The Mirror

Andrei Tarkovsky
I'm not going to say whether i liked or disliked this movie because I'm not really sure what I think about it yet. From reading the book I can tell that Tarkovsky puts a lot of effort into his movies and has a lot of passion for art whether in the form of a painting or through the cinema. After watching this movie, one quote that sticks out from the book is, "my job is to speak in living images, not in arguments. I must exibit life full-face, not discuss life...Otherwise the artist is imposing his thoughts on his audience." I feel like Tarkovsky lived by this quote. I, in no way, felt as though this movie was imposing any thoughts or messages on me. For Russian directors, this is a change of pace because it seems as though almost every movie so far had some sort of hidden or blatant message we were suppose to pick up.


As for the movie, there were some things i feel like i may have picked up (or again i may have noticed something that wasn't really there). In the beginning, Professor Isham told us to take it for what it was worth and not try to analyze it. So from that.. this is how I understood it. In the beginning, Ignat was shown being hypnotized. I know most of us noticed the microphone shadow in the back as an error in filming but I feel like maybe it was suppose to show us it was being filmed for a show-like a healing show. Furthermore, i feel like the main idea i kept picking up from this movie was human suffering and abandonment. The idea of Ignat's father leaving was reiterated many times throughout the movie. I remember a time when the mother said, "you should come around more often-he needs you." This just reminded me how important a father can be in a child's life and without one it's difficult to grow up. Furthermore, I felt like the mother didn't pay much attention to Ignat so it was like he had no one to turn to and was kind of alienated. As for the flashing of scenes I'm going to venture to say maybe this was trying to give us a sense of time-what era he was trying to express- like when he showed war scenes etc. Moreover, i just want to say I think Tarkovsky would have been an amazing director for horror films because some of his scenes were just so creepy. For example, when the mother and the man were standing starring at the burning barn-they had their backs to the camera and were staggered in a way that just reminded me of a scary movie. Continuing from this idea, i can understand why Ignat had a stutter because if I saw some of the things we saw i'd have a stutter to- like reading a book to a woman who disappeared? weeiirdd.


As for the year the movie was made- i was surprised to see the paper saying it was made in the 70's. Watching it, i assumed maybe late 50's but i did not expect it to be even close to the 70's. As for the title of the movie, mirror's reflect- so maybe Tarkovsky is trying to portray that he came from a home where he was alienated and had no real support system since his father left and his mom was kind of all over the place. So maybe Ignat is suppose to represent Andrei?? I don't know just an idea. All in all- the movie was gnerally confusing and if nothing i said was correct- then it was very misleading!