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Thread: Andrei Tarkovsky's film getting a Criterion release

  1. #1

    Andrei Tarkovsky's film getting a Criterion release

    One for the cinephiles here:

    https://www.criterion.com/films/28150-stalker

  2. #2
    Member
    Registered: Apr 2001
    Location: Switzerland
    Yup, already got it preordered. I did get last year's UK release (Artificial Eye, I believe), but the visual quality isn't particularly good, and Criterion usually does very good remasters.

  3. #3
    Indeed, I'd be most surprised if there were issues with the quality.

    Having never seen the film myself, I'm very tempted.

  4. #4
    Member
    Registered: Apr 2001
    Location: Switzerland
    Keep in mind that it's very slow and pretty cryptic. If you've seen other Tarkovsky movies, you know what to expect, but definitely don't go in expecting anything like the game.

  5. #5
    Yes, from the small amount I read I definitely wasn't expecting anything like the game.

    (Sadly I've actually played very little of the game, so my expectations of the film are fairly untainted by it in any case!)

  6. #6
    Member
    Registered: Apr 2002
    Location: Landahn

  7. #7
    Brethren
    Registered: Apr 2000
    Location: Not France
    I admit, I tired to watch this film twice and both times I fell asleep. No offense to the movie and those invovled, but it was just kind of slow. Maybe this is a chance to give it another shot though.

  8. #8
    Member
    Registered: Jul 2014
    Slow is an understatement. The pace is downright glacial.

  9. #9
    Member
    Registered: Apr 2001
    Location: Switzerland
    One person's glacial is another's hypnotic. If you tend to like slow films, I find that this one has an intensity that other slow films don't always have, and the visual compositions are often downright gorgeous. Still, it's definitely not for everyone.

  10. #10
    Thanks for the notice! Finally! I also bought last year's release on principle, but didn't even watch it. The settings have been begging for a (good) high-def release.

    This and Solaris are pretty fun to trick your friends into watching.

  11. #11
    So I was able to watch this film for the first time on the big screen :)

    I didn't love it, but it's very striking and thought-provoking; raising many questions and providing few answers. I do believe I'm going to be thinking about it for some time to come.
    Last edited by Shadowcat; 6th Aug 2017 at 09:34.

  12. #12
    Member
    Registered: Oct 2018
    Location: Arizona
    I love the Tarkovsky film. Here's a video I made on the film, the book it's based on, and the games if anyone's interested.


  13. #13
    Member
    Registered: May 2004
    I actually vastly prefer this film to the games. Too bad it basically killed everyone who worked on it since the set locations gave them cancer

  14. #14
    Member
    Registered: Sep 2005
    Location: Not Kansas
    Quote Originally Posted by froghawk View Post
    ... Too bad it basically killed everyone who worked on it since the set locations gave them cancer
    I wondered about that, considering the film was shot pre-Chernobyl meltdown. Then I found this little excerpt (Wikipedia) about Tarkovsky and several of the cast & crew:

    'Several people involved in the film production, including Tarkovsky, died from causes that some crew members attributed to the film's long shooting schedule in toxic locations. Sound designer Vladimir Sharun recalled:[11]

    We were shooting near Tallinn in the area around the small river Jägala with a half-functioning hydroelectric station. Up the river was a chemical plant and it poured out poisonous liquids downstream. There is even this shot in Stalker: snow falling in the summer and white foam floating down the river. In fact it was some horrible poison. Many women in our crew got allergic reactions on their faces. Tarkovsky died from cancer of the right bronchial tube. And Tolya Solonitsyn too. That it was all connected to the location shooting for Stalker became clear to me when Larisa Tarkovskaya died from the same illness in Paris.'

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