Tarkovsky

This week I watched three Tarkovsky films; The Mirror, Solaris, and Ivan's Childhood.  The first I watched was The Mirror; this movie had me pretty well confused from the very beginning. There was no apparent plot or order. It jumped around to different points in several different time lines. Outside of the story ( if there was one ), it was filmed beautifully. I especially enjoyed the way he filmed the outdoors and how he was able to capture the beauty of a landscape. We also see this in the beginning of Solaris when he films a pond. He'll focus on one thing for such a long time it almost puts you into a trance. While there were a few time where I got lost in Solaris I enjoyed the story quite a bit. It is rare to see a story in movies that is completely unfamiliar. The last film I watched was Ivan's childhood. This one was the closest to "normal" film. It had a very clear story line and had action, drama, romance, and history. Overall Tarkovsky had a very distinct style or auteurship. His shots were usually very long and slow moving, and very beautiful; I always felt as if I was viewing a piece of art. His writing ( he wrote all three films ) was mostly abstract, and involved a lot of thinking. We talked in class about whether or not a director can really be seen in the same light as an author. I definitely think they can. Especially in the case of Tarkovsky where he wrote the screenplays for the movies; he was literally the author of these movies.