UNDERSTANDING TARKOVSKY'S NOSTALGHIA: Part 1: Introduction 

That's the magic of Tarkovsky, he thoroughly understood the potential of cinema in all its aspects, especially from an aesthetic standpoint. If you have the means, try to acquire and read his book "Sculpting in Time", it will give you a clear picture of the machinations and an uderstanding of the power within his works. Cheers!

@@PlanSéquenceFilmArt thank you for the recomendation, I'll add it to the "to read" list!

Yes, even our own minds are a mystery to ourselves. How much more another's!

I recommend watching his films in chronological order.. i feel that doing so has helped me understand him better!

Glad to meet another fellow Tarkovsky fan, Hugh! I find Tarkovsky to be a balm for this hectic, shallow and often ugly world. Like you said, his films are riddled with beauty, they are contemplative and expressive, welcoming and profound, sensitive and ecstatic, lyrical and humane, hence why they appeal to me so much too. All the best, my friend!

Thank you DER COMICMAN. Tarkovsky is certainly one of my favourite directors, if not the one I revere the most. And Nostalghia is one of his finest gems.

Hi Jamie, glad you found it helpful! Make sure to check the other parts to get a more complete picture of how the film works and what's it about. Cheers.

You're very welcome, my friend. All the best to you.

Hey Jeswin, thank you so much, I'm really glad you appreciated this presentation. It's a lot of work setting up these videos, so getting positive feedback is incredibly rewarding. Cheers!

Thank you genkishooto, that's quite a compliment. I'm sure there are other better written RU-vid videos and essays, especially because I'm not a native English speaker, but if you enjoyed this analysis, I can only humbly express my satisfaction. Thanks for stopping by and for your praise, cheers!

Bro, please use simpler english lol... I would need a seperate video to just understand your explaination of this movie

Lucky man, wish I had that version too! And trust me, his filmography is truly worth having all in 4K.

Thank you very much, kind sir. I'm overjoyed you have found this essay insightful.

Thank you, dear TP Grammar. I'm truly glad you've appreciated the effort and content found in here. Cheers!

@@PlanSéquenceFilmArtI intend to use some of your opening statements and “introduction sections” in my classroom, as models for how analysis can be effectively and respectfully done. (Also, have you ever watched Twin Peaks or other David Lynch works?) Thanks again

@@TwinPeaksGrammar I'm honoured you have deemed my content or some of its structure worthy of being used as an example in your classes. I have seen quite a few David Lynch films (Eraserhead, Mulholland Drive, Blue Velvet, Lost Highway, etc ), although I'm afraid I am still not yet acquainted with his Twin Peaks works. All the best.

Hi Rebecca, that's great to hear, glad you've enjoyed it. Make sure to check the in-depth analysis on Zerkalo, which is currently undergoing, as well as some of the essays on Bergman's themes. Cheers.

Thank you very much Anastasia. Glad you find the chanel informative. And thank you for sharing beautiful music interpreted by you!

You are very welcome, Samko. Glad the essay has stimulated your mind. Cheers.

Glad you appreciate it, my friend. Cheers.

Thank you, for the appreciation. The final Part 4 , coming in a couple of weeks, features some comparisons with similar aspects in Angelopoulos films, perhaps you'll be interested as well.

@@PlanSéquenceFilmArt Of course it would be very interesting my friend. I study in a Drama School here in Greece and we are assigned of seeing of seeing and analyzing fistrly Nostalghia and secondly Offret, our professor suggested before seeing Offret reading Dostoyesky's masterpiece The idiot. Many people have seen your videos and have been benefited from them. Also i would like to say to things.. When i saw the film a thought two things: first i thought of Persona (Bergman) because he was on of the first director to use the medium of film for other purposes except of entertainment, and secondly when i saw the crazy caracter i thought of Diogenis in Ancient Greece, who as i know from school years, he was standing in front of statues and asking for money in Ancient Greece and others asked him what he was doing, he said i am exercising in failure. So afterwards when i saw your video and you mentioned this two things i was really content

​@@thanasoni3519 It's great that multiple people have benefitted from watching these videos, I'm really happy for them. And indeed, Bergman was a great influence on Tarkovsky, as one of his favourite directors, and he is quickly mentioned again on Part 4, while the simultaneously eccentric and wise nature of Diogenis is definitely present in Domenico, as a representation of the holy foolishness (Διά Χριστόν σαλότητα), that is such a significant cultural aspect in Russia (юродивый) and present in many of Dostoyevsky's novels, Brothers Karamazov, The Possessed and especially in The Idiot, through Prince Myshkin. Your professor's recommendations are surely very appropriate and meaningful, I can imagine you'll be learning quite a lot from him.

