― RJG (RJG), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 05:57 (twenty years ago) link
― ryan (ryan), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 06:07 (twenty years ago) link
― sdfsdf, Tuesday, 2 March 2004 06:13 (twenty years ago) link
― Snowy Mann (rdmanston), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 14:25 (twenty years ago) link
― Pashmina (Pashmina), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 14:26 (twenty years ago) link
― robster (robster), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 14:31 (twenty years ago) link
― Pashmina (Pashmina), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 14:34 (twenty years ago) link
I want to go to this but it is on in one hour and my tutorial just finished and I did not go and I feel a bit guilty and don't want to bump into anyone who might make me feel worse.
― RJG (RJG), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 17:04 (twenty years ago) link
― Jonathan Z. (Joanthan Z.), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 17:09 (twenty years ago) link
the last film I saw, in arch and presented by the guy that is presenting this, was 'alphaville' and I hadn't had a lot of sleep beforehand and did doze off OK, a little bit, and I haven't had a lot of sleep, now, and I could see it happening, again, and it does last for two hours and forty minutes.
― RJG (RJG), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 17:12 (twenty years ago) link
― Jonathan Z. (Joanthan Z.), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 17:16 (twenty years ago) link
do you like long takes? really long ones?
― ryan (ryan), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 17:20 (twenty years ago) link
― RJG (RJG), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 17:20 (twenty years ago) link
― Jonathan Z. (Joanthan Z.), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 17:21 (twenty years ago) link
― RJG (RJG), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 17:23 (twenty years ago) link
― Jonathan Z. (Joanthan Z.), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 17:25 (twenty years ago) link
― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 17:30 (twenty years ago) link
― ryan (ryan), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 17:31 (twenty years ago) link
thanks xxxxx
― RJG (RJG), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 17:31 (twenty years ago) link
(nb i love stalker)
― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 17:32 (twenty years ago) link
― RJG (RJG), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 17:35 (twenty years ago) link
― cozen (Cozen), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 17:36 (twenty years ago) link
― cozen (Cozen), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 17:38 (twenty years ago) link
they're showing 'alphaville' again, in a week or two, have you seen that?
― RJG (RJG), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 17:40 (twenty years ago) link
they're showing that at the gft? I'm going to all the godard things at the gft, which inc. 'alphaville', yeah. I have it around here on video somewhere.
― cozen (Cozen), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 17:42 (twenty years ago) link
― RJG (RJG), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 17:43 (twenty years ago) link
― andy, Tuesday, 2 March 2004 19:10 (twenty years ago) link
sokurov raises more questions about pretentiousness and lack of content (though i usually like him too)
when i've seen solaris it's been like a kick in the gut, i cry and cry--stalker i have a greater distance from, perhaps that's in the design; the best part is when he gets the phone call in The Zone
is it a published number i wonder?
― amateur!st (amateurist), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 21:56 (twenty years ago) link
he had a hard time getting films made, and often they were only made because he was a "prestige" asset
but eventually it was difficult enough that he left, and he died in france
― amateur!st (amateurist), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 22:00 (twenty years ago) link
― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 23:03 (twenty years ago) link
― Pashmina (Pashmina), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 23:22 (twenty years ago) link
― cozen (Cozen), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 23:23 (twenty years ago) link
newer?
the one I know has the loop of the rail trolly looping while the filtered electronics slowly grow louder
is there another version?
― (Jon L), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 23:28 (twenty years ago) link
if you haven't had enough sleep, don't go see Stalker. I don't really love it.. I've seen it twice but still feel like I'm missing something.
― daria g (daria g), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 01:25 (twenty years ago) link
― RJG (RJG), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 09:44 (twenty years ago) link
― wfsdfsdf, Wednesday, 3 March 2004 09:59 (twenty years ago) link
― RJG (RJG), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 10:02 (twenty years ago) link
― chris (chris), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 10:37 (twenty years ago) link
― RJG (RJG), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 10:54 (twenty years ago) link
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 (twenty years ago) link
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 (twenty years ago) link
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 (twenty years ago) link
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 (twenty years ago) link
― RJG (RJG), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 13:14 (twenty years ago) link
― cozen (Cozen), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 13:26 (twenty years ago) link
― cozen (Cozen), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 13:27 (twenty years ago) link
thanks. make me aware of upcoming trips!
― RJG (RJG), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 13:30 (twenty years ago) link
― amateur!st (amateurist), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 13:30 (twenty years ago) link
― Janne (Janne), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 13:30 (twenty years ago) link
― cozen (Cozen), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 13:31 (twenty years ago) link
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 (twenty years ago) link
― cozen (Cozen), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 13:36 (twenty years ago) link
― RJG (RJG), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 13:38 (twenty years ago) link
― J2Dancer, Wednesday, 3 March 2004 23:05 (twenty years ago) link
― RJG (RJG), Wednesday, 3 March 2004 23:10 (twenty years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 17 March 2004 06:25 (twenty years ago) link
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 (twenty years ago) link
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 (twenty years ago) link
― !!!! (amateurist), Wednesday, 17 March 2004 11:58 (twenty years ago) link
― ryan (ryan), Wednesday, 17 March 2004 20:36 (twenty years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 17 March 2004 21:01 (twenty years ago) link
― !!!! (amateurist), Wednesday, 17 March 2004 22:17 (twenty years ago) link
― renegade bear shot by cops on frat row (vahid), Monday, 29 May 2006 19:41 (seventeen years ago) link
― renegade bear shot by cops on frat row (vahid), Monday, 29 May 2006 19:42 (seventeen years ago) link
― jhoshea (scoopsnoodle), Monday, 29 May 2006 20:41 (seventeen years ago) link
― gear (gear), Monday, 29 May 2006 21:08 (seventeen years ago) link
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 (seventeen years ago) link
― renegade bear shot by cops on frat row (vahid), Monday, 29 May 2006 21:17 (seventeen years ago) link
― renegade bear shot by cops on frat row (vahid), Monday, 29 May 2006 21:19 (seventeen years ago) link
― S. (Sébastien Chikara), Monday, 29 May 2006 21:29 (seventeen years ago) link
― S. (Sébastien Chikara), Monday, 29 May 2006 21:40 (seventeen years ago) link
― RJG (RJG), Monday, 29 May 2006 22:22 (seventeen years ago) link
― Eric H. (Eric H.), Monday, 29 May 2006 23:45 (seventeen years ago) link
Maybe I will go rent Rublev tonight!
― The Boy Who Cried YSI? (Freud Junior), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 02:33 (seventeen years ago) link
how about a 9-hour documentary on decaying abandoned chinese factories??
― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 04:51 (seventeen years ago) link
― shieldforyoureyes (shieldforyoureyes), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 14:49 (seventeen years ago) link
I liked Andrei Rublev, though.
― Safety First (pullapartgirl), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 15:28 (seventeen years ago) link
(genuinely curious, not be snarky)
― erklie (erklie), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 17:33 (seventeen years ago) link
― shieldforyoureyes (shieldforyoureyes), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 18:55 (seventeen years ago) link
― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Wednesday, 31 May 2006 03:35 (seventeen years ago) link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.T.A.L.K.E.R.:_Shadow_of_Chernobyl
― ☪, Thursday, 5 July 2007 16:33 (sixteen years ago) link
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 (sixteen years ago) link
this is one of the best films ever!
and it's not boring!
