Mirror (1975)

Cinema scaled new heights of visual poetry in this deeply personal, elliptical film by the master of ‘sculpting in time’.

Andrei Tarkovsky drew on memories of a rural childhood before WWII for this personal, impressionistic and unconventional film poem. For perhaps his most daring experimentation with film structure, Andrei Tarkovsky intersperses scenes from three eras – a childhood in the countryside, the Great War, and post-war maturity – to create a prismatic reflection of his own life and those of his parents.

Abandoning linear narrative in favour of dramatising discontinuous shards of memory (particularly relating to his mother Maria, played by Margarita Terekhova), Tarkovsky pioneered a poetic and richly allusive form. Wartime newsreel footage, self-consciously painterly compositions, indelible imagery (a field whipped suddenly by wind, a gas lantern flickering out), and the director’s mesmeric camera movements combine to create a work of cumulative, rhythmic effect. The soundtrack features music by Bach, and Tarkovsky’s father Arseny Tarkovsky reading from his own poetry.

“You’d think Mirror might be a heavy, intellectual film, but it is direct, even basic: remembering, childhood, loss, speculation… It talks to people not through words, but through images and emotions. Wonderfully shot and composed, it contains some of the most spectacular imagery ever captured on screen.” Barbara Schweizerhof

“A great reflection on Russian history through the eyes of Tarkovsky. Non-linear storytelling, dreamlike sequences, historical footage and much more… All this put together through amazing editing, influenced by shattered memories.” Hauvick Habéchian

1975 USSR
Directed by
Andrei Tarkovsky
Produced by
E. Waisberg
Written by
Aleksandr Misharin, Andrei Tarkovsky
Featuring
Margarita Terekhova, Ignat Daniltsev, Maria Tarkovskaya
Running time
106 minutes

Ranked in The Greatest Films of All Time poll

Sight and Sound

Who voted for Mirror

Critics

Sitora Alieva
Russia
Diego Andaluz
US/Mexico
Andrey Arnold
Austria
César Ballester
Spain/UK
Moinak Biswas
India
Maja Bogojević
Montenegro
Edwin Carels
Belgium
Ernest Chan Chi-wa
Hong Kong
Ian Christie
UK
Kameron Collins
USA
David Cox
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Shivendra Singh Dungarpur
India
Geoff Dyer
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Miquel Escudero Diéguez
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Swarnavel Eswaran Pillai
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Karlo Funk
Estonia
Fran Gayo
Spain/Argentina
Carmen Gray
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Evgeny Gusyatinskiy
Netherlands
Roman Gutek
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Hauvick Habéchian
Lebanon
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Julian Hanich
Netherlands
Sam Ho
Hong Kong
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Serbia
Sten Kauber
Estonia
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Hungary
Yamashita Koyo
Japan
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Norway
Johannes Lõhmus
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Luis Martínez
Spain
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Spain
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Hong Kong/Thailand
Andrei Plakhov
Russia
Andrew Pulver
UK
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USA
Baptiste Roux
France
Cristian Saldía
Chile
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France/Israel
Barbara Schweizerhof
Germany
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Russia/USA
Mira Staleva
Bulgaria
Christina Stojanova
Bulgaria/Canada
Richard I Suchenski
USA
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Kyrgyzstan
Jon Towlson
UK
J. M. Tyree
USA
Wim Vanacker
Belgium
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UK
Susana Viegas
Portugal

Directors

Ali Abbasi
Denmark
Amjad Abu Alala
Sudan
Phuttiphong Aroonpheng
Thailand
Lila Avilés
Mexico
Imruh Bakari
Saint Kitts and Nevis/UK
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Nuri Bilge Ceylan
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Allison Chhorn
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Edgardo Cozarinsky
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Matty Crawford
UK
Homer Etminani
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Sawandi Groskind
Finland
Patrick Keiller
UK
Umesh Kulkarni
India
Dea Kulumbegashvili
Georgia
Ruijun Li
China
Alena Lodkina
Australia
Manuela Martelli
Chile
May Miles Thomas
UK
Shahram Mokri
Iran
Pat Murphy
Ireland
Paweł Pawlikowski
Poland
Sanjeewa Pushpakumara
Sri Lanka
William Raban
UK
Małgorzata Szumowska
Poland
Sami Tlili
Tunisia
Maryam Touzani
Morocco
Joachim Trier
Norway
Laura Waddington
UK
Bing Wang
China
Heng Yang
China
Midi Z
Taiwan
Liang Zhao
China

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