#Irina Tarkovskaya

[byneddiedingo]

Ivan's Childhood (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1962)

Cast: Nikolay Burlyaev, Valentin Zubkov, Evgeniy Zharikov, Stepan Krylov, Nikolay Grinko, Dmitri Milyutenko, Valentina Malyavina, Irina Tarkovskaya, Andrey Konchalovskiy. Screenplay: Vladimir Bogomolov, Mikhail Papava, based on a story by Vladimir Bogomolov. Vadim Yusov. Production design: Evgeniy Chernyaev. Film editing: Lyudmila Feyginova. Music: Vyacheslav Ovchinnikov.

There are scenes in Ivan's Childhood that would work in the hands of only Andrei Tarkovsky. The famous scene in the birch forest, in which Kholin (Valentin Zubkov) straddles a trench and kisses Masha (Valentina Malyavina) while dangling her over it is completely extraneous to Ivan's story, as are almost all the scenes in which Masha, the physician's assistant, appears. And Tarkovsky never falls into the trap of sentimentality in the dream sequences, including the film's ending. In fact, I think it's a mistake to call them "dream sequences" -- they mostly avoid the conventions of movie dreams like odd angles or camera tricks or surreal elements. They're really memory pieces, explorations of the other side of Ivan's childhood, the innocent years of peace, poetically interpolated into the harshness of war. In fact, the "real" sequences are often more dreamlike than the memories: the dizzying ghostlike trunks of the birch trees, the flares falling silently like meteorites, the spiky war ruins that threaten to impale. It's a heartbreaking film because Tarkovsky refuses to pull out all the melodramatic stops but lets his images speak for themselves and because Nikolay Burlyaev performs with such conviction as Ivan, in one of the greatest performances by a child ever captured on film. It's probably the most poetic war film ever made because the war recedes into the background as a thing remembered.

[365filmsbyauroranocte]

“People should be reminded more often that they are human beings.”

Andrei Rublev (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1966)  

[ozu-teapot]

Ivan’s Childhood | Andrei Tarkovsky | 1962

Nikolay Burlyaev, Irina Tarkovskaya

[genevieveetguy]

If a well is really deep, you can see a star down there even in the middle of a sunny day.

Ivan's Childhood (Ivanovo detstvo), Andrei Tarkovsky (1962)

[lost-in-the-movies]

Nikolay Burlyaev &  Irina Tarkovskaya, Ivan’s Childhood (1962)

[365filmsbyauroranocte]

“I am what I am. You couldn't teach me integrity.“

Andrei Rublev (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1966)  

[365filmsbyauroranocte]

“Everything is an eternal circle, and it repeats and repeats itself.”

Andrei Rublev (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1966)  

[ozu-teapot]

Andrei Rublev | Andrei Tarkovsky | 1966

Irma Raush

[genevieveetguy]

You just spoke of Jesus. Perhaps he was born and crucified to reconcile God and man. Jesus came from God, so he is all-powerful. And if He died on the cross it was predetermined and His crucifixion and death were God's will. That would have aroused hatred not in those that crucified him but in those that loved him if they had been near him at that moment, because they loved him as a man only. But if He, of His own will, left them, He displayed injustice, or even cruelty. Maybe those who crucified him loved him because they helped in this divine plan.

Andrey Rublev, Andrei Tarkovsky (1966)