― poortheatre, Thursday, 5 July 2007 19:24 (sixteen years ago) link
I should've gone.
― RJG, Thursday, 5 July 2007 19:25 (sixteen years ago) link
it better be not boring! I am going to see it, and if I fall asleep like i did in solaris...
― Will M., Thursday, 5 July 2007 19:38 (sixteen years ago) link
Probably the most beautiful movie I've ever seen that looks like it was filmed in a vat of toxic sewage (in other words, this film has got to be the Russian equivalent of "The Conqueror", no?)
― Joe, Tuesday, 24 July 2007 01:01 (sixteen years ago) link
i saw this with a group of friends the other night and loved it. it's really beautiful, although it kind of killed everyone's desire to go out drinking afterward.
it brought to mind lots of things that were made later...cube, house of leaves, lots of video games (half-life 2, fallout 3, uh, super mario bros).
― Ømår Littel (Jordan), Monday, 14 September 2009 14:39 (fourteen years ago) link
yeah i don't get why people hate this one so much, i think it's great
― harbl, Monday, 14 September 2009 14:41 (fourteen years ago) link
Actual Stalker videogame would be 1000x awes.
― Wee Tam and the lolhueg (Jon Lewis), Monday, 14 September 2009 15:57 (fourteen years ago) link
uh, see the previous revive!
― Ømår Littel (Jordan), Monday, 14 September 2009 16:07 (fourteen years ago) link
!!!
― Wee Tam and the lolhueg (Jon Lewis), Monday, 14 September 2009 16:09 (fourteen years ago) link
this is like "mindwalk" with a pedigree.― renegade bear shot by cops on frat row (vahid), Monday, May 29, 2006 7:42 PM (3 years ago) Bookmark
i just watched this and i liked it a lot, but it did make me think of "mindwalk" once or twice. but even when the script droned on a little, there was still the gorgeous, ominous look and feel of the film. i think its ideas resonate much more in its non-verbal realms than in its dialogue.
― hellzapoppa (tipsy mothra), Saturday, 28 November 2009 06:10 (fourteen years ago) link
restraining orders were really hard to get in russia back then
― tectonic p (latebloomer), Saturday, 28 November 2009 07:32 (fourteen years ago) link
minor point of curiosity: why is it split into part 1 and part 2, with a separate credit and everything? was it originally made for tv or something?
― hellzapoppa (tipsy mothra), Saturday, 28 November 2009 16:43 (fourteen years ago) link
it was something to do with soviet bureaucracy. Tarkovsky had already used his whole budget shooting the bulk of the film but the film stock was ruined and the footage was unusable. in order to get funding to reshoot it T had to imply to the authorities that the film was always conceived as two parts and he needed additional funding to shoot part two. i think he actually used the funding for part two to reshoot the whole thing.
― jed_, Saturday, 28 November 2009 18:18 (fourteen years ago) link
ah. i knew about the reshooting. i guess that makes a sort of bureaucratic sense.
man, it was really something to watch, it's still replaying in my head. i'll probably need to watch it again but i want to give it more time to unspool and settle in.
― hellzapoppa (tipsy mothra), Saturday, 28 November 2009 19:24 (fourteen years ago) link
it's really beautiful, although it kind of killed everyone's desire to go out drinking afterward.
new definition of "art film"?
― figuratively, but in a very real way (amateurist), Saturday, 28 November 2009 19:36 (fourteen years ago) link
Tried for a second time tonight. I'll need to be 100% alert and working on a minimum of 10-hours sleep if I'm ever going to last the whole way--drifted through most of the middle hour tonight. I'll forgo the kind of jokes I used to make when I saw it 15 years ago. The stalker's strong resemblance to Woody Harrelson was distracting.
― clemenza, Sunday, 12 February 2012 03:14 (twelve years ago) link
If you can handle the candle scene from Ностальгия/Nostaghia you can handle Сталкер/Stalker.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KT_li-WHcII
― Sanpaku, Sunday, 12 February 2012 03:21 (twelve years ago) link
i'm kind of surprised the some people (vahid!) think the pre-zone section is good and then it goes downhill. i think the getting to the zone section is often messy and boring but once they get there and less starts to happen, plot-wise, the film is electrifying.
― jed_, Sunday, 12 February 2012 03:22 (twelve years ago) link
otm
― Only the RONG Survive (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 12 February 2012 03:44 (twelve years ago) link
Uncanny, I tell you.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_khYoWIBgmBI/S13LXPOfn5I/AAAAAAAABrI/ryGqrXSAiak/s320/13stalker.jpg
http://www.hggirlonfire.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/woody-harrelson.jpg
― clemenza, Sunday, 12 February 2012 03:50 (twelve years ago) link
I ate a bunch of weed on a train and watched this on my laptop. It blew my goddamn mind. One of my favorite movies, and xp- the film really starts getting good once they reach the zone. Absolutely. Their every step becomes measured, they ruminate, they argue, crazy shit starts happening around them...
I'm gonna watch this tonight again.
― Dick Townwolves (Captain Ahab), Sunday, 12 February 2012 03:56 (twelve years ago) link
One of my favorite movies, and xp- the film really starts getting good once they reach the zone.
first part of that sentence OTM, one of my very favorite movies. but it's brilliant from the beginning. hell, the first shot is one of the best in the film. and so's the second...
― Little GTFO (contenderizer), Sunday, 12 February 2012 04:47 (twelve years ago) link
thought thread might've been revived cos of this new book:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/05/zona-geoff-dyer-tarkovsky-stalker
― Ward Fowler, Sunday, 12 February 2012 07:42 (twelve years ago) link
amazing film.
― I'm going to allow this! (LocalGarda), Sunday, 12 February 2012 17:36 (twelve years ago) link
Seven years after the making of the film, the Chernobyl accident led to the depopulation of an area rather like that in the film. Some of those employed to take care of the abandoned nuclear power plant refer to themselves as "stalkers" and to the area around the damaged reactor as "The Zone.
love this fact, through the whole film i kept thinking of chernobyl.
― I'm going to allow this! (LocalGarda), Sunday, 12 February 2012 17:41 (twelve years ago) link
I love this movie so much I can't help feeling personally offended whenever anyone shits on it.
― tanuki, Sunday, 12 February 2012 18:03 (twelve years ago) link
If someone doesn't like this movie, I automatically don't like them. I think there's something wrong with the way they open their senses.
― elan, Sunday, 12 February 2012 18:23 (twelve years ago) link
And we were headed for such a beautiful friendship, elan.
― clemenza, Sunday, 12 February 2012 18:37 (twelve years ago) link
I know I should be beyond the point where I feel so personally about things outside of myself (I got shit for saying more or less the same thing about The Tree of Life on the sandbox movie thread) but I wonder if this movie doesn't work as a sort of litmus test about whether or not one feels sure they know what reality really is, or whether they (like I do) are in constant doubt as to what is real and what isn't. Mind, this is drawn from very little experience but I wonder if anyone else feels the same way.
― tanuki, Sunday, 12 February 2012 20:06 (twelve years ago) link
also n.b. I don't think everyone who dislikes this movie is a terrible person, but maybe people who are sure of themselves also tend to dislike this movie.
