September 15th Log

THE MIRROR
1975, Andrei Tarkovsky, Soviet Union
Repeat Viewing, DVD

The Mirror is masterful Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky's most personal and ultimately most artistic film. Tarkovsky's trademark slow pace, and brilliant long takes are beautiful to watch. Through images and dreams we are taken into the minds of the films character, but are always left with a secret. The film flows like a dream in both color and black and white. The Mirror is most of all an autobiography towards Tarkovsky's relations and memories of his Mother and Father, whom he deeply cared for. The Mirror is a film of childhood memories and the emotions, feelings, and images of those memories. The cinematography is among the best you'll see in cinema, specifically the masterful use of color and visions of nature. The closing moments are deeply touching and beautiful. The Mirror is artistic cinema at it's most breathtaking and poetic. It does what wonderful and powerful cinema should: capture emotions through it's images! True art, and more importantly true cinema, captures the emotions and soul of the viewer and let's them ponder the imagery subconsciously. Tarkovsky masters this ability and remains one of cinema's most gifted visionaries.