The Mirror (1975)
"Zerkalo" (original title)

A man in his forties is going to die and remembers his past. His childhood, his mother, the war, personal moments but things that also tell the story of all the Russian nation...

Director:

Andrei Tarkovsky

Writers:

Aleksandr Misharin, Andrei Tarkovsky,

Stars:

Margarita Terekhova, Oleg Yankovskiy, Filipp Yankovsky

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Margarita Terekhova	...	Natalya / Maroussia - the Mother
Oleg Yankovskiy	...	The Father
Filipp Yankovsky	...	Aleksei - 5-years-old
Ignat Daniltsev	...	Ignat / Aleksei - 12-year-old
Nikolay Grinko	...	Printery Director
Alla Demidova	...	Lisa
Yuriy Nazarov	...	Military trainer
Anatoliy Solonitsyn	...	Forensic doctor
Larisa Tarkovskaya	...	Nadezha - Mother of 12-y-o Alexei
Tamara Ogorodnikova	...	Nanny / Neighbour / Strange woman at the tea table
Yuri Sventisov	...	Yuri Zhary
Tamara Reshetnikova
Innokentiy Smoktunovskiy	...	Aleksei (voice)
Arseni Tarkovsky	...	Father (voice)
E. Del Bosque	...	A Spaniard

Storyline

The director mixes flashbacks, historical footage and original poetry to illustrate the reminiscences of a dying man about his childhood during World War II, adolescence, and a painful divorce in his family. The story interweaves reflections about Russian history and society.

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Plot Keywords:

childhood | poetry | flashback | divorce | russian history | 

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Genres:

Biography | Drama

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Details

Country:

Soviet Union

Language:

Russian Spanish

Release Date:

7 March 1975 (Soviet Union)

Also Known As:

The Mirror

Filming Locations:

Mosfilm Studios, Moscow, Russia

Box Office

Budget:

RUR 622,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Mosfilm

Technical Specs

Runtime:

108 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The concept of The Mirror dates as far back as 1964. Over the years Tarkovsky wrote several screenplay variants, at times working with Aleksandr Misharin. Their mutually-developed script initially was not approved by the film committee of Goskino, and it was only after several years of waiting that Tarkovsky would be allowed to realize The Mirror.

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Goofs

In the first scene, in which stutterer Yuri Zhary is being hypnotized, a shadow of the boom mic is prominently visible on the wall behind him. However, because this is clearly supposed to be a recreation of a TV broadcast, it appears to be a intentional error.

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Quotes

Father: It seems to make me return to the place, poignantly dear to my heart, where my grandfathers house used to be in which i was born 40 years ago right on the dinner table. Each time i try to enter it, something prevents me from doing that. I see this dream again and again. And when i see those walls made of logs and the dark entrence, even in my dream i become aware that I'm only dreaming it. And the overwhelming joy is clouded by anticipation of awakening. At times something happens and i stop ...

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Connections

Featured in The Story of Film: An Odyssey: Episode #1.9 (2011)

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Soundtracks

"Orgelbüchlein - Das alte Jahre vergangen ist - BWV 614"
Composed by Johann Sebastian Bach
Played during the opening credits

User Reviews

Tarkovsky's enigmatic masterwork.

I found this film quite difficult to get into since I'm more used to conventional plot driven narratives, a concept that was anathema to Tarkovsky. Certainly the Soviet authorities did their best to limit the venues where this film could be seen, condemning it's personal nature as decadent, self-indulgent and against the formal traditions of Soviet cinema, a cinema which Tarkovsky himself did not have a good word for. Russians who did see it sent many letters to the director saying how much it affected them and mirrored their own childhood experiences. Tarkovsky himself had difficulty in 'finding' his film during production, and originally worried that it would not work. Many critics questioned whether the images were symbolic in some way, but Tarkovsky dismissed symbolism as decadent. He sited Japanese writers of the middle ages rejecting such things. He had no time for surrealism either, pointing out that Dali himself had rejected the concept as facile. And yet the pull of dreams are un-mistakable in this work. Tarkovsky stated that the artist himself does not necessarily know the meaning of an image but is compelled to express his vision.

Despite some of the problems in viewing this film there are plenty of moving and mysterious moments, not least the wistful and melancholic look on the face of the mother as she lays in the grass, contemplating her children's future.