― tanuki, Sunday, 12 February 2012 20:08 (twelve years ago) link
i dunno, i'm quite unsure of myself in certain respects (and full of headstrong confidence in others), but i like stalker and the tree of life primarily because i find them beautiful. i can certainly see why others might dislike either or both. they're long, slow, abstract and arguably pretentious films.
― Little GTFO (contenderizer), Sunday, 12 February 2012 20:10 (twelve years ago) link
Ordered that Geoff Dyer book yesterday, really looking forward to it. One of my favourite writers on one of my favourite films.
― I am using your worlds, Sunday, 12 February 2012 21:06 (twelve years ago) link
It's not like I think Stalker dislikers are bad or terrible! I just always feel like there's going to be a large gap between the way we experience things.
― elan, Sunday, 12 February 2012 22:50 (twelve years ago) link
so with Zona out now, there'll be a Stalker screening in NYC Saturday eve with a panel (incl Walter Murch, Francine Prose, Phillip Lopate and Dyer) talking between the reels!
http://nyihumanities.org/event/tarkovsky-interruptus
G Kenny discusses the book (and Hoberman review of same) here:
http://somecamerunning.typepad.com/some_came_running/2012/03/geoff-dyers-zona.html
― Literal Facepalms (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 8 March 2012 15:35 (twelve years ago) link
um, I love Tarkovsky and shamefully have never watched all of the film. I think I'm going to attempt some multiple viewing, book reading, extravaganza
Walter Murch on a panel? I hope there's coverage or a recording of the talking.
― valleys of your mind (mh), Thursday, 8 March 2012 15:41 (twelve years ago) link
just read abt that in the wsj & it was vague enough that i thought there was also a screening/talk on fri ;_; sounds rad tho
― johnny crunch, Thursday, 8 March 2012 15:44 (twelve years ago) link
Anyone read Dyer's bk?
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 8 March 2012 23:35 (twelve years ago) link
no
he looks like a nudnik
― The term “hipster racism” from Carmen Van Kerckhove at Racialicious (nakhchivan), Thursday, 8 March 2012 23:37 (twelve years ago) link
Ws reading his wiki -- he's written on a wide range of subjects, you know.
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 8 March 2012 23:38 (twelve years ago) link
yes but i saw him talking abt stalker w/ m kermode on bbc hds benighted 'the culture show'
― The term “hipster racism” from Carmen Van Kerckhove at Racialicious (nakhchivan), Thursday, 8 March 2012 23:43 (twelve years ago) link
& i distrust ppl called geoff
― The term “hipster racism” from Carmen Van Kerckhove at Racialicious (nakhchivan), Thursday, 8 March 2012 23:44 (twelve years ago) link
the bldgblog guy is named geoff and he seems ok
― valleys of your mind (mh), Thursday, 8 March 2012 23:48 (twelve years ago) link
in your opinion
― The term “hipster racism” from Carmen Van Kerckhove at Racialicious (nakhchivan), Thursday, 8 March 2012 23:49 (twelve years ago) link
ws saying it as something to distrust really - travel one min, jazz the next, now not only film but STALKER! Sounds like a mid-life crisis bk instead of a fully researced account of Tarkovsky and his (and Soviet cinema's) struggle w/the authorities.
Ah well..xxp
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 8 March 2012 23:58 (twelve years ago) link
there was one broadsheet review which was all 'less abt tarkovsky than abt geoff dyer' as if that might be more enticing
― The term “hipster racism” from Carmen Van Kerckhove at Racialicious (nakhchivan), Friday, 9 March 2012 00:01 (twelve years ago) link
I've read books that ended up being semi-autobiographical about pretty boring people, this couldn't be worse
― valleys of your mind (mh), Friday, 9 March 2012 00:24 (twelve years ago) link
Not the recommenation I was looking for!
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 9 March 2012 09:54 (twelve years ago) link
http://somecamerunning.typepad.com/some_came_running/2012/03/tarkovsky-interruptus.html
"...this emboldened Slate's Dana Stevens, whose contributions up to this point had been inoffensive enough to be ignorable/forgettable, to chime in about the "weak writing" in the film."
Why is Dana Stevens invited to these things? n.b. I can't recall ever reading a Dana Stevens review but her talks on the Culture Gabfest are...lacking.
― stay in school if you want to kiw (Gukbe), Sunday, 11 March 2012 06:29 (twelve years ago) link
"cultural vegetable."
Never heard this term before, only 10 year olds dislike all vegetables.
― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 11 March 2012 10:03 (twelve years ago) link
that phrase was at the center of an NYT Magazine-launched brouhaha over "difficult/boring" films last year.
― Literal Facepalms (Dr Morbius), Sunday, 11 March 2012 14:22 (twelve years ago) link
There was this not exactly good article on slow cinema. Liked it ended w/Akerman although the quote doesn't sound intelligent.
― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 11 March 2012 21:16 (twelve years ago) link
wow, Kenny wrote they couldn't even find a good print for the New School thing. Imagine how universal that will be 10 years from now.
― Literal Facepalms (Dr Morbius), Sunday, 11 March 2012 21:51 (twelve years ago) link
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)
tarkovsky, his wife, the DP, and the three lead actors all died within 15 yrs of this at relatively young ages iirc, at least three of them of cancer which i think was linked to the filming location (though not definitively.)
― omar little, Sunday, 11 March 2012 22:09 (twelve years ago) link
A while back I read that it was some rare type of cancer. The fact that they all had it lent itself to the idea that it was caused by shared environmental exposure.
― elan, Monday, 12 March 2012 00:35 (twelve years ago) link
From the Stalker wikipedia page:
Sound designer Vladimir Sharun recalls:We were shooting near Tallinn in the area around the small river Jägala with a half-functioning hydroelectric station. Up the river was a chemical plant and it poured out poisonous liquids downstream. There is even this shot in Stalker: snow falling in the summer and white foam floating down the river. In fact it was some horrible poison. Many women in our crew got allergic reactions on their faces. Tarkovsky died from cancer of the right bronchial tube. And Tolya Solonitsyn too. That it was all connected to the location shooting for Stalker became clear to me when Larisa Tarkovskaya died from the same illness in Paris.[5]
― elan, Monday, 12 March 2012 00:36 (twelve years ago) link
oh, there was another Dyer/screening today :p
http://www.movingimage.us/films/2012/03/11/detail/geoff-dyer-on-tarkovsky-cinema-and-life/
― Literal Facepalms (Dr Morbius), Monday, 12 March 2012 00:41 (twelve years ago) link
Have always heard about The Conquerer being a movie that was actually fatal for the people involved; had no idea the same happened with Stalker.
― tanuki, Monday, 12 March 2012 01:24 (twelve years ago) link
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/mar/16/author-geoff-dyer-literary-establishment
^blood boils, etc.
― xyzzzz__, Saturday, 17 March 2012 08:57 (twelve years ago) link
Not really...just 'next', you know.
I am at fkn war w/proper spelling and punctuation tho'.
All nothing compared to the awfulness of people dying from the conditions surrounding the Stalker shoot. Was dimly aware of it when a camera man was talking about T and people who had passed on. A 5 min interview on a DVD that was a kinda gem. Wish I had that round here so I could remind myself of exactly what he said.
― xyzzzz__, Saturday, 17 March 2012 09:02 (twelve years ago) link
I read Zona today - I enjoyed it. It's pretty short (you can probably read it in less time than it takes to watch the film) but that's probably for the best. It was a lot lighter than I expected it to be - more of a cultural sorbet than a cultural vegetable.
