers will already be aware of Ceylan's film, and its Tarkovskyan connections. The 3 Rooms of Melancholia is perhaps a lesser-known masterpiece — absolutely unforgettable... comes highly recommended! —Trond.

Sunday, January 13, 2008

The Friends of the Tarkovski Institute has announced three concerts/multimedia performances featuring the François Couturier Quartet. The events, which take place on January 15, 16, and 17, are described in the Institute's most recent circular [PDF]. We also note that the François Couturier Quartet appeared on Deutchlandfunk's Jazz Live, on June 11, 2007. Listen to their performance of Nostalghia, taken from said radio broadcast (monaural). Also check out their excellent record on the ECM label, Nostalghia: Song for Tarkovski.

Mark Le Fanu recently contacted us, asking whether we would be interested in publishing an essay he wrote after interviewing Vadim Yusov (left) in London late last year. The interview, which provides us with a number of fascinating new insights into the making of Andrei Rublev, is located here — a Nostalghia.com exclusive.

Black Dog Publishing are set to release Tarkovsky next month, a comprehensive new collection of what appears to be eminently readable essays on Andrei Tarkovsky from some of our favorite academics. For further information on the book, check out the publisher's website.

A new Polish edition of Sculpting in Time has just been released. Translation is by our longtime collaborator in Poland, Dr. Seweryn Kuśmierczyk. Details here. Cover art here [PDF].

Tarkovsky's The Mirror will be screened at the Tromsø International Film Festival as a part of their 100 ÅR MED RUSSISK FILM program. The festival runs from January 15–20. Screening times for individual films will appear on their website. Thanks to Alex Muller of Portland, Oregon for the heads-up.

We received the following note from site visitor Tony Partridge in Ireland.

Dear Jan and Trond,

I though you should know that in the October 2007 issue of Sight and Sound (page 8) 
there is an article  called "Making the ruins speak" by Brian Dillon which is about 
artist Jeremy Millar's 'Mirror-Time' art work based on Tarkovsky's Zone from Stalker. 

Then, in the January 2008 issue of the same magazine (page 10) there is an article 
called  "The long road to freedom" by Ian Christie that is ostensibly an introduction 
to the Tarkovsky  festival at the Curzon mayfair cinema in London and an exhibition 
of Tarkovsky's polaroids at the  White Space Gallery in London. However, the article 
is much more than this. It is essentially a meditation on 'freedom' and Tarkovsky.

All the best,

Tony Partridge,
Sligo, Ireland.

The following just in from Daniel Graham of Artificial Eye.

Dear Trond,
 
I'm very pleased to inform you that the Tarkovsky Festival at the Curzon Mayfair 
Cinema from 7-13 Dec was extremely successful with near record attendances for a 
festival of this kind. Many of the screenings of his films were practically sell 
out performances. THE SACRIFICE re-issue (7 Dec), distributed by Artificial Eye 
on a brand new 35mm print, continues at the Renoir Cinema in London from today 
and goes around the UK at many of the most prominent art house cinemas well into 
next year.
 
www.artificial-eye.com
http://www.curzoncinemas.com/flash/#main
 
Kind Regards
 
Daniel Graham
Artificial Eye - Film Booking Manager
Tel: 0207 438 9525
 

There are two photos in our Photos section featuring a mirror effect: Arseni and Andrei. Vlad Baranov wrote to tell us that there is an article about the photographer — Tarkovsky's godfather, Lev Gornong — and his photos, here.

Site visitor Bryan Rodrigues pointed us to this interesting article in the Telegraph.

There is an interview with Layla Alexander Garrett by Jaap Mees here. Thanks to Conrad Steeves for the pointer. See also Layla's own piece, on Nostalghia.com

Regular contributor Bernie Beck of El Sobrante, sent us this link to an article about Arseny Tarkovsky's 2007 centenary.

We received the following note from Randolf Smeets.

Hello there,

just wanted you to know that I've made several music pieces of Tarkovski's films. These
pieces are all made from the original music, sounds and spoken material used in his films,
in chronological order. So far I've made three pieces: Stalker, Ivanovo Detstvo and Offret.
These are all about 20-minutes long. Now I'm working on The Mirror. On myspace.com/forandrei,
you can find several 7-9 minutes examples of these three pieces. Just have a listen and I would
be delighted of you'd inform me what you think of it. Thanks for your time.

Randolf Smeets (aka The Phlod-Nar)

Contact:
Aurora 218
6412 GL
Heerlen
The Netherlands
0031 (0)6 - 305 042 39
rozza_quaot(at)hotmail.com

*** Disclaimer: this update done from Kona, Hawaii, via spotty internet uplink. Hopefully not too many dead links in the above. — Trond

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