Tarkovsky

One of my go-to end-of-semester palate cleaners has been Kieślowski's Three Colors trilogy--how many dozens of times have I enjoyed returning to those films? But for whatever reason, this winter has been a little bit different.

This time, I find myself working through Tarkovsky: Mirror (1974), Nostalgia (1983), and currently Solaris (1972). (Just about everything is available on YouTube w/ English subtitles--the poor man's Hulu strikes again!)

I'm in no position to offer up anything profound yet, but my initial note is that I remember Dina Iordanova first introducing me to Tarkovsky in 1993--and that I really wasn't ready for him yet. The long takes and the decidedly poetic cinematic craft were not in sync with what I was looking for at the time, I guess. Still: I read and loved Sculpting in Time, and I did watch most [if not all] of his seven films in Austin.

Middle age? A more conscious need to slow things down? A desire to revisit a key auteur from the region? Make of it what you will--this year's model is Andrei Tarkovsky.