― windborne grey frogs (dowd), Saturday, 17 March 2012 22:18 (twelve years ago) link
Oh, I forgot why I posted. A quote from Zona
"As such it would have rendered that line of Stalker's - 'Home at last' - rather odd. [footnote-] Or maybe not. In the years when I used to go to Burning Man in the Black Rock Desert, we were greeted at the festival entrance with the words 'Welcome Home!' and tears always welled up in my eyes because it was true, because I believed absolutely in the Temporal Autonomous Zone of Black Rock City."
― windborne grey frogs (dowd), Saturday, 17 March 2012 22:51 (twelve years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMdrz3HSAX0
^ interview here - more of a lamentation for people who passed on, love that shot of the lamp going off..
― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 18 March 2012 01:11 (twelve years ago) link
inside report from fukushima nuclear reactor evacuation zone
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yp9iJ3pPuL8
― Milton Parker, Thursday, 3 May 2012 23:54 (eleven years ago) link
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 (eleven years ago) link
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 (eleven years ago) link
More on the video game:
http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2012/may/01/zone-chernobyl-tarkovsky-video-game/
― toby, Friday, 4 May 2012 08:36 (eleven years ago) link
> Roadside Picnic coming back into print (in English) for the first time in 30 years fwiw
amazon.co.uk have always had copies. in fact there as SF Masterworks edition which must be newer as the imprint isn't 30 years old. (2007 it says)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Roadside-Picnic-MASTERWORKS-Boris-Strugatsky/dp/0575079789/ref=sr_1_1
― koogs, Friday, 4 May 2012 08:49 (eleven years ago) link
Yeah I read the SF Masterworks edition in 2008.
― treefell, Friday, 4 May 2012 12:43 (eleven years ago) link
My brother gave me the Geoff Dyer book for my birthday, but I haven't read it yet. Not sure what to expect.
― Moodles, Friday, 4 May 2012 13:27 (eleven years ago) link
A heart-stopping, high-octane thrill ride that never let's up, that's what
― bark ruffalo (latebloomer), Friday, 4 May 2012 17:06 (eleven years ago) link
Dyer's greatest regret in life = a good punchline, esp. 'cause you suspect he's serious.
― I serve at the pleasure of Dr. Dre and a team of Sorbonne scientists. (R Baez), Friday, 4 May 2012 17:09 (eleven years ago) link
okay in AMERICA I should have said
xp
― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 4 May 2012 17:09 (eleven years ago) link
the vid milton posted is amazing
― ogmor, Monday, 7 May 2012 23:47 (eleven years ago) link
otm, completely mesmerising.
― that mustardless plate (Bill A), Tuesday, 8 May 2012 19:50 (eleven years ago) link
i have an english PDF of roadside picnic ... one of the fort thunder guys had it downloadable on his website, i believe it was m4t br1nkm4n ... maybe it was even the fort thunder website itself?
seems to have been taken down now but i can share if anybody would like.
― the late great, Tuesday, 8 May 2012 20:40 (eleven years ago) link
kind of a bummer because it was where i'd go to read all of the teratoid heights comics
― the late great, Tuesday, 8 May 2012 20:41 (eleven years ago) link
RIP providence
― diamanda ram dass (Edward III), Tuesday, 8 May 2012 22:09 (eleven years ago) link
http://www.bfi.org.uk/features/tarkovsky/?utm_content=buffer2cf57&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebookbfi&utm_campaign=buffer
― sʌxihɔːl (Ward Fowler), Monday, 22 December 2014 20:41 (nine years ago) link
Tarkovsky shot his final two features as an exile in the West. He left the Soviet Union behind, and never returned to science fiction. But he did express an unlikely admiration for James Cameron’s The Terminator (1984), claiming “its vision of the future and the relation between man and its destiny is pushing the frontier of cinema as an art.”
Shame T didn't stick around for Terminator 2.
― xyzzzz__, Monday, 22 December 2014 21:58 (nine years ago) link
Good piece - I suppose I'll never be able to read another article about these films w/out seeing a quote from Geoff Dyer but hey ho.
― xyzzzz__, Monday, 22 December 2014 22:02 (nine years ago) link
i think this might be my favorite movie now?
i watched it last night for the first time. first tarkovsky film i've seen, period. there are so many things that are wonderful about it, but i'll just point out a few things that stuck with me:
- the opening sequence. it starts with a really slow entrance through a set of open doors, but the doors almost seem to be floating in space. gradually a second layer is overlaid on top of the first, but it's so slow and subtle that i think some people wouldn't even notice. the second layer just barely ~shakes~ up and down, creating a hallucinatory feeling. i wish i was at home so i could include a screenshot, but the effect is absolutely amazing. iirc there's a sword that is part of one of the two layers, and it appears to be leaning up against the wall of the underlying layer. a minute later, an earthquake seemingly occurs and the scene really DOES shake - but of course that turns out to be the nearby train which passes periodically during the first part of the movie. it's just a mindblowing way to open the film.
- i think maybe pashmina mentioned this upthread, but the long take rail sequence into the zone is so good. each of the three characters gets a good, loooooooong time on camera, and then they each get a turn again. they're zooming off into toward this...zone...and they look fearful and courageous at the same time, and curious, and disoriented. but it's really the sound that makes the sequence, starting off with the rhythmic track noise and evolving into musique concrete. speaking of sound...
- the sound in this movie is unbelievably creative, and it carries the movie through some of the slower scenes that aren't as compelling as the others. so many of the sounds were obviously constructed in a studio and added in later. most of the time it's not 'realistic' at all but it's nearly always beautiful sounding. the film is pretty much a dreamtrance, and the sound is a big reason why it works so well. it reminds me of the sound design of Eraserhead, which Lynch and Alan Splet labored over for years, meticulously recording and editing each sound.
- i also enjoyed the allusions to wizard of oz (another lynch thing) - popping into color, falling asleep in the field of flowers, searching for something that grants wishes.
watching solaris (finally) later this week, i can hardly wait!
― Karl Malone, Tuesday, 10 March 2015 15:18 (nine years ago) link
i'm PAINFULLY overdue for a rewatch of motherfucking Stalker
― a date with density (Jon Lewis), Tuesday, 10 March 2015 16:35 (nine years ago) link
only took me ten years to finally watch this movie it was good !
― conrad, Tuesday, 10 March 2015 16:40 (nine years ago) link
it's one of my favourites, as well.
but i gather you need to be in the right state of mind to watch it, because of how slow it is, which is one of the things i love about it
― F♯ A♯ (∞), Tuesday, 10 March 2015 16:43 (nine years ago) link
yeah, the slowness is key. there's so much time to enjoy the visuals. i only wish that i didn't need the subtitles so that my eyes weren't spending so much time at the bottom of the frame.
― Karl Malone, Tuesday, 10 March 2015 16:48 (nine years ago) link
Just noticed the comments from a few years ago about the Roadside Picnic PDF. I did that, and I had to take it down because I got a cease & desist letter from a lawyer when the new edition was coming out. (And I was not a member of Fort Thunder, but I did run their web site.)
