Film forces self-confrontaton
ANDREI RUBLEV
183 min., NR
Though based on the life of medieval Russian icon painter Andrei Rublev, this film's incredible interwoven segments are more about meditations on the social role of the artist than about historical accuracies. Fifteenth century Russia, with its constant invasions by rivaling princes and czars, was, apparently, a fairly screwed up time to be an artist. So, too, was the Soviet Union in 1973 when Tarkovsky made the film-which is precicely why it is often seen as an allegory for the difficulties faced by artists under Soviet repression. Andrei Rublev includes some of Tarkovsky's signature motifs, such as the use of both black-and-white and color film, the heavy prevalence of animals and shots of flowing water.
SOLARIS
165 min., PG
A love story, as well as a philosophical science-fiction film that's geared more toward the mind than the eyes, Solaris-Tarkovsky's most widely seen work in the United States (though it's not his best)-is based on the novel by Stanislaw Lem. (Solaris also saw a 2002 remake by Steven Soderbergh.) The story investigates the experiences of a psychologist who is sent to a space station that hovers above the planet Solaris, where the ocean is an organism that manifests human thought-including the memories of those who have passed away.
STALKER
165 min., PG
Stalker is a testament to how much can be accomplished with little more than a camera, a few actors and stimulating ideas. It's science fiction with metaphysical leanings that revolve around a "zone" where an "event" occurred. Only stalkers-whatever the hell they are-can take people into "the zone" and its off-limits center, the "room." Once you've entered the "room," will it make your deepest, most subconscious desires reality? And what would that really look like? In asking these questions, Tarkovsky pushes us to confront the unknown within ourselves, rather than the unknown of the beyond.
