ipl-logo

Tarkovsky's Cinematic Landscape

1203 Words5 Pages

The Great Dream of Nature in Tarkovsky’s Landscape

Tarkovsky’s cinematic landscape serves as a conceptual means, exactly like the chôra, to express that which is inconceptualisable. In his book Sculpting in Time, Tarkovsky states that his films are not made to be deciphered as a set of signs and symbolisms, but “watched as one watches the stars, or the sea, as one admires a landscape. There is no mathematical logic here, for it cannot explain what man is or what is the meaning of life” . A paradox seems to arise in the fact that, on the one hand, the notion of landscape functions as a major aesthetic principle in his work, but on the other hand, that there are few literal landscapes to be found in his films. Landscapes in this case refer …show more content…

Unlike any other filmmaker of his generation, Tarkovsky’s films invent a language of the spirit through the poetry of cinematic images. As opposed to the genre of “religious films” which deal with the role of religion in the lives of people, the “spiritual cinema” of Tarkovsky is about interior terrains where a person is one with oneself – where faith is not about making public declarations of belief but more about waiting for the miracle to happen, a miracle that occurs on the borders of invisible realms and can be felt rather than logically …show more content…

Above all Tarkovsky is interested in the Russian earth. However, no excessive imagery or fetishisation of the earth as a material substance can be observed in his films. On the contrary, the earth’s presence is always omniscient and suggestive, only reflecting people’s attitude towards it. It is through his characters that the earth becomes spiritualised. One thing is clear, as represented, for instance in the Stalker’s monologue in Stalker, as he buries his hands in the earth and nestles his face into the grass of the ‘zone’. Tarkovsky does not excessively highlight the physical matter of the earth as a spiritually charged substance, instead it is human reunion with the earth at the moment of hubris, humbling and renouncement of superiority that gives the earth its spiritual power and

Show More
Related
441 Words | 2 Pages

But, nature does not exclude humans, human excludes themselves from nature. Within the “mists of [the] chopping sea of civilized life, such are the clouds and storms and quicksands and thousand and one items to be allowed for”(277). He uses clouds and storms and quicksands to convey that civilized life includes the same negativity included in the connotation of those conditions, but nonetheless, those too are apart of nature. The purpose of utilizing imagery is so evoke images people already have to connect with them on that level to make them understand that they must find a harmony and balance in the world. So, in order to restore order within one’s individual life, one must defy the social norms that distance themselves from nature to find harmony with it.

Read More
1712 Words | 7 Pages

“The screen is a magic medium. It has such power that it can convey emotions and moods that no other art form can hope to tackle.” The written word and the moving image have always had their entwining roots deeply entrenched in similar narrative codes, both functioning at the level of implication, connotation and referentiality. But ever since the advent of cinema, they have been pitted against each other over formal and cultural peculiarities – hence engaging in a relationship deemed “overtly compatible, secretly hostile” (Bluestone 2).

Read More
806 Words | 4 Pages

(Adams, A., 1977. p. 8). This suggests that Adams images are sublime as his focus was more on the meaning of the landscape

Read More
479 Words | 2 Pages

In the essay, “A Literature of Place”, by Barry Lopez focuses on the topic of human relationships with nature. He believes human imagination is shaped by the architectures it encounters within life. Lopez first starts his essay with the statement that geography is a shaping force for humans. This shaping force is what creates our imagination; the shaping force is found within nature. Everything humans see within nature is remembered, thus creating new ideas and thoughts for our imagination.

Read More
1249 Words | 5 Pages

In 1979, Tarkovsky released another film called Stalker. Stalker is Tarkovsky’s take on the Strugatsky Brothers’ novel, Roadside Picnic. Stalker serves as Tarkovsky’s continuation on the themes developed in his film Solaris. In the film Stalker, Tarkovsky utilizes the contrast between the setting of the Zone and the outside world, which is separated by a fence, to display the Soviet Union is embracing technology at the cost of nature.

Read More
1240 Words | 5 Pages

Many people who go into nature always see it as something beautiful and aesthetic, but they never see the other side to nature. Humankind’s connection with nature isn’t a real one. They always look at the bright side of nature but are blind to the true dark side of nature. JB MacKinnon’s article “False Idyll” (2012), reveals that nature is not just flowers in a field but can also be the survival of the fittest. He backs up his claim by talking about nature through anecdotes and expert’s research.

Read More
1754 Words | 8 Pages

In one novel named Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak, Chris underlines the words “refuge in nature” (Krakauer 189). By underlining those words, Chris stresses their importance to him. Since he wants to find “refuge”, Alex is seeking to leave or escape from somewhere, which is the indulgent society he has lived in for the entirety of his life. This aligns with “moving away from corruption, limits, and civilization” (Tenet Chart). Romantics prefer a life harmonious with nature in lieu of one submerged in a society that has an insatiable hunger for possessions.

