The protagonist, Andrei Gorchakov, a Russian poet, is trav- elling in Italy ....
Andrei Tarkovsky's films contain some orthe most moving and poetic images of.
NOSfA/GlIIA (1983)
THE POETICS OF IMAGE ~..
Andrei Tarkovsky: Nostalghio
SYNOPSIS
The protagonist, Andrei Gorchakov, a Russian poet, is travelling in Italy collecting material on the Russian serf composer Pavel Shosnovski, He plans to write an opera libretto on the life of the composer, sent by his proprietor to study music in Italy. Driven by the Russian longing for home, the composer decided to return to serfdom, but hangs himself upon his return. Andrei travels with his Italian interpreter, a sensual and beautiful young woman called Eugenia. It soon becomes evident that -G-orchakov himself is struggling with his longing for home, his loss of purpose and identity. They visit a small church to see a painting by Picro della Franccsca, but Andrei refuses to enter. He rejects Eugenia's sexual advances, and his whole behaviour signals a loss or contact with the world. Andrei keeps dreaming of his home in Russia. In the small town or Bagno Vignoni they meet an eccentric hermit, the former mathematician Domenico, who lives in a deserted and crumbling building. In his attempt to protect his Family from the evil world, Domenico had kept his wile and two children locked up in a house for seven years. Since their liberation by the police, Domenico
has been drifting towards a paranoia. He is utterly obscsscu with the demoralization of the world, which, he believes, is driving humanity to its destruction. Andrei makes the rumark that the madman Domenico is closer to the truth than others. As Andrei drifts away from normal human relationships, he becomes attached to Domenico and visits his decaying abode. Domenico delivers a sermon of desperation in Rome, standing on the equestrian statue of Marcus Au~ relius: 'What kind of a world is this,' he cries, '11' a madman has to tell you to be ashamed of yourselves?' At the end of his apocalyptic message, he douses himself with gasoline and sets himself alight, dying by this self-immolation. In order to Fulfil Domenico's obsessive desire, Andrei attempts to walk across St Catherine's thermal pool with a lighted candle. This would, according to Domenico's belief, save humanity. After several attempts Andrei succeeds, but he dies of a heart attack at the same moment. The film ends with a collage of Andrei sitting in front or his Russian home located within the ruins of an Italian cathedral,
Andrei Tarkovsky, Sculpting ill time RcHections on the cinema. The Bodley Head, .London 1986, p. 110. Nostalghia, Tarkovsky's first film made abroad, was completed in 1983. His last film The Sacrifice, was shot in Sweden and completed in .May 1986, before his death
3
CRElJITS PrOdUCI;rJJ1: Opera Film (Rome), for RAI TV Rete 2 in association with Sovinfilm (USSR). Executive Producer: Rcuzo Rossellini, Manolo Bolognini. Producer: Francesco Casati. Production Executive: Lorenzo Ostuni (RAI). Production Supervisor: Filippo Campus, Valentino Signorctti. Production Administrator: Ncsrorc Baratella. Assistant Director: Norman Mozzato, Larissa Tarkovskaya. Screenplay: Andrei Tarkovsky, Tenino Guerra. Photography: Giuseppe Lanci, Eastman Color. Camera Operator: Giuseppe De Biasi. Editor: Erminia Marani, Amedee Salfa, Assistant Editor: Roberto Puglisi. Art Director: Andrea Crisanti. Set Dresser: Mauro Passi, Special Effects: Paolo Ricci. Music: extracts from Verdi, Wagner, Beethoven, Debussy. Musical Consult0111: Gino Pcguri. Costumes: Lina Ncrf Taviani, Annamode 68. Makeup Supervisor- Giulio Mastrantonio. Sound Rc-
64
cording: Rel110 Ugolinelli. Sound Mixer: Dattilo Moroni. Sound Rerecording: Filippo Otroni, Ivana Fidelc. Sound IIfects: Massimo Anzetloui, Luciano Anzclloui. Leading actors: Oleg Yaukovsk y (Andrci Gorchokovi. Erland Josephson (Domenico), Domiziana Giordano (8!fgcllia), Pau-iz!a Terrene (Gorchokov's \II{/e), Laure De Marchi (HI()/1l({n with Impel), Delia Boccardo (Domenico's wife'), M ilona Vukoti (Town worken, Alberto Canepa (Peasant), Raffaele Di Mario, Rate Furlan, Livio Galassi, Picro Vida, Elena Magoai.