Around 2003 I spent some time making nice PDFs out of Gutenberg Project texts, mostly as an excuse for experimenting with my text justification postscript code. (I think I was also responsable for the first hypertext version of Gibbon's Decline & Fall?) Roadside Picnic was the only thing I did that wasn't completely legal, copyright-wise. (It wasn't clearly illegal either, but not something to argue with lawyers about.)
― Dave fischer, Tuesday, 10 March 2015 21:29 (nine years ago) link
this thread is vintage good ilx
― 龜, Saturday, 18 July 2015 02:56 (eight years ago) link
very grateful to have seen stalker on projected 35mm last night (even if screen was 'small') but the subtitles were so bad! so many phrases seem to have gone untranslated
― 龜, Saturday, 18 July 2015 12:38 (eight years ago) link
remember this thread once this place get engulfed by #futureOfInternets
― xyzzzz__, Saturday, 18 July 2015 12:54 (eight years ago) link
Lol
― Crawling From The Blecchage (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 18 July 2015 13:33 (eight years ago) link
i mean
― twunty fifteen (imago), Thursday, 29 October 2015 23:54 (eight years ago) link
like
http://www.ferdyonfilms.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/stalker38.jpg
"Yes?"
― Acting Crazy (Instrumental) (jed_), Friday, 30 October 2015 00:07 (eight years ago) link
this is surely amongst the great works
― twunty fifteen (imago), Friday, 30 October 2015 00:09 (eight years ago) link
it is one of the greatest
― xelab, Friday, 30 October 2015 00:13 (eight years ago) link
The toxic looking set of Stalker is no special effect:"We were shooting near Tallinn in the area around the small river Jägala with a half-functioning hydroelectric station. Up the river was a chemical plant and it poured out poisonous liquids downstream. There is even this shot in Stalker: snow falling in the summer and white foam floating down the river. In fact it was some horrible poison. Many women in our crew got allergic reactions on their faces. Tarkovsky died from cancer of the right bronchial tube. And Tolya Solonitsyn too. That it was all connected to the location shooting for Stalker became clear to me when Larisa Tarkovskaya died from the same illness in Paris"
― xelab, Friday, 30 October 2015 00:29 (eight years ago) link
That's a horrific story
― too young for seapunk (Moodles), Friday, 30 October 2015 00:31 (eight years ago) link
yeah but look what they made
― twunty fifteen (imago), Friday, 30 October 2015 00:46 (eight years ago) link
Not worth it, even for such a huge masterpiece, ymmv
― too young for seapunk (Moodles), Friday, 30 October 2015 00:51 (eight years ago) link
When you work in the trades you develop a gallows humour about faked asbestos reports and risk assessments and exposure to carcinogens. I'd imagine if you were working for the Soviet film industry in the 70's it would be even more lackadaisical.
― xelab, Friday, 30 October 2015 01:45 (eight years ago) link
i thought this was so boring, should i rewatch it?
― Ina-Garten-Da-Vida (Stevie D(eux)), Friday, 30 October 2015 02:34 (eight years ago) link
depends on if you thought it was boring in the past five years or not and if you can see it in a theater imo
― a llove spat over a llama-keeper (forksclovetofu), Friday, 30 October 2015 04:47 (eight years ago) link
That's a horrific story― too young for seapunk (Moodles), Friday, 30 October 2015 Bookmark Flag Post Permalinkyeah but look what they made― twunty fifteen (imago), Friday, 30 October 2015 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― too young for seapunk (Moodles), Friday, 30 October 2015 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― twunty fifteen (imago), Friday, 30 October 2015 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
You are Geoff Dyer and I claim my 50p.
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 30 October 2015 08:58 (eight years ago) link
It could be worse, they could've died from making The Conqueror:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/film/the-conqueror/making-of-movie-that-killed-john-wayne/
― sʌxihɔːl (Ward Fowler), Friday, 30 October 2015 09:11 (eight years ago) link
My conclusion from reading that = Money is great.
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 30 October 2015 13:47 (eight years ago) link
I was about to bring up The Conqueror.
so many phrases seem to have gone untranslated
Pretty common in foreign films that didn't have an upper-tier UK-US distributor in that era.
― skateboards are the new combover (Dr Morbius), Friday, 30 October 2015 14:06 (eight years ago) link
wowwwww
― aaaaaaaauuuuuuuuu (melting robot) (WilliamC), Tuesday, 13 December 2016 03:01 (seven years ago) link
innit just
― calzino, Tuesday, 13 December 2016 05:29 (seven years ago) link
watched this again on blu-ray a couple of weeks ago - never fails to be absolutely captivating
the stalker's dream is one of the most spellbinding sequences in cinema imo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0VJa3HmsJQ
― Rush Limbaugh and Lou Reed doing sex with your parents (bizarro gazzara), Tuesday, 13 December 2016 09:48 (seven years ago) link
oh i started watching this the other day but my O/h was really tired and not in the mood for b/w with subtitles and gloominess. I really want to watch it though.
― Lennon, Elvis, Hendrix etc (dog latin), Tuesday, 13 December 2016 10:07 (seven years ago) link
love this so much.
― Bein' Sean Bean (LocalGarda), Tuesday, 13 December 2016 10:10 (seven years ago) link
dl, it's only in black and white for a while before it transitions to colour (in another indelible sequence)
the b&w photography is so, so beautiful though. it's got so much texture to it
― Rush Limbaugh and Lou Reed doing sex with your parents (bizarro gazzara), Tuesday, 13 December 2016 10:14 (seven years ago) link
Yeah, it reminded me of Werckmeister Harmonies quite a lot (I can imagine Bela Tar was highly influenced by this film). As I say, we barely got 20 mins through before we realised this was a film for another time.
― Lennon, Elvis, Hendrix etc (dog latin), Tuesday, 13 December 2016 10:19 (seven years ago) link
A few visual similarities aside, I don't think Tarkovsky and Tarr have v much in common. In fact, Tarr articulated the difference quite well: “Tarkovsky is religious and we are not… he always had hope; he believed in God. He’s much more innocent than us – than me. No, we have seen too many things to make his kind of film… he is much softer, much nicer. Rain in his films purifies people. In mine it just makes mud.”
― Darcy Sarto (Ward Fowler), Tuesday, 13 December 2016 10:26 (seven years ago) link
It is a great quote but Tarkovsky must have seen some brutality himself growing up during the great terror and then the war.
― calzino, Tuesday, 13 December 2016 10:31 (seven years ago) link
I think that even the religious hope in Tarkovsky's films is tempered by some extreme self-doubt. God is hardly pedestaled as some end to suffering.
I like his famous quote about how Stalker should be “slower and duller at the start so that the viewers who walked into the wrong theatre have time to leave before the main action starts.”
― dance band (tangenttangent), Tuesday, 13 December 2016 11:12 (seven years ago) link
I agree. That sequence from Stalker posted above is a good demonstration. Mankind is destined to die and be forgotten, and all of its works, including religion. It's like his faith was in the face of knowing there was no destiny or future for mankind beyond this sort-of ultimate apocalypse, and why his works are so emotionally extreme in their beauty. I'm not a Tarkovsky or film scholar by any means, but that's what I get from it at least.
― larry appleton, Tuesday, 13 December 2016 17:05 (seven years ago) link
Yeah, nihilists/cynics etc. always think they've seen more that others - the scales have fallen from their eyes, rather than their eyes having scabbed up.
