Cinebibliophile.com

Review by Steven Ryniak

“Mirror” (1975, Russian)

Director: Andrei Tarkovsky

“Mirror” by Andrei Tarkovsky (in my opinion the greatest film director of all time) gets my vote for best film ever made. More akin to visual poetry or “imagery of ideas” than a typical linear film, it is chock full of gorgeous visuals from start to finish, whether it be the wind blowing waves through a rolling field of grain, bombs exploding in the air like drooping fireworks or a barn burning down in a rainstorm (can a barn really burn during a rainstorm? Not important), it has probably the most beautiful images I’ve ever seen in a film and unlike anything you will have seen before (unless you’ve seen other Tarkovsky films). 

It is difficult to follow and understand, and after watching it twice I feel like I understand it a little. Most of it, probably 80%, including the first 20 minutes or so, are flashbacks of the protagonist Aleksei’s life growing up as a child and being raised (mainly) by his mother. To add to the confusion, the same actress (Margarita Terekhova) plays the protagonist’s young mother (Maria) in the flashbacks and his (present day) ex-wife Natalia, and the child actor who plays the protagonist Aleksei as a child growing up also plays Aleksei’s present-day son – confusing, right?

The movie unfurls like a stream of consciousness dream that melds memory with surreality, with people levitating and vanishing at will, footage of the Spanish Civil War mixed in and the film alternating between color, black and white and sepia.

Some of the main themes are memory, mis-remembering things, regret, struggles to have meaningful relationships, and, as in all Tarkovsky movies, communion and harmony with nature.

In a nutshell, if you like international films or avant-garde films, this is a must-see. It is very different from American films and moves at a languid, sauntering pace, but is never boring or dull, though will probably take repeated viewings to fully understand and appreciate.

Favorite scene:  A storm comes up in a mesmerizing black and white slow-motion shot, the wind slowly blows the trees, the raindrops start languidly falling – and a bird comes crashing through the glass of a house’s window, breaking free.

***** (Five Stars out of Five)