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Post by The Ferret on Nov 1, 2005 10:04:15 GMT -5
The essence of the Zone and its 'round-out' infinite nature reflects itself in Tarkovsky's personal view of the water element.
Tarkovsky: "There is always water in my films. I like water, especially brooks. The sea is too vast. I don't fear it, it is just monotonous. In nature, I like smaller things. Microcosm, not macrocosm; limited surfaces. I love the Japanese attitude to nature. They concentrate on a confined space reflecting the infinite. Water is a mysterious element due to its monocular structure. And it is very cinegenic; it transmits movement, depth, changes. Nothing is more beautiful than water."
The Zone is very limited, but that's why its value becomes endless - its geography is somehow stretchedin time, not in space. The parameters are far from those we use to measure spacial realities.
Water is also a temporary 'portal' for different and countless reflections, it manages to bend light, thus vision itself. The Zone is also a collector of suggestions, a breathing 'mirror' bond to physical limitations, but not to psychic restrictions.
Also, as water, the Zone manages to re-structure itself whatever it is required, thus assuming an unpredictable, multi-faced relationship with the moleculas inhabiting into it.
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Post by Pauk on Nov 2, 2005 14:33:13 GMT -5
The life came from the water..
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Post by stumblesome on Jan 11, 2006 13:15:27 GMT -5
often tarkovsky's water is not just water, but objects and patterns held within the water. in stalker there are remnants of a forgotten civilization, guns, tools, and tiles. also rain seems to be very pure in tarkovsky's worlds. the rain at the end of stalker seems to cleanse the three men and give them a sense of perspective. the rain in solaris seems to remind kris that he is physically grounded on earth. the nowness tarkovsky brings to the table is astounding. rain and water help that quite a lot i think.
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Post by Pauk on Jan 15, 2006 9:18:14 GMT -5
and water is a very good conductor, that's were the physical and the spiritual unite.
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Post by stumblesome on Jan 17, 2006 16:45:48 GMT -5
in a more physical sense, water conducts electricity. electricity=life. water=life.
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Post by Pauk on Jan 18, 2006 13:18:53 GMT -5
I meant that as water in the physical sense conducts electricity or in the biological is the synonym of life, so in the spiritual way it is the conductor of thought or meaning.
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Post by stumblesome on Jan 20, 2006 1:35:20 GMT -5
Ah, I see. It also looks really neat. The opening shot of Solaris is probably my favorite opening shot of all time.
I was thinking about water again today and I realized that there is really a sense of purity, a sense of clarity to it. Water rinses, it cleans, it purifies. Then I thought of the shot in Stalker where there is some sort of ink in the water....the water at that point is tainted, and correct me but doesn't that shot come just after Stalker has realized that he made sort of a mistake with writer and professor? Sand must have some meaning too. When writer goes beyond the sand, he is sent into some freakish nightmare monologue. Sand is probably the opposite of water, then. Dissolusionment. Porcupine sent his brother to die there. Why?
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Post by Pauk on Jan 30, 2006 18:38:33 GMT -5
The sand represents the creativity of Writer - it became dry and unfertile. Moreover, as a desert-trap it may have an intension to squeeze everything from you, to bring the innermost thoughts unto surface, thus Writer ending up in a bog. It may be a sort of an intellectual trap, so that it is possible to survive only if you had been really thinking and have if not a belief, so at least a lot of considerations what's the right path. Once more, the water Writer ends in exiting the trap is the same dish-water as his speech is - full of complaints, confessions and condemnations. Being his trouble, it's also his salvation.
Speaking about the oil in the water, I am tempted to say that it is a rather direct visualization of Stalker's child-like pure belief being marred by the poisonous Professor's and Writer's 'truth'.
Because of the lack of information, I could only guess that this trap was the main obstacle on the way to the Room and that is why somebody had to fall victim for Porcupine's innermost wishes. We see a similar situation in the book where Red Schuchart sacrifices his colleague's son in a different trap, though also called The Meat-grinder, but that's simply because he needed to track the exact location of the otherwise invisible trap. In the film though it does not seem to be the case, although Stalker often sends his clients in front, as if to check the path. What he checks, I believe, are the clients themselves, that is, their qualities. The greatest peril to them is their own mind, because it is them who want to reach the Room and get their wishes fulfilled, while in the book it was Redrick himself who was on the mission.
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