― Eallach mhór an duine leisg (dowd), Tuesday, 13 December 2016 20:20 (seven years ago) link
That Tarr quote makes me think significantly less of him.
― circa1916, Tuesday, 13 December 2016 20:31 (seven years ago) link
Reading his dad's poetry and its fantastic, some of the most affecting Russian poetry this side of Tsvetaeva!
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 13 December 2016 23:42 (seven years ago) link
Completely agree. Hearing it in Mirror for the first time blew me away.
dowd otm and with best poetic imagery.
― dance band (tangenttangent), Wednesday, 14 December 2016 01:38 (seven years ago) link
he stalker's strong resemblance to Woody Harrelson was distracting.
Haha -- true!
One of our art houses will show Stalker next Tuesday -- I'm looking forward to seeing it again. I wonder if they got their hands on the Criterion early?
― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 23 June 2017 19:47 (six years ago) link
The 4K resto is via Janus Films, ie the version that Criterion puts out. It's the way the Film Forum in NYC operates now. So really, fuck DCP.
― Supercreditor (Dr Morbius), Friday, 23 June 2017 20:10 (six years ago) link
I'll be seeing the restoration next Wednesday. They showed the Solaris restoration this week, which was really great.
― jmm, Friday, 23 June 2017 21:15 (six years ago) link
Restoration is striking. Saw it in NYC a few weeks back.
― Acid Hose (Capitaine Jay Vee), Saturday, 24 June 2017 00:01 (six years ago) link
Totally. After only seeing it on that crummy DVD, this looked stunning. Great work.
― circa1916, Saturday, 24 June 2017 00:03 (six years ago) link
DCP is great though
― he not like the banana (Stevie D(eux)), Saturday, 24 June 2017 15:58 (six years ago) link
If there's a disc, I don't need to pay $15 to see the same thing larger though.
― Supercreditor (Dr Morbius), Saturday, 24 June 2017 17:03 (six years ago) link
What's DCP?
― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 24 June 2017 17:05 (six years ago) link
Digital Cinema Package- it's the hard drive that digitally projected films are bundled onto.
― You guys are caterpillar (Telephone thing), Saturday, 24 June 2017 17:20 (six years ago) link
I'd reckon that a DCP projections has way more in common with a film projection than with a small television
― he not like the banana (Stevie D(eux)), Saturday, 24 June 2017 22:01 (six years ago) link
― You guys are caterpillar (Telephone thing),
Thanks. Oh, that thing! I haven't seen any notable differences. Stevie otm.
― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 24 June 2017 22:11 (six years ago) link
It depends on the smallness of the television, of course, but dcp and celluloid are two fundamentally different things, and they look very different. DCP is fine though, when I helped arrange a showing of Solaris recently we chose the DCP as well.
― Frederik B, Saturday, 24 June 2017 22:27 (six years ago) link
The 4K resto is via Janus Films, ie the version that Criterion puts out. It's the way the Film Forum in NYC operates now. So really, fuck DCP
Cannot compute this post.
― Heavy Doors (jed_), Saturday, 24 June 2017 22:44 (six years ago) link
Saw the restoration (on DCP) in Philly a few weeks back and was blown away for what it's worth.
― You guys are caterpillar (Telephone thing), Sunday, 25 June 2017 02:28 (six years ago) link
Anyone know the Sokurov scifi film Days of Eclipse (1988)? It shares a pair of novelist/screenwriters with Stalker. Showing tonight at NYC MoMA.
https://criticsroundup.com/film/days-of-eclipse/
― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 3 August 2017 19:45 (six years ago) link
btw i never knew the source novel that was loosely adapted for Stalker has the title Roadside Picnic (tho it's referenced at the start of the thread).
― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 3 August 2017 20:21 (six years ago) link
Then no wonder you didn't get the point of my screenname I used for this post
― Barkis Garvey (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 3 August 2017 20:49 (six years ago) link
i'm only one man.
― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 3 August 2017 21:03 (six years ago) link
Also, Roadside Picnic is by the same guys who wrote Hard To Be A God.
― Fetchboy, Thursday, 3 August 2017 21:11 (six years ago) link
I got to catch the restored version on the big screen a month ago, it was quite an experience. There was tons of detail like the specifics of the debris in the water or the rusting tanks in the field that I completely missed in many previous TV viewings. My big takeaway is that this may be the most physically textured film ever. Every single shot has a strong tactile quality.
― Moodles, Thursday, 3 August 2017 21:32 (six years ago) link
Roadside Picnic is great, and I think I had this thread to thank for leading me to the pdf (when it was out of print).
― change display name (Jordan), Thursday, 3 August 2017 22:09 (six years ago) link
I mentioned trying for a second time upthread (five years ago); I think tonight might have been the fourth. I think I basically get it, or part of it, in broad outline--the Zone is Oz, it's Godot, it's Miracle City in The Leftovers. (Or maybe it's the Black Lodge, or Room 101.) It's a great film to talk about--my friend and I went for coffee afterwards and compared notes for 20 or 30 minutes. The actual watching of it, sorry; I just find it tedious. I get very little out of it visually (except the last shot). Not that I loved The Mirror, but it did have that incredible pre-Ringu image. I find the brown parts in Stalker exceedingly ugly. Which they're supposed to be, I guess. The guy who made a big deal about going back to get his napsack reminded me of the babysitter in Goodfellas and her lucky hat. These are the silly things I think about when I'm bored, and I feel like I'm betraying the seriousness of the film when I do. My friend's going to lend me the Geoff Dyer book Zona--don't know anything about him or the book, but I'm hoping it sheds some light.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 21 November 2017 04:27 (six years ago) link
were you at tonight's screening in TO? more walkouts than I was expecting for a 14$ rep screening lmao
― Simon H., Tuesday, 21 November 2017 04:34 (six years ago) link
I was, yeah. Didn't notice the walkouts--we were maybe halfway down in the middle. I think I only drifted for 10 or 15 minutes tonight, better than the other times (lost some towards the end of part one).
For anyone who counts it as one of your favourite films--it won the ILX road-movie poll--I wish I could experience it as you do. I have some of the same problems with The Tree of Life. Maybe it's a temperament thing, I don't know. There are long, slow films I love. My attention doesn't flag for a second during six hours of Frederick Wiseman's Near Death.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 21 November 2017 04:40 (six years ago) link
weirdly, I drifted off a bit during the screenings of The Sacrifice and The Mirror but stayed totally awake for Stalker. I find power-napping to Tarkovsky movies to be extremely pleasant (less so in public where snoring is a real danger)
― Simon H., Tuesday, 21 November 2017 04:43 (six years ago) link
my main takeaway from this screening was that I really wish the men had brought that woman along with them to the Zone
― Simon H., Tuesday, 21 November 2017 04:46 (six years ago) link
Agree wholeheartedly; she had more personality than the three of them put together. (Which, again, I realize is beside the point--I know, I know...)
― clemenza, Tuesday, 21 November 2017 04:50 (six years ago) link
Saw it on the big screen a few months ago, loved it even more. There are whole visual layers that are hard to see on TV. I get the "boring" tag, but I just find the whole thing sort of texturally exciting from one shot to the next.
