I obtained permission from JBW to begin a thread confronting and/or embracing the indelible art of Andrei Tarkovsky with his private message.


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I am the Tarkovsky fan who thought the driving scene in Solaris was a little long. I take your point that some of the acting was a little wooden also.

I just recently watched Offret with a friend who was convinced that Alexander was completely self centred/selfish. I could not find any of his arguments convincing. I thought one of the main points of the film was that Alexander sacrificed everything to save humanity, but particularly Little Man.

I was curious to know if you thought that Alexander was crazy/dreaming and imagined the "crisis" or the events really happened. The sudden appearance of the ambulance at the end suggests that his family knew he was losing it and had called the ambulance earlier. This idea is also suggested in A Visual Fugue.

I was also bothered by the dual acts. The Sacrifice prayer and the sexual act with Maria to save the world - Which act worked? If it was all a dream, none of this matters.

What do you think?

Cheers, John>>

Well. . .a lot to digest here! As far as the protracted scene in the cab which was filmed in Tokyo--I believe this was to be censored by Moscow as they deemed it unintelligible at the time. It certainly begs many questions. I think sound plays a great part in this scene, as well as the recurrent face of the little boy in the cab. I can certainly see frustration on the part of the viewer.

As far as your comments to 'Offret,' I'm still trying to get some thoughts together to address them with a cohesive argument. The final (and might I add, visually epiphanic) scene involving the ambulance, Josephson and the witch would seem to support your point. I'm going to do some more research and viewing and report back. Thanks again for re-igniting this discussion!

Michael