Nostalgia

Andrei Tarkovsky's Nostalgia (1983) was the first film he made outside of the Soviet Union, and the second last film he ever made. It deals with his conflicted feelings of leaving his motherland. The protagonist of the film is a Russian poet who faces nostalgia while staying in Italy with an interpreter. The film's exploration of nostalgia, longing and alienation in a foreign culture is striking and surprisingly tangible.

Tarkovsky's form doesn't fail either. His use of sepia in the dreamlike flashbacks, long take aesthetic and meticulous editing are so captivating and impeccable. His use of classical music is almost incomparable, as well.

Nostalgia is a sadly overlooked work in Tarkovsky's filmography even though it's clearly yet another great masterpiece from the auteur.

Score: 10 out of 10

A Man with a Movie Camera

Dziga Vertov's A Man with a Movie Camera (1929) is an experimental silent film, the next logical step after Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin (1925) in silent Soviet cinema. The film begins by telling the audience that the entire film consists of real life footage and nothing was staged. We get to see two cameramen spontaneously film Russia in the 20's. The most obvious comparison must be made to Reggio's Koyaanisqatsi (1982) because the two are so similar in narrative and tone. Even though I'm not a big fan of Koyaanisqatsi, I utterly adored A Man with a Movie Camera.

The film uses pretty much every possible formal technique discovered by the time the film was made - and it was innovative by creating something new as well. Slow motion, fast motion, split screen, fast cutting, long takes, cross-cutting, kinetic compositions and unbelieveable camera movement - this film has them all. What is even better is that the film employs all these techniques flawlessly and smoothly.

Vertov explores the wide subject in a surprisingly precise and colorful way. At the same time it coldly observes, adores and criticizes the trends of its time.

Score: 10 out of 10

Andrei Rublev

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Andrei Tarkovsky's Andrei Rublev (1966) is a film that blew my mind - and I find it nearly impossible to write a proper review of it. It is something that has to be seen. The questions it raises about art, religion, society and power are profound and intriguing. Tarkovsky's meditative and brilliant form kept me glued to the screen throughout the film. Just go and watch it.

Score: 10 out of 10

Come and See

In March 2009, I watched Elem Klimov's Come and See (1985) for the first time. I was stunned by its unflinching and intense depiction of war. Almost a year afterwards, I decided to watch the film again to see if it really was as great as I thought back then. Klimov's film tells about an innocent Russian boy who has to deal with terrible atrocities as Nazis wreak havoc near his hometown.

The screenplay is more or less a mess, no matter how I look at it. Its anti-war message is presented in an over-the-top, heavy-handed way - and never goes below the superficial level. The film alienates the viewer on many occasions (the film is all about being ridiculously dark - there is even no comparison to a better time to make the characters closer to the audience), which is only terrible because it relies heavily on the viewer's reaction. That way the film resorts to using only shock value as a means of exploring the themes. That's a sign of weak writing. However, the movie does portray war in extremely gruesome detail - something it does somewhat well. Sadly, that hardly makes the content satisfying.

The film's form is even more alienating: complex long takes, ridiculously melodramatic musical score, baffling sound mixing and the calm pace keep the viewer at bay. As a distant, cold observation on war the film utterly fails. Despite that, I can still applaud its ways to alienate the viewer - especially the noisy sound mixing is good at that. However, your ears will hurt by the end of the film because all the sound effects are used in really peculiar ways. You'll have to hear it for yourself.

Shamefully, the film is too enraged about its subject so that the movie is not capable of providing a sensible and complex take on anything.

Score: 5 out of 10