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Tuesday, 21 November 2017 05:30 (six years ago) link
I recently watched it at home for the first time, after trying and giving up once before. I don't know whether I 'got it' or not. There was an interview with Geoff Dyer on the Criterion Collection that I watched afterwards, and he made the interesting point that the first segments of the Zone (in Part I) strongly reminded him of being a child, wandering aimlessly and making up games to play among the remnants of old disused rail depots in the English countryside.
For me, the most mind-blowing moment in the entire movie (*minor spoiler alert*) came after the Zone, when we go back to the bedroom in Stalker's house where the opening sequence took place; but now the camera has been turned 90 degrees to reveal a wall, previously concealed out of frame, whose floor-to-ceiling shelves are completely stuffed with books.
― bernard snowy, Tuesday, 21 November 2017 13:23 (six years ago) link
even though I stayed awake this time the movie seems designed to lull you into a nap, including placing the Part 2 marker only an hour in
― Simon H., Tuesday, 21 November 2017 13:54 (six years ago) link
x-post: Ah nice, I've missed that. Claire Denis does the same in 35 Shots of Rhum, and it's also completely mind-blowing.
― Frederik B, Tuesday, 21 November 2017 14:01 (six years ago) link
― clemenza, Tuesday, November 21, 2017 4:40 AM (nine hours ago)
a) it didn't win, it was #2!b) I fucking hate Tree of Life and find the comparison v insulting.c) Sometimes people just don't gel with something! And that's okay (sorry for accidental clickbait phrasing).
― emil.y, Tuesday, 21 November 2017 14:11 (six years ago) link
I know what you mean, but for me the contrast between the 'men in the Zone' bulk of the film and the sudden voice & agency of the female characters is startling in the best way. It had an enormous emotional impact on me when I first saw it.
― emil.y, Tuesday, 21 November 2017 14:16 (six years ago) link
the Dyer book is worth the read, but it's paced like the film.
I've watched it three times, agree with clemenza.
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 21 November 2017 14:18 (six years ago) link
Apparently I bought the wrong Blu-Ray edition as the Curzon Home Cinema version uses an un-restored print, and it shows. You can see the film jump at every reel change, the soundtrack is often buried under crackling and so much of that incredible surface detail is lost in the murk. Seriously disappointing.
If I'd known how bad it was I wouldn't have bothered.
― Pheeel, Tuesday, 21 November 2017 16:30 (six years ago) link
(xpost) Obviously, no insult intended--I guess I think of them both as somewhat mystical (which probably just tells you that I'm not getting one or both of them).
Forgot--Badlands won the road-movie poll.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 21 November 2017 16:40 (six years ago) link
Another guy at his wit's end.
http://yarn.co/yarn-clip/b4d2f220-0c8f-48ce-97d7-8f2f37246f72#BJTxAHj8QWG.copy
― clemenza, Monday, 4 December 2017 23:35 (six years ago) link
stalker is a headphones movie
― Karl Malone, Monday, 4 December 2017 23:49 (six years ago) link
That's what I used to say about the Alan Parsons Project's Tales of Mystery and Imagination back in high school. Except for the movie part.
― clemenza, Monday, 4 December 2017 23:58 (six years ago) link
what other movies do people like to sleep through
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 5 December 2017 00:01 (six years ago) link
Leviathan (2012)
― Karl Malone, Tuesday, 5 December 2017 00:09 (six years ago) link
yes! i love falling asleep to Leviathan. also Picnic at Hanging Rock and The Third Man
― karl...arlk...rlka...lkar..., Tuesday, 5 December 2017 00:12 (six years ago) link
... I have, on more than one occasion, put on a DVD of Tarkovsky's Solaris as a soporific
― bernard snowy, Tuesday, 5 December 2017 00:26 (six years ago) link
visiting locations in Estonia
https://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/features/andrei-tarkovsky-stalker-locations
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Saturday, 11 May 2019 04:34 (four years ago) link
😍
― xyzzzz__, Saturday, 11 May 2019 06:55 (four years ago) link
― pomenitul, Saturday, 11 May 2019 09:57 (four years ago) link
☣️
― imago, Saturday, 11 May 2019 10:15 (four years ago) link
uh sorry, i mean ☢️
― imago, Saturday, 11 May 2019 10:17 (four years ago) link
I wonder if it was procion dye waste that was being dumped into the Jagala river. I used to knock about places that remind me of some of the Stalker locations and a dye company was dumping waste into the waterways at the time. The water + even some of the greenery in the surrounding area used to have a yellow tint and was horrible smelling at times. Also had an uncle who worked at the L B Dyes factory for 20 odd years and he was known as "Yellow Eddie" and loads of his co-workers died of lung cancer, but the yellow man defied the odds and died of a stroke.
― calzino, Saturday, 11 May 2019 10:27 (four years ago) link
Lots of skepticism from me on this thread, and if I were to watch it tomorrow, I know I'd drift off for stretches. But thinking about my twilight walks around town right now, I never would have guessed that life would more or less turn into this movie (or at least this movie plus the occasional car).
― clemenza, Thursday, 2 April 2020 00:42 (three years ago) link
Finally watched this some months ago. Very moving, honestly.
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 2 April 2020 01:15 (three years ago) link
Working my way through the ilx list and we watched this last night. It's a great film and liked it very much. It's possible it could have been edited tighter and it wouldn't have lost much and might have gained power. Otoh, I understand and accept the argument that the length is part of the journey and helps put you in the place of the characters.
Visually stunning and the final shot of the reactor is incredible.
I kept thinking about how this SF movie is largely without effects other than some lighting. Does anyone know how much of certain shots were staged versus just shooting what was there? Thinking of the dream sequence with the shots of objects in the water.
― hocus pocus, alakazam (PBKR), Sunday, 14 November 2021 14:38 (two years ago) link
Watched this today, cocooned in a blanket, wind raging outside. I'm still processing it - the material reality of the film, and the experiential aspect of watching the thing. It felt quite close to meditation in places - watching the screen became watching the mind and what drifted across the internal screen. Did any of this chime with the stuff on the screen etc.
The two shots that are currently bouncing around in my head are the lingering (when doesn't the camera linger?) shot of the heroin paraphernalia in the apartment and the vast wall of books - and what both mean for the stalker's state of mind and his purpose for entering and re-entering the zone. Are we to believe that he's been multiple times but hasn't been 'able' to enter the room?
I've read the Strugatsky book but don't remember it sufficiently to know how whether a re-read will throw new light on the the film. Man, what a trip.
― Shard-borne Beatles with their drowsy hums (Chinaski), Saturday, 31 December 2022 17:49 (one year ago) link
I’ve seen this movie three times and I’ve never noticed the heroin paraphernalia. Like needle, what else?
― Lord Pickles (Boring, Maryland), Saturday, 31 December 2022 17:57 (one year ago) link
I have maybe concocted it but definitely recall a tray with a syringe and cotton wool balls. Multiple syringes underwater throughout as well. And I read his wife's first tirade as a reaction to his falling back into addiction (as well, clearly, as continually falling for the allure of the Zone).
― Shard-borne Beatles with their drowsy hums (Chinaski), Saturday, 31 December 2022 18:11 (one year ago) link
I would assume that was an allusion to the unspecified health problems of the daughter?
