Zerkalo (1975)

User Rating:

8.1/10   

Director:

Andrei Tarkovsky

Writers:

Aleksandr Misharin (writer)
Andrei Tarkovsky (writer)

Release Date:

April 1975 (Soviet Union)

Genre:

Biography | Drama | History

Plot:

A man in his forties is going to die and remembers his past. His childhood, his mother, the war, personal moments but things that also tell the story of all the Russian nation...

Plot Keywords:

Sepia | Russia | Actress Playing Multiple Roles | Poetry | Archive Footage

Cast

Margarita Terekhova	...	Mother / Natalya
Ignat Daniltsev	...	Ignat / Young Aleksei
Larisa Tarkovskaya	...	Nadezha
Alla Demidova	...	Lisa
Anatoli Solonitsyn	...	Forensic doctor
Tamara Ogorodnikova	...	Nanny / Neighbour / Strange woman at the tea table
Yuri Nazarov	...	Military trainer
Oleg Yankovsky	...	Father
Filipp Yankovsky	...	Aleksei age 5
Yuri Sventisov	...	Yuri Zhary
Tamara Reshetnikova
Innokenti Smoktunovsky	...	Aleksei (voice)
Arseni Tarkovsky	...	Father (voice)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
L. Correcer
E. Del Bosque
Tatiana Del Bosque
Teresa Del Bosque
Diego García
Nikolai Grinko	...	Director of printery
Alejandro Gutiérrez
Teresa Rames

Also Known As:

Зеркало (Soviet Union: Russian title)
Sarke (Soviet Union: Georgian title)
The Mirror (USA)
White, White Day (English translation of working title)

Runtime:

108 min

Country:

Soviet Union

Language:

Russian | Spanish

Color:

Black and White | Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:L | Canada:G (Ontario) | Australia:M | Singapore:PG | Argentina:13 | Finland:K-12 | West Germany:12 | UK:U | Hong Kong:I

Company:

Mosfilm Unit 4

Trivia:

Andrei Tarkovsky prepared over 20 different cuts before he finally was happy with the film.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Candy (2006)

Soundtrack:

Johannes Passion - BWV 245

Tops

It's not easy to make such judgments, but this is my favorite film. A personal choice, for sure, but what MIRROR achieves is the height of poetry and literature. Its final moment, if it works for you (and I can imagine it wouldn't for all), is a success of the "method of indirection" sought by poetry. Its effect is cumulative and devastating.

People often stress the difficulty of this film, but my only answer is to allow it to wash over you and allow it to have its effect. The first time I saw it, I was amazed, but a little baffled. The second time I cried. Each time since then I've teared up, if not actually wept. Its presentation, in its last shots, of the totality of the human experience, combined with the Bach's St John Passion, crushes me every time. And I'm not even Russian. Nor am I religious--this is the closest I get to religion. You just have to be human to understand MIRROR. This is the way of all Tarkovsky.