Hey Thanasoni, I just recently remembered you, as I uploaded the first part of an in-depth analysis of Greek master Theo Angelopoulos' Landscape in the Mist. Perhaps it will be interesting to you. Anyway, hope you are doing alright. Cheers!

Thank you for your words Willhem Crool. I definitely intend to do an analysis on The Mirror as well, but first I still have to finish the full analysis on Nostalghia, which will require at least one additional video. Stay tuned for new uploads.

Hi Willhem, don't know if you noticed but I recently uploaded the first part of an in-depth analysis of The Mirror. Have a look at it if you'd like. Cheers.

Hey Matt, you are very welcome, I'm just glad you have found these series of essays useful. After watching it more than two handfuls of times, like you, I do also think Nostalghia ranks at the same level of Stalker and Mirror. It's Tarkovsky at its pinnacle, a representative work of his most intellectually mature level. Thank you again for the appreciation.

@@PlanSéquenceFilmArt I am not a big believer in rankings because it's art and it strikes emotion in everyone differently. It seems he had to find The Mirror in the edit and he shot Stalker 3 times, which I think speaks to his insane perfectionism. Maybe I am romanticizing it, but being out from under the specter of Soviet control in Nostalghia I see a film made by a clear headed and unafraid master artist who finally achieved a singular vision.

@@mattcalt Me neither, the usage of the word ranking in my previous comment pertains merely to the category where I would find the movie when considering how it affected me on an emotional level, which to me would be hard to detach from Mirror and Stalker, since like you I see them all as masterpieces. Nevertheless, I do believe your reasoning to make sense and that specific context is one of the aspects I aimed to highlight during these series as useful to comprehend the work. Thanks again for your engagement with this. Cheers.

@@PlanSéquenceFilmArt what are your thoughts on Andrei Rublev (Passion of Andrei)? I am working on this theory that perhaps the Prologue, 8 chapters and Epilogue are somehow related to the 10 Commandments. I haven’t seen any analysis that points in that direction. Maybe I am wrong and out if my mind. The Foundry scene has to be among the most epically under discussed scenes in cinema.

@@mattcalt I didn't have the chance to watch Andrei Rublev as much as I did his later films, though from what I can recall, it is nonetheless an extraordinary work. For me, the foundry scene is representative of the triumph of faith, to believe in something that lies within us, an imanent essence bequeathed and shared through life, regardless of the abstract conception attributed by mankind. It is a breathtaking and stirring scene that certainly belongs to the pantheon of filmmaking history. As for the 10 commandments inspiration, I haven't noticed a connection, but it is a theory worth meditating upon and one which I will consider in future viewings.

You have some interesting interpretations there, it's always interesting to find how different people perceive the same images. Thanks for the interest and stay tuned for part 4.

Not quite so. Whilst looking at the elements in general, you can perceive them however you like and according to your culture. But when conveyed with specific direction, they will no longer be symbols at all. Of course, provided you are watching a good film.

Cheers!

Thank you very much for your words, Chema R. Glad you have found the essay stimulating.

Glad you have enjoyed it, Yannick. Cheers!

Hey Antaniper12, thank you for the words and you're absolutely right, it's a sacristan indeed and not a priest. Cheers!

Thank you very much, my friend. The artist is Blear Moon and I've put the link to his bandcamp on the credits at the end of the video. Cheers!

Al Asif Thanks! There's another review coming up either later today or tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Hey zaltmanbleroze, you are quite right, as I mention in the video, Nostalghia can be rather opaque at times and is definitely not one of the easiest of the Tarkovsky films, but if you delve deep into it, the meaning emerges and the effort becomes very rewarding. I envy you, you still have The Sacrifice to watch, I wish I could watch it for the first time again, it has a spellbinding quality to it, one of Takrovsky's finest. Cheers!

I agree with much of what you say, but my goodness did you give me a great chuckle with the "bloviated git" comment! Now that's a delightfully sophisticated jab. I think I'll remember that for a long time. Thanks for your input and thoughts also. Cheers.

Hey Bijou, I thank you deeply for your engagement with this meditation and for providing us with your thoughts, which I must say, are quite substantial and worth pondering upon, and I certainly am not the kind of person to be triggered by anything really. I definitely agree with your points on conservatism and religion, and it seems to me that Tarkovsky adresses these directly in many of his films, hence why so many rigid and old-fashioned ideas and characters are confronted with life-changing challenges, and hence the digressions into Taoism, Buddhism, and a pervading Eastern religious aura that peppers other works if his. Later on this series on Nostalghia, I mention Sufism and other potential religious connections, perhaps you'll be interested in listening to that to. Cheers!