― Halfway there but for you, Saturday, 31 December 2022 18:15 (one year ago) link
That’s what I might have thought
― A Kestrel for a Neve (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 31 December 2022 18:15 (one year ago) link
We’re ringing down the curtain on 2022 with this tonight, gonna be a good time
― G. D’Arcy Cheesewright (silby), Saturday, 31 December 2022 18:23 (one year ago) link
I specifically left tonight empty with no obligation to do anything. My 16yr old son has just asked if a 'few friends' can come over as they have nowhere else to go. Give me Stalker any day.
xps - ah ok, that makes perfect sense.
― Shard-borne Beatles with their drowsy hums (Chinaski), Saturday, 31 December 2022 18:26 (one year ago) link
Maybe this could be an NYE tradition: watch Stalker and then watch Dinner for One.
― A Kestrel for a Neve (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 31 December 2022 18:31 (one year ago) link
I’m due for another viewing but to me seems like a more perfect reflective New Year’s Day viewing.
― Lord Pickles (Boring, Maryland), Saturday, 31 December 2022 19:10 (one year ago) link
But my wife didn’t like Andrei Rublev and I’m afraid what she’s think about Stalker. 🙁
― Lord Pickles (Boring, Maryland), Saturday, 31 December 2022 19:11 (one year ago) link
definitely saw the drug paraphernalia as medicating the kid who is getting telekinesis
― “Cheeky cheeky!” she trills, nearly demolishing a roadside post (forksclovetofu), Saturday, 31 December 2022 19:53 (one year ago) link
(this thread being bumped prompted me to t0r3nt every tarkovsky for my collection)
― “Cheeky cheeky!” she trills, nearly demolishing a roadside post (forksclovetofu), Saturday, 31 December 2022 19:54 (one year ago) link
I did that years ago and it was a very good move
― calzino, Saturday, 31 December 2022 20:03 (one year ago) link
(Genuine question from someone who has forgotten how: um, where does one t0r3nt from these days? All my old places are long dead.)
― Shard-borne Beatles with their drowsy hums (Chinaski), Saturday, 31 December 2022 20:19 (one year ago) link
With regard to the stalker and his obsessive returning to the room, I can't stop thinking of the phrase 'you had everything you needed right there'.
https://i.imgur.com/zT6HsAK.png
― Shard-borne Beatles with their drowsy hums (Chinaski), Saturday, 31 December 2022 20:26 (one year ago) link
chinaski, drop me a line via ilx mail about plex
― “Cheeky cheeky!” she trills, nearly demolishing a roadside post (forksclovetofu), Saturday, 31 December 2022 20:32 (one year ago) link
stalker was available for a long time on youtube, some semi-official moscow film upload
oh, still is - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3hBLv-HLEc
― koogs, Saturday, 31 December 2022 21:10 (one year ago) link
Nice, thanks! In 4K, no less! It looks like Mosfilm also uploaded *Andrei Rublev* (first cut (205 min) and final cut (182 min)), *The Mirror* and *Ivan's Childhood*.
― ernestp, Saturday, 31 December 2022 21:48 (one year ago) link
"(Genuine question from someone who has forgotten how: um, where does one t0r3nt from these days? All my old places are long dead.)"
I went through the same despair, now I pay a few quid per 6 months for a usenet provider and something similar for a nzb site and now I don't bother with the ghost-towns of formerly good torrent sites any more!
― calzino, Saturday, 31 December 2022 22:30 (one year ago) link
they’re all on criterion, just subscribe to criterion
― na (NA), Saturday, 31 December 2022 22:58 (one year ago) link
there is always one bloody venture scout on every thread! (joking obv)
― calzino, Saturday, 31 December 2022 23:01 (one year ago) link
Point taken obviously, but it's not available in the UK, and never has been. (I could get a VPN, of course.)
― Shard-borne Beatles with their drowsy hums (Chinaski), Saturday, 31 December 2022 23:25 (one year ago) link
Right. We had this discussion earlier about Criterion being US-only.
― A Kestrel for a Neve (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 1 January 2023 01:19 (one year ago) link
I was in a 7/8 class this morning, so for Tarkovsky's birthday (and forgetting it was MLK Day--got to him later) I talked about the S&S poll, then played the final three minutes of Stalker. Couldn't get any sound, which definitely mattered.
They were a good class, so they listened and watched without interruption. But I sensed the general feeling in the room was "What the fuck is this guy going on about?"
― clemenza, Tuesday, 4 April 2023 16:19 (eleven months ago) link
I know you will have told them!
― Toshirō Nofune (The Seventh ILXorai), Tuesday, 4 April 2023 16:40 (eleven months ago) link
In my own fumbling manner--"So to sit there completely mystified for two-and-a-half-hours, and then to end with this...amazing!--yes. (Told them I loved the ending, that I've struggled with the film three or four times, and that I have drifted off every time.)
― clemenza, Tuesday, 4 April 2023 16:51 (eleven months ago) link
You should show them the rail journey. That's my fave part.
― Toshirō Nofune (The Seventh ILXorai), Tuesday, 4 April 2023 20:03 (eleven months ago) link
If I had to introduce somebody to Tarkovsky using a clip of only a few minutes...maybe the balloon ride from Rublev? Or the missile attack in The Sacrifice where the milk jug crashes to the floor?
― Halfway there but for you, Wednesday, 5 April 2023 01:09 (eleven months ago) link
The clip I feel like I see used most as a Tarkovsky emblem is this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-Q7cvTh_jU
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, 5 April 2023 01:14 (eleven months ago) link
Watching Stalker for the first time was actually life-changing, inasmuch as it totally rewired my brain's way of thinking about landscape, art and even time.
Currently reading the Southern Reach trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer which feels like it is consciously riffing off the Zona/Roadside Picnic/Stalker (as did M. John Harrison in his Kefahuchi Tract books). Really good.
― meat and two vdgg (emsworth), Wednesday, 5 April 2023 01:15 (eleven months ago) link
The film of Annihilation definitely plays off of Stalker too.
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, 5 April 2023 01:19 (eleven months ago) link
except, sucks
― assert (matttkkkk), Wednesday, 5 April 2023 02:26 (eleven months ago) link
I don't suppose anyone managed to save the 4K Stalker before it disappeared?
― assert (matttkkkk), Wednesday, 5 April 2023 03:00 (eleven months ago) link
I enjoyed Annihilation for its proggy trippiness.
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, 5 April 2023 03:05 (eleven months ago) link
you mean on blu-ray? can't find anything about this. link?
― lord of the rongs (anagram), Wednesday, 5 April 2023 04:54 (eleven months ago) link
oh wait, you're talking about the mosfilm yt upload. seems strange that it got pulled when the others are still up there.
― lord of the rongs (anagram), Wednesday, 5 April 2023 05:01 (eleven months ago) link
I think it's most likely geoblocked? Might try to find a solution.
― assert (matttkkkk), Wednesday, 5 April 2023 06:15 (eleven months ago) link
Mosfilm has so much good stuff up. The other day I watched a 90's comedy about a 19th century noblewoman who dreams she works in a canteen in Moscow in the 90's, it basically felt like Traumazone: The Movie.
― Daniel_Rf, Wednesday, 5 April 2023 08:48 (eleven months ago) link
what was it called?
― karl...arlk...rlka...lkar..., Wednesday, 5 April 2023 14:09 (eleven months ago) link
Dreams
― Daniel_Rf, Wednesday, 5 April 2023 14:39 (eleven months ago) link