Movie #67: Released in 1975, directed by Andrei Tarkovsky, 107 minutes. New to me!

LetterBoxd score: unrated!

I think this one would benefit a lot from a rewatch, and I was quite tempted to just go ahead and do it. I didn’t end up having time though.

My experience watching it was that it was beautifully shot, and featured moment-to-moment memorable scenes – a ghost at the table, the doctor approaching from the field, diving on a grenade, killing a rooster (or not), a barn burning. But I couldn’t really turn off the part of me that was trying to figure out how to tie this together, (despite going into with the intention not to do that) and that part of me was frustrated. I didn’t pick up on the (in retrospect obvious) theme that Tarkovsky is ruminating on repeating generational trauma – how he relates to his boy, and his mother. Simply knowing, for example, that his son and his younger self are played by the same actor, would give me a pretty different experience I think.

I think there is something there (although it also sounds like plenty of viewers who got what I missed still find ultimate meaning elusive), but I just missed it this time.

Why would someone think it’s one of the ten greatest movies ever made?
Beautiful, and using the medium to cover deramlike memories. Surprised we don’t see more of this, but maybe it’s just really really really hard to pull off in a way that is compelling? You’re fighting deep narrative impulses.

Next: Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles