Zerkalo (1975)

User Rating:

7.9/10   

Director:

Andrei Tarkovsky

Writers:

Aleksandr Misharin (writer)
Andrei Tarkovsky (writer)

Release Date:

April 1975 (Soviet Union)

Genre:

Biography | Drama | History | War

Plot:

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...

Plot Keywords:

Childhood | Divorce | Russian History | Flashback | Poetry

Cast

Margarita Terekhova	...	Natalya / Maroussia - the Mother
Oleg Yankovskiy	...	The Father
Filipp Yankovsky	...	Aleksei - 5-years-old
Ignat Daniltsev	...	Ignat / Aleksei - 12-year-old
Nikolai Grinko	...	Printery Director
Alla Demidova	...	Lisa
Yuri Nazarov	...	Military trainer
Anatoli 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
Innokenti Smoktunovsky	...	Aleksei (voice)
Arseni Tarkovsky	...	Father (voice)
E. Del Bosque	...	A Spaniard

Also Known As:

Зеркало (Soviet Union: Russian title)
Sarke (Soviet Union: Georgian title)
The Mirror (USA)
White, White Day (English translation of working title)

Runtime:

108 min

Country:

Soviet Union

Language:

Russian | Spanish

Color:

Black and White | Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:L | Canada:G (Ontario) | Australia:M | Singapore:PG | Argentina:13 | Finland:K-12 | West Germany:12 | UK:U | Hong Kong:I

Company:

Mosfilm Unit 4

Trivia:

To create the effect of the wind making waves through the crops in the field outside the cabin in the woods, Tarkovsky had two helicopters landed behind the camera and would switch on the rotors when he wanted the wind to start.

Goofs:

Boom mic visible: In the hypnotizing-scene at the beginning (second minute of the film), when the hypnotist is holding the hands of the boy, the whole shadow of the microphone is visible on the wall to the left for over a minute.

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...

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Long-Distance Runners: A Cross-Cultural Love Story (2009)

Soundtrack:

They Tell Us That Your Mighty Powers

Tops

It's not easy to make such judgments, but this is my favorite film. A personal choice, for sure, but what MIRROR achieves is the height of poetry and literature. Its final moment, if it works for you (and I can imagine it wouldn't for all), is a success of the "method of indirection" sought by poetry. Its effect is cumulative and devastating.

People often stress the difficulty of this film, but my only answer is to allow it to wash over you and allow it to have its effect. The first time I saw it, I was amazed, but a little baffled. The second time I cried. Each time since then I've teared up, if not actually wept. Its presentation, in its last shots, of the totality of the human experience, combined with the Bach's St John Passion, crushes me every time. And I'm not even Russian. Nor am I religious--this is the closest I get to religion. You just have to be human to understand MIRROR. This is the way of all Tarkovsky.