Nostalghia

[LetoAtreides]

Who here has seen this film? I have and I found it very dark and depressing. Even more so than Andrei Rublyev. That leading actor, whatever his name was, he did a great job. I have never heard of him before. Wasn't his name Yankovski or something?

That movie has too many dream sequences and hidden meanings, it's really the toughest movie of Tarkovski's to follow together with Zerkalo/The Mirror.

[MaKS]

I've seen Nostalghia not too long ago, after most of the other films. I would describe Nostalghia as ascetic and often lifeless, as in many hotel scenes. I haven't found it too difficult to follow. It's all about the characters' psychology, and every time the question "why he or she did so" appeared, the answer "he wanted to" seemed to fit best. Domenico's death was grim, but in the end everithing's just fine.

Oleg Yankovsky is very famous, and one of the best russian actors alive. BTW, you've seen him in Zerkalo, as the father just back from the war.

[blue]

Giving a feeling of darkness and depression was exactly what T wanted. His intention was to picture homesickness and the alienation that’s (supposedly) connected with living in another country and culture. He avoided beautiful sceneries and made the film ascetic as a whole. The only scene that can be described as beautiful, as far as I can recall, is the one in the church in the beginning of the film, with the many burning candles. In this film the very possibility of understanding another culture, not least its literature, is questioned. It goes so far that the main character tells his woman companion to burn her Italian translation of a Russian poet. It’s better with no poetry at all than translated poetry.

T himself was afflicted with homesickness during the making of the film in Italy and he also tried to make Yankovsky feel the same. He purposely let him stay alone in Rome one month before the filming, being disoriented. After that when meeting Yankovsky T told him that “now they could film him”. He was prepared for the role.

I agree that Nostalghia isn’t one of T’s films you easiest get to love, but it definitely has its value. Sometimes even rejection is good. Zerkalo on the other hand is pure poetry by its imagery, despite its hidden meanings.

[MaKS]

I tend to believe, Nostalghia has an optimistic ending. Scenes of talk with girl and carrying the candle are Tarkovskiy-like beautiful. The promise, made to Domenico, draws the hero into spiritually intense silent dialogue, which results in the last scene - where, as i see it, the vision of home merged with the foreign cultural surrounding into tranquile unity.

[maiga]

I was just thinking that it was time to re-watch the last two movies, especially Sacrifice, as I think that they're a whole separate chapter in Tarkovsky's work, and show a new narrative clarity, and not at the expense of previous luminosity and poetry.

I agree that Nostalghia is ultimately optimistic, as the ending is about a clear redemptive resolution to the ennui of the homesickness and the interminable hotel interiors. Yankovsky's character comes across as a bit of a whinger, with his clinging onto the (gloomy) poetry of his home, but his redemption is purely spiritual and above the merely verbal...

Rare bit of pure literal surrealism from T. as well, with the birds in the chapel at the beginning! Very tasty...

[LetoAtreides]

Thank you all for making it a bit more clearer to me. I always wondered why this movie was called Nostalghia, apart from the main character being a stranger in a strange land I just couldn't connect the title to the theme of the film. Maybe it's a nostalgia after the old way of life, which Domenico surely felt? When things were simpler and better. I don't know. One of my favorite quotes from the movie is the one by Domenico when he makes his final speech and tells them they have to return to their old ways, to the nature and then says something like "look how far its gone when a crazy man has to tell you you are insane". It was so poignant.

Erland Josephson was simply magnificent in that part. I still have to see Sacrifice or "Offret" as it is originally titled. I understand AT worked with Bergman's cinematographer?

[MaKS]

Yes, that was Sven Nykvist. He shot "Fanny and Alexander" and some other Bergman's films.

letoatreides said:

One of my favorite quotes from the movie is the one by Domenico when he makes his final speech and tells them they have to return to their old ways, to the nature and then says something like "look how far its gone when a crazy man has to tell you you are insane". It was so poignant.

In Russian text - i wonder if this is translation of Guerra's work - he says "What kind of world is this if a madman shouts to you that you should be ashamed of youselves." If it's a mistranslation, this is a bad one.

[LetoAtreides]

Thanks for that translation. I think that is the correct one. I couldn't remember the exact words, but I knew it was something along those lines.