Old Hollywood
Cinema
1900-1979
Nostalgia is a seductive liar - George Wildman Ball
Ivan’s Childhood (1962, dir. Andrei Tarkovsky)

Ivan’s Childhood (1962, dir. Andrei Tarkovsky)

Valentin Zubkov & Valentina Malyavina in Ivan’s Childhood (1962, dir. Andrei Tarkovsky) 

Valentin Zubkov & Valentina Malyavina in Ivan’s Childhood (1962, dir. Andrei Tarkovsky) 

The Mirror (1975, dir. Andrei Tarkovsky) “With an amazing regularity I keep seeing one and the same dream. It seems to make me return to the place, poignantly dear to my heart, where my grandfather’s house used to be, in which I was born 40 years ago right on the dinner table. I see this dream again and again. Each time I try to enter it, something prevents me from doing that. And when I see those walls made of logs and the dark entrance, 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 dreaming of the house and the pine trees of my childhood around it. Then I get depressed. And I can’t wait to see this dream in which I’ll be a child again and feel happy again because everything will still be ahead, everything will be possible…”

The Mirror (1975, dir. Andrei Tarkovsky)

“With an amazing regularity I keep seeing one and the same dream. It seems to make me return to the place, poignantly dear to my heart, where my grandfather’s house used to be, in which I was born 40 years ago right on the dinner table. I see this dream again and again. Each time I try to enter it, something prevents me from doing that. And when I see those walls made of logs and the dark entrance, 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 dreaming of the house and the pine trees of my childhood around it. Then I get depressed. And I can’t wait to see this dream in which I’ll be a child again and feel happy again because everything will still be ahead, everything will be possible…”

Andrei Tarkovsky & Margarita Terekhova on the set of The Mirror (1975, dir. Andrei Tarkovsky) (via) “It is obvious that art cannot teach anyone anything, since in four thousand years humanity has learnt nothing at all. We should long ago have become angels had we been capable of paying attention to the experience of art, and allowing ourselves to be changed in accordance with the ideals it expresses…It’s ridiculous to imagine that people can be taught to be good; any more than they can learn how to be faithful wives by following the ‘positive’ example of Pushkin’s Tatiana Larina. Art can only give food—a jolt—the occasion—for psychical experience.” -Tarkovsky, Sculpting in Time: Reflections on the Cinema 

Andrei Tarkovsky & Margarita Terekhova on the set of The Mirror (1975, dir. Andrei Tarkovsky) (via)

“It is obvious that art cannot teach anyone anything, since in four thousand years humanity has learnt nothing at all.

We should long ago have become angels had we been capable of paying attention to the experience of art, and allowing ourselves to be changed in accordance with the ideals it expresses…It’s ridiculous to imagine that people can be taught to be good; any more than they can learn how to be faithful wives by following the ‘positive’ example of Pushkin’s Tatiana Larina. Art can only give food—a jolt—the occasion—for psychical experience.”

-Tarkovsky, Sculpting in Time: Reflections on the Cinema 

The Mirror (1975, dir. Andrei Tarkovsky) “Why do I so frequently include a levitation scene, a body rising up? Simply because the scene has a great power. This way things can be created that are more cinematic, more photogenic. When I imagine a person suspended in mid-air, it pleases me.. I find myself filled with emotion. If some fool asks me why in my last film people float up in the air, I would say: “It’s magic”. If the same question came from someone with a more acute intelligence & poetic sensibility, I would respond that for these characters love was not the same thing as it was for the author of Betty Blue.  For me love is the supreme manifestation of mutual understanding, and this cannot be represented by the sexual act. Everybody says that if there is no ‘love’ in a film, it is because of censorship. In reality it is not ‘love’ that’s shown on screen but the sexual act. The sexual act is for everyone, for every couple, something unique. When it is put into films, it’s the opposite.” -Andrei Tarkovsky

The Mirror (1975, dir. Andrei Tarkovsky)

“Why do I so frequently include a levitation scene, a body rising up? Simply because the scene has a great power. This way things can be created that are more cinematic, more photogenic. When I imagine a person suspended in mid-air, it pleases me.. I find myself filled with emotion. If some fool asks me why in my last film people float up in the air, I would say: “It’s magic”. If the same question came from someone with a more acute intelligence & poetic sensibility, I would respond that for these characters love was not the same thing as it was for the author of Betty Blue. 

For me love is the supreme manifestation of mutual understanding, and this cannot be represented by the sexual act. Everybody says that if there is no ‘love’ in a film, it is because of censorship. In reality it is not ‘love’ that’s shown on screen but the sexual act. The sexual act is for everyone, for every couple, something unique. When it is put into films, it’s the opposite.”

-Andrei Tarkovsky

Ivan’s Childhood (1962, dir. Andrei Tarkovsky) (via)

Ivan’s Childhood (1962, dir. Andrei Tarkovsky) (via)