VHS : Nostalgia [1983]

Rating: - Be Astonished
A glorious and utterly profound experience. Revel in the depth and multi-layered brilliance of the story and sentiment, and exploration of themes such as being human, religious and personal faith, home, and how we face our need for meaning and control in an unknowable universe. As in the earlier 'Mirror', understanding Tarkovsky stirs feelings and intellectual yearning at the deepest levels. I make no apology for making such bold statements - this is truly great art.
But forget that. Whether you follow the the detail and nuances or grapple with Tarkovsky's own intentions(and you will discover more every time you come back to this), ultimately it doesn't matter: there are scenes and images throughout this experience that just simply astonish. Not in a grand, big-screen way, but by striking you in the recesses of your mind - like great painting or music. And it holds you to the end. The final image - how it unfolds, what you hear, is one of the most moving and remarkable constructions in all art; following everything that has gone before, it struck me dumb when I first saw it on the film's release, has stayed with me since (haunted me in fact as any truly great image does) - and going back to it on DVD it has lost none of its power. Quite the opposite in fact - the older you get, the more hooks Tarkovsky has into your psyche.

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Rating: - "I'm tired of seeing these sickeningly beautiful sights"
Thus pronounces the Russian poet Pavel Sasnovsky (played by Oleg Yankovsky - also seen in "Mirror") to his Italian interpreter, the beautiful Eugenia (Domiziana Giordano) at the start of the film as she tries to persuade her charge to view a painting in a seemingly-deserted and misty Italian landscape.

"Nostalgia" is Tarkovsky sixth and penultimate movie. This was his first movie outside the Soviet Union and was co-written with Tonino Guerra, who wrote many screenplays with Antoniono.

The `plot' can be quickly told in outline, but not in detail. Pavel Sasnovsky is in Bagno Vignoni near Bologna to research the biography of an eighteenth-century Russian composer, Andrei Gorchakov. During his visit he ponders on issues and landscapes, including those within. He encounters the lonely and mentally-troubled Domenico (played by the Swedish actor and Bergman favourite Erland Josephson - also seen in Tarkovsky's final work, "The Sacrifice"). Towards the end, the scene switches to Rome, where Domenico publicly proclaims his ideas, whilst Sasnovsky fulfils Domenico's vow back at Bagno Vignoni. We end in a Tarkovsky set-piece scene, marvellously encapsulating both Italian and Russian landscapes in one frame.

One obvious response to this film is to argue that actually Andrei Gorchakov is Andre Tarkovsky. Be this as it may, the viewer will need to come to this film with as open a mind as possible; on first viewing matters both large and small can appear frustratingly obtuse, and so much is left unsaid. But all Tarkovsky films benefit from repeat viewing; a first sight requires you to give more than to receive, thereafter the balance moves sharply in the viewer's favour.

Many of Tarkovsky's stylistic hallmarks re-appear in "Nostalgia". Thus we have switches between the colour of the Italian present and the sepia of the rural Russia that Sasnovsky has left behind; the constant presence of water in many forms - mist, rain, puddles, snow; the long takes; the chiaroscuro; the camera focussing on only one of the participants in conversations; the beautifully-crafted visionary scenes, such as bird feathers falling like rain on a blinding array of candles; and the exquisite aphorisms such as Sasnovsky's "poetry is untranslatable, like all art", or his "feelings that are unspoken are unforgettable", or Domenico`s "1+1=1". Tarkovsky's films are not films but artistic and philosophical experiences.

The extras on this DVD are valuable. "Andrey Tarkovsky in Nostalgia", a film by Donatella Baglivo, takes us behind the scenes to show filming taking place at a number of locations. Tarkovsky remarks that part of the impetus behind "Nostalgia" is to show the impossibility of living side-by-side with others without becoming acquainted with and addressing the problems of this knowledge of one another: it is easy to get to know someone, but difficult to break off that relationship. There are short interviews with the actors and the production team. There are also some scenes that did not make the final edit.

"Tempo di Viaggio" is Tarkovsky's own documentary, wherein he is seen discussing script ideas with his Italian co-writer. Interweaving with these are scenes of their visiting Sorrento, Amalfi and Lecce, and Tarkovsky providing meditations on the director's mission.

In addition the extras include written details of interviews given by Tarkovsky about "Nostalgia". Here he describes nostalgia as an illness, "not simply a feeling of sadness ... it removes strength from the spirit ... for a Russian temperament it is a real illness ... one only contracts this disease abroad." As for the type of audience his films address, "For a poet it is enough to see a toe sticking out from under a dress in order to create an image of the entire world. My films turn to these people." The poetic image is of prime importance, for "When the images in a film need a lot of dialogue, when the dialogue has an important function, then I feel it is no longer cinema. It is something else."

This film is cinema at its poetic best.

