About Stalker by Tarkovski
Ruud Welten (Assistant Professor at the Academia Vitae) insisted we watch the movie Stalker by Tarkovski with our professional students. It took three hours and I felt rather stupid afterwards. Others I spoke with during a restroom break before our discussion about it had the same feeling. We could not make sense of it. One was even somewhat upset for having wasted so much time on something like this.
We started our discussion sharing what we had seen. No interpretation (although that proved to be difficult). That became one eye opener: how much I, and the others, had seen when we began listing details. I was struck by the fact that I had become aware of the camera, and the presence of the person holding the camera. (Maybe I was influenced by the information that Ruud had given us before we started to watch, in particular the strange fact that several of the crew had died ten years later from the same type of cancer.) We noticed the role of time—the drawn out episodes like the drive into the forbidden zone (that had put me to sleep)—the dream-like scene, the objects in the water, the books in the dwelling of the stalker. Even though we had felt stupid, we had observed a great deal.
In our interpretation we quickly got irritated with each other. Especially after Ruud had called this movie one of the greatest pieces of art ever, others, including myself, began to protest. I myself found the movie somber, devoid of hope and love, and humor and irony, and saw it as a typical self-indulgence, a surrender to a sense of somberness and darkness that I find too often among artists. No matter how seductive the descent into the dark rooms of the souls may be, what is so great about the getting lost in that descent? The group split. Some insisted on the beauty of the movie, the value of the mystery that it pictured, and its theme of the impossibility—or is it risk?—of wishing one’s innermost wish; others saw it mainly as a terribly long, slow, dark movie that had little to offer to the way our life. I belonged to the latter group. Later in the café, we continued our discussion. The question was who had experienced the dark side of life, and who had had the feeling that he was about to loose his grip. We also concluded that we were the stalker, eager as we are to guide, advise, and coach other people to do the things we are not capable of doing. (The stalker is not allowed in the room in which your innermost wish will be fulfilled.) We talked some about the roles of the Scientist and of the Writer. Most thought that the Writer improved in the course of the expedition.
The eye opener here is—although I had learned this before at Academia Vitae—that a good movie provokes, that it causes resistance and even anger, and that its deeper meanings come about in conversation. By having talked about a movie like this one—and by now writing about it—I will never forget it. I suspect that it will be a source for certain insights. I only do not know yet what those insights will be.
Incidentally, the participant who was most upset about having wasted his precious time to watch this movie told us the next day that his final essay will probably be about Stalker.
I suspect that the movie will be on the program more often.
Wilfred said,
May 19, 2008 @ 12:13 pm
One of the greatest pieces of art ever. Yes, I agree. I read the movie just yesterday. And also I did not realize the deeper meanings of this movie at first sight. But, trust me on this, from a philosophical and educational point of view. it is without any doubt one of if not the best movie ever made. Especially for social understandings and practices. The deeper meanings evolved for me just very partly, I guess, when i was into a conversation with myself and the movie walking through my village this morning. I still have to watch the movie again at least 2 times for sure to get towards a lot more great insights for sure.
A very recommendable movie, maybe boring at the moment of watching but of highest levels of greatness afterwards.
Alice Verheij said,
May 21, 2008 @ 1:37 am
Well well. I have to say that I have seen this movie a while ago. It striked me as depressive and dark. But I saw it in a period I myself was pretty depressive for many reasons. I still am sometimes.
But to state it as the best or one of the best movies ever made is to overstate it’s value based on a very small viewing bandwith. Honestly, I cannot watch and value a movie without looking at the artistic angle. That means the directors interpretation of script and the players qualities in the way they play their roles. Same goes for lighting, camerawork, sound, et cetera. And that’s where this really is not one of the best movies ever made. It does have it’s qualities in psychological depth and it certainly does have impact on the audience. If not directly than at least indirectly.
The technique of using ‘long takes’ becomes irritating and is certainly not revolutionary. It’s misplaced in some parts of the movie. Even in 1979 letting a movie depend heavily on cinematographic ‘tricks’ like these was old fashioned. To my view, after some time in the movie it becomes so much irritating that it pushes attention away from the movie. The three main characters are sometimes acted in a rather ‘flat’ manner. The individual emotions could have been devellopped a lot better. Quite surprising for a Russian movie with Russian actors. It’s as if Stanislavski never existed.
So from an artistic point of view the movie is mediocre as far as I’m concerned. From an intellectual, phylosophical and psychological point of view it’s interesting and maybe even challenging. But then again, the novel ‘Roadside Picknick’ had much thesame effect on the reader. To my humble opinion the movie lacks added value to that book. I experienced much thesame emotions from the book as from the movie, the visual aspect of the movie doesn’t bring an extra emotional layer to me because of the forementioned artistic defects. Rending the movie as not all that great.
But then again, that’s only my experience. I still regard ‘Mullholland Drive’ as best movie ever made… but that has a completely different background.
Regards,
Alice