He and cinematographer Giuseppe Lanci subtly adjust the lighting to emphasize different depths of the mise en scene, directing our attention from the window, say, to Andrei disappearing in darkness on the bed. A seemingly mundane scene of Andrei resting in his hotel room becomes a wealth of clues and composition, as Tarkovsky creates entrancing drama out of a single take. It would take many viewings to get a more specific handle on Tarkovsky’s thematic aims (there’s also something about motherhood going on), yet I was more than content to simply swim in the movie’s mysteries and possibilities. There he meets a religious fanatic (Erland Josephson, who would later star in Tarkovsky’s The Sacrifice) who challenges his assumptions about truth, reality and the nature of belief. After the opening credits roll and the movie gives way to a verdant color scheme, we find Andrei in Italy with a translator (Domiziana Giordano), researching a famous spa town where a Russian composer visited in the 1700s. It isn’t until later that we learn this is one of the black-and-white visions (memories? dreams?) had by the film’s main character, a Russian poet named Andrei (Oleg Yankovskiy). The Russian master summons nature’s elements from the very first frame, with the haunting image of a hooded woman, a large dog and some children walking down a foggy hill toward a misty lake. Nostalghia is further evidence that Andrei Tarkovsky might not be a filmmaker, but a sorcerer.
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