tarkovsky's stalker

do you like long takes? really long ones?

thanks xxxxx

(nb i love stalker)

they're showing 'alphaville' again, in a week or two, have you seen that?

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.

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?

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

newer?

the one I know has the loop of the rail trolly looping while the filtered electronics slowly grow louder

is there another version?

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.

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...)

I never seem to go to the cinema. : (((

I wish cozen would make me.

I will keep an eye open for showings. thanks, ray.

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.

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"

thanks. make me aware of upcoming trips!

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.

Huh, I now recall the peculiar circumstances (the very early 80s, Moscow of all places) of watching Rublev myself...

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.

I’ve seen this movie three times and I’ve never noticed the heroin paraphernalia. Like needle, what else?

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).

I would assume that was an allusion to the unspecified health problems of the daughter?

That’s what I might have thought

We’re ringing down the curtain on 2022 with this tonight, gonna be a good time

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.

Maybe this could be an NYE tradition: watch Stalker and then watch Dinner for One.

I’m due for another viewing but to me seems like a more perfect reflective New Year’s Day viewing.

But my wife didn’t like Andrei Rublev and I’m afraid what she’s think about Stalker. 🙁

definitely saw the drug paraphernalia as medicating the kid who is getting telekinesis

(this thread being bumped prompted me to t0r3nt every tarkovsky for my collection)

I did that years ago and it was a very good move

(Genuine question from someone who has forgotten how: um, where does one t0r3nt from these days? All my old places are long dead.)

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

chinaski, drop me a line via ilx mail about plex

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

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*.

"(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!

they’re all on criterion, just subscribe to criterion

there is always one bloody venture scout on every thread! (joking obv)

Point taken obviously, but it's not available in the UK, and never has been. (I could get a VPN, of course.)

Right. We had this discussion earlier about Criterion being US-only.

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?"

I know you will have told them!

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.)

You should show them the rail journey. That's my fave part.

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?

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

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.

The film of Annihilation definitely plays off of Stalker too.

except, sucks

I don't suppose anyone managed to save the 4K Stalker before it disappeared?

I enjoyed Annihilation for its proggy trippiness.

you mean on blu-ray? can't find anything about this. link?

xp

oh wait, you're talking about the mosfilm yt upload. seems strange that it got pulled when the others are still up there.

I think it's most likely geoblocked? Might try to find a solution.

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.

what was it called?

Dreams