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NostalghiaRating:
Release Date: 06 October, 1998 Retail Price: $29.98 Sorry, this product is not currently available. Cast: |
Nostalghia Reviews
The Memory of Angels
There is much to be said for a film about light, air, time, fire, stone, and ghosts. In this case, the ghost is the past, the longing for what we once had. It is beautifully portrayed in the black and white portions of the film.
Tarkovsky's works are all subtle. He has denied any intent to include or use symbolism in his films. Despite these claims, as viewers, we expect and perhaps require representation in order to find a relation between his films and our own lives.
Each film is crafted into layers: Landscape and visual atmosphere, Texture and light, Subject and object, Framing and alignment, and Aural atmosphere (including non-diegetic poetry). While large papers can be written on any of these aspects, it is important to be conscious of what Tarkovsky has done. While his films do not necessarily require cerebral stimulation, I recommend watching his films several times with varying degrees of attentiveness.
Nostalghia is an important film to me. I was introduced to it in college, and it is one of only a very few motion pictures that I consider a personal treasure. I do not take offense to the ones I love who could care less about this film. If everyone understood and appreciated Tarkovsky, it wouldn't be the art it is today.
Nostalghia is a celestial film, drifting far above any claims of comprehension. This film is deeper and far more complex than many viewers realize. (This could probably be said of any film in general, unfortunately.) The film is "angelic." There are angels throughout this film, both in the form of light, divine intervention, sculpture, and if you look closely, there is even a real one walking, solitary, a stark white contrast to the misty landscape in which she has been immersed.
Have you ever closed your eyes and re-lived those memories that haunt you, only to realize that you see yourself, as if the memory were from someone else? The brilliant Stan Brakhage once claimed this as proof of angels, perhaps your guardian angel; you are seeing that angel's memory of you. This neuro-testament to the mind and its connection to spiritual, or molecular, life, makes up the black & white shot at the very end of Nostalghia.
1 + 1 = 1
As the camera slowly pans across the interior of a once great Italian stucture, we hear the rain as it seeps through the roof adding to the puddles below. We also notice a sign of sorts on the wall with "1 + 1 = 1" carefully written. It's one of those "What's this all about?" moments of the film, which commonly occur throughout much of Nostalghia. What Tarkovsky is doing is what he does best: muddling accepted reality for something greater and more spiritual.
The Russian interpretation of "nostalghia" is longing for one's homeland. For me, it's longing for the best of one's past. For those of you who have or have lost a beloved dog, this film will touch you all the more, especially during the piazza scene when the German Shepherd seen throughout the film reacts while the detached humans do nothing.
What is this film about? The blurring between dreams and reality, abandonment, the deterioration of society and the deleterious effects of that deterioration to one's spirit, and no doubt much more. We have become a people so consumed with the materialistic stuff heaped around us, that we no longer know what is important because we are too busy maintaining all that is unimportant. We need to heed what Dominico cries out on the piazza: "Life is simple-we must go back to where we were." In that simplicity, lies our spirit; in that simplicity, thrives our spirit. But in the reality we have created as a society--and sadly now as a global intersociety--we cannot go back. There is no going back; we have traded simplicity for complexity, luxury, beautiful bodies, rap music, i-pods, Paris Hilton, and other things of little importance. We have trivialized our spirit to the point that it is a withered vine neglected in some broken clay pot, pushed aside unnoticed behind a collection of DVDs. Domenico says that the "heart's path is covered in shadow." I say it is covered with materialistic crap as well.
But don't get me wrong. This film is also about the beauty of life, and that that beauty is attainable because it is found within ourselves. That's where the search for beauty needs to begin; that's where the journey toward fulfillment needs to start--within ourselves. The black and white scenes of personal reflection in Nostalghia excel in radiating this beauty.
This film is definitely not for all. It's pace at times is slower than our most boring days. But it's that slowness that needs to be experienced and embraced if one is going to fully appreciate the art of this film. And this film is just that, art, and fine art at that.
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