Running time: 126 minutes.
4
5
from cancer later the same year at the age of 54. The idea or making a film in Italy apparently derives From Tarkovsky's long friendship with Toniuo Guerra, Antonioni's collaborator in scriptwritiug all his films since L'avvcntura, except Prefazione and The Passel/gel: Antonioni, who attended the 1975 Moscow Film Festival and saw The Mirror, encouraged 'Tarkovsky. The two directors met several times while Tarkovsky was making preparatory research for Nostalgltia in Italy. Before beginning to work on Nostalghla; Tarkovsky visited Italy several times, and he was very fond of the country, like so many Russian artists and writers before him. Tarkovsky defined 'nostalgia' as 'a complex sentiment, one that mixes the low for your homeland and the melancholy that arises from being far away.' Vida T. Johnson, Graham Petrie, Andrei Tarkovsky: A Visual Fugue, Indiana University Press, Bloomington & Indianapolis, 1994, p. 159. Tarkovsk y 1986, pp. 182 3. Tarkovsky 1986, p. 193.
'In a word, the image is not a certain meaning, expressed by the director, but an entire world reflected as in a drop of water.' Andrei Tarkovsk y '
Andrei Tarkovsky's films contain some or the most moving and poetic images of space and light ever created in any form of art. They touch upon the existential basis of architecture, which is saturated by memories and experiences lost in childhood. The images in his last four films The Mirror (/975), Stalker (1979), Nostalghia? (1981), and The Sacrifice (1986) exhibit an inherent poetics of space a poetry that docs not require architectural construction or utilitarian function. Through images of space, matter, light and time they evoke an experience of pure existence, the metaphysical poetry of being. Tarkovsky's images appear fresh and innocent, as if they had never been exposed to the human eye before.
n~IE mJSSIAN NOS IALGIA'
Tarkovsky emphasizes the importance of personal experiences in art: 'In the course of my work I have noticed, time and again, that if the external emotional structure or a film is based on the author's memory, when impressions of his personal life have been transmuted into screen images, then the film will have the power, to move those who see it." Nostalghia exemplifies this transformation or personal experience into a touching cinematic experience. The director has identified himself with the protagonist to the extent of giving him his own name or Andrei; in The Mirror, his most autobiographical film, the boy who portrays Tarkovsky as a youth, also hears his name. Tarkovsky's films are deeply rooted in the Russian emotional soil. They seek universal expression of the human condition through specifically Russian sentiments and images: 'In all my pictures the theme of roots was always of great importance: links with family house, childhood, country. Earth. I always felt it important to establish that J myself belong to a particular tradition, culture, circle of people or ideas." The main character in the film, the Russian poet Andrei Gorchakov, travels to Haly to gather material on the Russian serf composer Pavel Shosnovsk i (alias Maximilian Beryozovsky). Andrei plans to write an opera libretto on the life or the composer. In the late lxth century, his proprietor, who had noted the musical talent of his serf, had sent Shosnovsk i to study music in Italy. Shosuovsk i st udied composition as a student ofGiambatista Artini at the Conservatory of Bologna, and stayed nine years in Italy achieving some fame as a com-
~
98
Eugenia bares her breast in r,,,,;,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ing her burst of anger in Andrei's room.
98
poser. Driven by the Russian longing for home, however, he decided to return to serfdom in his own country, but hanged himself shortly after his return. Andrei travels with his Italian inrcrprcrcr Eugenia, a sanguinely carnal youl~g W~)nHll> It becomes evident that Andrei himself is struggling with his IO~lgll1g for l11s, home in Russia, and his faltering sense of identity. His alienauon and contused state of mind arc made clear at the very beginning of the film. He has driven '.through half or Italy' with Eugenia to visit a small village church ~lt Montcrchi that had been important for the subject or his study bec:llIsc. ol the famous Madonna del t'arm (Madonna of Childbirth) by Picro della l-runccaca. but he docs not even want to enter the church. ' II is statement, 'Where a lamp once reigned, now reigns memory,'>' serves to explain the strength with which Tarkovsky's scene invites personal memories. The viewer's experience of extreme solitude is explained by Bachelard's observation: 'The flame of a candle is, for many dreamers, an image ofsolitudc:ยป
THE MIANINC OF OBJECTS AND DEIAIIS In Tarkovskv's films, objects
