Tarkovsky’s first film outside of the Soviet Union, unsurprisingly, explores themes of loneliness and isolation.
The Russian writer Andrei Gorchakov is in Italy to research the life of eighteenth-century poet Pavel Sosnovsky; Andrei is deep in the Tuscan countryside, with his translator Eugenia; the morning after their arrival we meet Domenico. Domenico is seen as a madman for keeping his wife and children locked in his home for seven years, for fear of a biblical apocalypse. Andrei feels an immediate affinity for Domenico. Andrei convinces Eugenia to take him to Domenico’s home, where he asks her to start a conversation with him. She fails, but Andrei pushes her to persist – as he believes his poor Italian will inhibit him from having any meaningful conversation. “My subject is a Russian who is thoroughly disorientated by the impressions crowding in upon him, and at the same time about his tragic inability to …show more content…
A silent communication is established and together they transcend the language barrier – something which Tarkovsky’s visual poetry so easily does.
Though this metaphorical silence displays an optimistic side to Tarkovsky’s nostalgic anxiety, the film as a whole seems to paint a more unsettling picture of life as an outsider. Andrei, all the while he’s in Italy, appears to lack confidence and inspiration; he appears “crushed by the recollections of his past … which assail his memory together with the sounds and smells of home”. His inspiration seems to be at home in Russia, along with his family.
The majority of natural sound, non-dialogue sound, arrives in the form of Andrei’s dreams – for, when in Italy, Andrei is at the mercy of verbal communication. This leads to an incredibly quiet first
The Russian writer Andrei Gorchakov is in Italy to research the life of eighteenth-century poet Pavel Sosnovsky; Andrei is deep in the Tuscan countryside, with his translator Eugenia; the morning after their arrival we meet Domenico. Domenico is seen as a madman for keeping his wife and children locked in his home for seven years, for fear of a biblical apocalypse. Andrei feels an immediate affinity for Domenico. Andrei convinces Eugenia to take him to Domenico’s home, where he asks her to start a conversation with him. She fails, but Andrei pushes her to persist – as he believes his poor Italian will inhibit him from having any meaningful conversation. “My subject is a Russian who is thoroughly disorientated by the impressions crowding in upon him, and at the same time about his tragic inability to …show more content…
A silent communication is established and together they transcend the language barrier – something which Tarkovsky’s visual poetry so easily does.
Though this metaphorical silence displays an optimistic side to Tarkovsky’s nostalgic anxiety, the film as a whole seems to paint a more unsettling picture of life as an outsider. Andrei, all the while he’s in Italy, appears to lack confidence and inspiration; he appears “crushed by the recollections of his past … which assail his memory together with the sounds and smells of home”. His inspiration seems to be at home in Russia, along with his family.
The majority of natural sound, non-dialogue sound, arrives in the form of Andrei’s dreams – for, when in Italy, Andrei is at the mercy of verbal communication. This leads to an incredibly quiet first