09/05/06 The Mirror

The Mirror (1975), directed by Andrei Tarkovsky

watched w/ Leslie; DVD rental (Netflix) @ home

I'll always appreciate an honest attempt at cinema as art, even if the subject matter is completely out there and diluted by the artist's own personal trappings. Plus, if you throw in a foreign twist...you have a tendency to get so lost in the visually impaired trip that you forget what the film is about or why you are watching it (Ingmar Bergman anyone?). Then, when the movie ends...you have time to collect your thoughts, wipe the drool from your mouth, and come back to the real world. Maybe it makes sense to you, maybe you have become much more enlightened. Maybe it was all a cunning ruse to induce a reaction or topical debate on the audience, causing us all to be the puppets in an ever expanding play of human psyche...the final conclusion to an even deeper wormhole of a film than ever imagined by the very director who thought they were being so creative and sassy with their introspective masterpiece. Wait, where the hell am I? How do we get back home from here? We're all mad here! I digress though...as the film tends to do...but in an intriguing way. Tarkovsky mixes flashbacks, stock footage, grainy shots, poetry, and Russian culture and society to have a man explain near his death, what his life meant. As with a mirror (how brilliant), the film acts to reflect the past shown on the present face of things...and pull some meaning from the image. A complex and experimental way of looking at things, but worth a look if nothing more than to comprehend what I'm trying to say here. I think I just confused myself into liking the film.

3 out of 5 stars