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Rating: - Visually Stunning Masterpiece
I've seen all of Tarkovsky's films bar "The Sacrifice" and I think "Nostalgia" is possibly the best of them all. Deeply spiritual and pregnant with meaning, "Nostalgia" features some breathtaking cinematography and contains many memorable, visually arresting scenes, such as Eugenia's visit to the church, Gorchakov's meeting with Domenico in his dilapidated house, the flooded church ruins, Domenico's rant atop a statue of Marcus Aurelius in Rome ,Gorchakov's walk through St Catherine's Pool with a candle ,and many more. "Nostalgia" is a film about alienation in all it's forms; it highlights the problems of living in an alien culture and homesickness, alienation from other people, alienation from society and ultimately from life itself. The central character ,Gorchakov, goes on a spiritual journey as the film progresses , especially after his meeting with the lunatic mystic, Domenico. Haunted by memories of his family in Russia and facing the frustrated ire of his attractive Italian interpreter ,Eugenia, for not "trying it on" with her, Gorchakov finds consolation in metaphysical reflection ,an exploration of the religious vision of life and ultimately a search for Salvation. "Nostalgia" features many of Tarkovsky's favourite images; running water, horses,dogs, rain, mists and spilt milk and the director, through his characters and cinematography ,seems to be making a pantheistic plea for humanity to re-embrace nature ,which is equated closely with the Divine in this film. Every image and sound is exquisitely sculpted by Tarkovsky in "Nostalgia" and the acting is excellent as well. Like all of Tarkovsky's films, "Nostalgia" is thought provoking and profound and undoubtedly will repay multiple viewings.

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Rating: - Tarkovsky... drowning in nostalgia.
Nostalgia is essentially a dream play that opens with a hazy, monochromatic vision of tranquil reflection, which, not only establishes the core themes behind the film's title, but also, informs the key emotional sequences that are here revisited by the central character throughout. As a result of this, the film is as much about the feelings of loss and longing as it is about the lead character, the homesick Russian poet Andrei Gortchakov, who is exiled in Italy with his guide and translator Eugenia on a research mission into the life of a long-forgotten, 18th century composer. In the hands of any other filmmaker, this plot would give way to a series of grand adventures and curious revelations, but, as we've seen in other films, like the majestic Mirror and Andrei Rublev, Tarkovsky is a filmmaker unconcerned with the external world of the film, who, instead, turns his attentions inward, to chronicle the internal angst and emotions at the heart of these tortured, complicated souls.

As is always the case with Tarkovsky's work, it could be argued that the film has further shades that somehow draw parallels with the filmmaker's own life and works; with the exiled main character here becoming the (cinematic) voice for Tarkovsky's own feelings of loss and nostalgia during the making of this film. Because of this, the cinematic depiction of the small Italian village where the film takes place is one of the gloomiest and most barren creations ever presented, especially in comparison to the kind of lush, summery vistas that we're used to seeing from this particular, geographic region. The locations used are desolate, dilapidated, over-run with moss and ivy, and swept in a constant haze of fine rain and morning fog, which allows the filmmaker to create a number of slow and haunting visual meditations that further the actual plot... but also help to visualise the inner-turmoil felt by Gortchakov at this difficult crossroad in his life. As is always the case with Tarkovsky, the visual design of the film is meticulously created and deeply hypnotic, with the production design creating an emotional labyrinth for the characters, which is then, rigorously explored by the camera.

The use of cinematography is always an important factor is Tarkovsky's work, because it is so vital in creating and (then distinguishing between) these varying layers of reality, fantasy, memory and premonition - with the filmmaker employing a variety of techniques, from cross cutting between sepia-tone and defused colour, and the juxtaposition between regular speed and slow motion. The use of those slow, mesmerising zooms (bringing to mind Kubrick's masterpiece Barry Lyndon) and those complicated tracking shots only add to the lingering tension and escalating melancholy that is perfectly established throughout the film's lethargic first act. The film is deliberately slow, like the majority of this filmmaker's work, with the camera moving at it's own pace in order to linger and meditate on certain images and moments. The editing too is deliberate in it's pace, with a number of scenes unfolding with a minimum of two to three cuts per scene (Tarkovsky always allowing the slow movement of the camera to do much of the work normally covered by the editing), which can, on occasion (particularly the first viewing), become quite tiresome. It does, nonetheless, ultimately tie in with the inner feelings and emotions so synonymous with the title and, is integral to the inner pain felt by our central characters.

Into the mix of things we also get a dose of the mystical, supplied here by the character of Domenico, another tortured soul who's back-story involves keeping his family hostage for a prolonged number of years under fear that the world would end. Domenico, like Gortchakov (and indeed, Tarkovsky), is another one of those haunted souls, inhabiting an earth they don't really understand, whilst questioning their place in the world and the world within the cosmos. Towards the end of the film, Domenico will rant atop a statue about all manner of deep theoretical issues, before Tarkovsky launches into two of the most astounding sequences he ever created. The first is a brutal and literally jaw-dropping act of emotional and physical catharsis (set to the strains of a distorted Beethoven), whilst the other is a long and slow meditation on fate (and probably the most iconic scene in this film), involving an empty pool, a lighted candle, and a weary, heartbroken Gortchakov.

Nostalgia is a deep and thoughtful film, best suited to those viewers who are interested in spending some time with a film that takes a great deal of time to fully reveal it's self. Like the majority of Tarkovsky's films, it is bleak, dreamlike and hypnotic, in the way in which the images just linger on the screen, waiting to be decoded. Some might be frustrated by the slow pace and the reliance on character over narrative, however, if you are an admirer of Tarkovsky's best films, like Andrei Rublev, Mirror and The Sacrifice, then you'll be sure to find something of interest here.

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Rating: - Can't take any more Tarrantino?
Tarkovsky only made high quality films. This is no exception.
'Nostalgia' like 'Mirror' is a filmic poem which explores spirituality and memory in an elliptical and allusive way. If you've not seen his films before, expect to be confused and occasionally frustrated on first viewing, but I'm confident that you'll also be aware of a tremendous ability to create a magical filmic space out of the careful use of simplest of film techniques.
Repeated viewing will disclose the careful logic and structure of the film.
Intelligent cinema at its finest. Treat yourself.