When things turn to crises, to resolve the problem we must see where things went off the rails. Return to the foundations to reexamine if that is solid, then rebuild having learned to avoid the mis-takings that led down the path to disaster -- or in keeping with the building metaphor -- to the bad design or poor craftsmanship or materials not fit for purpose . . . This is what Domenico was more than alluding to in his 'man on horseback' speech before he alights himself and Beethoven's Ode to Joy is chorused, creating drama in counterpoint. A court jester for the public, seeming crazy to others while telling his truths. A poet and professor decades past told me that all stories could be generalized under a few original tales. He said Hamlet was one, Don Quixote another, I forget the rest but could suggest a few myself. Voltaire's Candide for one. This movie Nostalghia is the Don Quixote story retold, although there is little comedic in the drama, rather tragedy. Well there may be comedy, but not portrayed as such but left up to the audience to smile at internally, like the scene of too Catholic Italian women imploring the virgin for conception. There's humor in that but veiled. As I understood the film, it was about Tarkovsky's own displacement like a refugee from beloved childhood in Russia, which was evident in Mirror. Hence the name Nostalghia. I was able to follow the story more easily than say, Mirror, by now knowing that the black and white scenes are dreaming. But as with Quixote, Tarkovsky was a paradox between the existential childhood of Russia and the idealistic being of thoughts about cinema and how to portray life. Or so I think.

Hamlet, Don Quixote, maybe Homer's Odyssey was another, though that also a journey like Quixote. Well anyhow -- would make for a good essay question to World Lit students. If all literature was generalized or reduced to archetypical tales, what works would be the originals?

@@rockyfjord3753 I believe you are quite correct, the themes you mentioned of reassessing established norms and conventions (leading back to Descarte's scepticism as mentioned by you in another post), the role and purpose of the perceived madman (which nevertheless remains wise from a perspective), Tarkovsky's emotional displacement amidst the Western and Catholic culture, are all address in the later parts with more or less detail. Nostalghia in many ways can be considered an unofficial companion of Mirror, which shall be discussed in more detail in a future video of the Mirror's series. Thanks for the interest once again.

Two great masters of cinema.

Hi John, thanks for the interest! I'm currently editing part 2, should be ready to publish by the end of next week.

Part 2 released two sweeks ago. Have a look at it if you like, over here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-jLacU801swg.html

Sou pois, caríssimo!

dava para ver pelo sotaque, grande video mano @@PlanSéquenceFilmArt

@@pmrmatos Sempre difícil disfarçar, mas não há como fugir, haha! Obrigado companheiro, um abraço!

Perhaps in a sense. It's certainly a profound, personal meditation on his own life and thought.

It is something which other people have complained before, but I personally find no issue with his adamantine commitment to the pensive and thoughtful nature of his works, even if completely bereft of humour. If I want laughter, I will get it form Tati, Chaplin, Fellini, Shengelaia, etc.

It wasn't a criticism, it had never occurred to me before.

@@Johnconno Fair enough, my friend. I've come across multiple people pointing that out in a negative manner, but it always felt to me as a rather odd criticism. Now that I think of it again, I remember laughing on Andrei Rublev's scene with the village fool/jester. I wonder if that counts?

Vatak Segen In my opinion, the "mystical" aspect, let's say, of Tarkovsky's films, is only a limited facet of his work. He's never proselytizing nor are his films manifestly religious, actually in them at no point is Christianity affirmed as real beyond doubt, despite the basis of faith being regularly inspected and not disregarding its historical influence. I would rather look at his films as encompassing descriptions of the world and its mysteries, which naturally include unanswered questions. I believe you will benefit from watching them, as they illustrate humanity, regardless of being religious or not, and the questions put forward by poetry and philosophy since time immemorial. In Part 2 of this series I will talk about the three main themes of this film, none of which is faith, for example. It's coming sometime tomorrow so stay tuned.

It's art

As an atheist, I adored Nostalghia, I find it hard to believe Tarkovsky is not an atheist, so your comment makes little ense to me.

Yes, you're probably right about that, this is nothing more than the collected ramblings of a passionate spectator entranced by the movie's self-sustaining spirit and in that sense my video series are absolutely unnecessary and disposable. Hopefully you'll find something worthwhile that will aid your connection with the work on the other parts but in the end I believe you are right in declaring this effort wholly superfluous. All the best, my friend.

@@grujber7342 Why did you dislike it so much, Grujber?

It insists upon itself

@@grujber7342 Could you ellaborate on that?

I couldn't even finish it

My friend, it's unfortunate you have found my essay verbose or obscure, as I strive to make my video essays accessible, albeit assumedly using poetic or lyrical phrasing that would echoe Tarkovsky's images and mood. Oddly enough, I've had no other such complaints from other viewers, but naturally it is impossible to please everyone. The internet contains a large expanse and wealth of content, I'm sure you will find other people that will better appeal to your taste. Cheers and I wish you all the best.