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

Film	Year	Director
La notte	1961	Michelangelo Antonioni
Distant Voices, Still Lives	1988	Terence Davies
Son of Saul	2015	László Nemes
La grande bellezza	2013	Paolo Sorrentino
Mirror	1975	Andrei Tarkovsky
A Serious Man	2009	Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Under the Skin	2013	Jonathan Glazer
The Gospel According to St. Matthew	1964	Pier Paolo Pasolini
Raging Bull	1980	Martin Scorsese
Army of Shadows	1969	Jean-Pierre Melville

Andrew Pulver

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