Read More
722 Words | 3 Pages

As can be seen in the image, humanity and human individuals attempts to search for comfort and fulfillment in different landscapes. In Gwen Harwood’s At Mornington, the author represents the place that nature and landscapes have within humanity’s search for satisfaction and the perpetual nature of the environment around us. Harwood employs form, structure, the perspective shifts and her choice of language within her representation to augment this relationship, with the consistent interweaving of past and present creating juxtapositions between the constant of the environment and the ever-changing nature of human life, Humanity seeks to find meaning in the transience of life, and Harwood illustrates this concept through examining the persistence

Read More
1441 Words | 6 Pages

In “Aesthetic of Astonishment” essay, Gunning argues how people first saw cinema, and how they are amazed with the moving picture for the first time, and were not only amazed by the technological aspect, but also the experience of how the introduction of movies have changed the way people perceive the reality in a completely different way. Gunning states that “The astonishment derives from a magical metamorphosis rather than a seamless reproduction of reality”(118). He uses the myth of how the sacred audience run out the theater in terror when they first saw the Lumiere Brother Arrival of the train. However, Gunning does not really care how hysterical their reaction is, even saying that he have doubts on what actually happened that day, as for him it the significance lied on the incidence--that is, the triggering of the audience’s reaction and its subsequence results, and not the actual reactions and their extent. It is this incident, due to the confusion of the audience’s cognition caused by new technology, that serves as a significant milestone in film history which triggered in the industry and the fascination with film, which to this day allows cinema to manipulate and

Read More
951 Words | 4 Pages

Thus, Dostoevsky’s descriptions of setting and character reveal a use of space

Read More
551 Words | 3 Pages

Nature is easily projected onto, as it allows for a sense of peacefulness and escapism. Due to its ability to evoke an emotional reaction from the masses, many writers have glorified it through various methods, including describing its endless beauty and utilizing it as a symbol for spirituality. Along with authors, artists also show great respect and admiration for nature through paintings of grandiose landscapes. These tributes disseminate a fixed interpretation of the natural world, one full of meaning and other worldly connections. In “Against Nature,” Joyce Carol Oates strips away this guise given to the environment and replaces it with a harsher reality.

Read More
1052 Words | 5 Pages

Saint Petersburg, the setting of Crime and Punishment, plays a major role in the formation in Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s acclaimed novel. Dostoyevsky’s novels focus on the theme of man as a subject of his environment. Dostoyevsky paints 1860s St. Petersburg as an overcrowded, filthy, and chaotic city. It is because of Saint Petersburg that Raskolnikov is able to foster in his immoral thoughts and satisfy his evil inclinations. It is only when Raskolnikov is removed from the disorderly city and taken to the remoteness of Siberia that he can once again be at peace.

Read More
1223 Words | 5 Pages

Film takes photography to another level. Film, or the cinema “is objectivity in time.” For the first time with film “the image of things is likewise the image of their duration, change mummified as it were”. Bazin argues "only the impassive lens, stripping its object of all those ways of seeing it, those piled- up preconceptions, that spiritual dust and grime with which my eyes have covered it, are able to present it in all its virginal purity to my attention and consequently to my love.

Read More
976 Words | 4 Pages

Baz Luhrmann is widely acknowledged for his Red Curtain Trilogy which are films aimed at heightening an artificial nature and for engaging the audience. Through an examination of the films Romeo + Juliet, Moulin Rouge and The Great Gatsby, the evolution and adaptation of his techniques become evident. Luhrmann’s belief in a ‘theatrical cinema’ can be observed to varying degrees through the three films and his choice to employ cinematic techniques such as self-reflexivity, pastiche and hyperbolic hyperbole. The cinematic technique of self-reflexivity allows a film to draw attention to itself as ‘not about naturalism’ and asks the audience to suspend their disbelief and believe in the fictional construct of the film.

Read More
1047 Words | 5 Pages

TITLE Vaux-le-Vicomte – Where Magical Beauty Meets The Turbulent History LEAD PARAGRAPH Uniqueness of the château Vaux-le-Vicomte lies in the fact that its style and beauty had inspired the creation of the much more famous Versailles, the favourite residence of Louis XIV, the Sun King. Unlike Versailles, however, Vaux-le-Vicomte’s turbulent history reveals a great deal of treachery and misfortune brought to its owners and, especially, its creator. In its case, the statement that “great beauty comes only with the great price” couldn’t be truer. PARAGRAPHS Vaux-le-Vicomte’s history in a few words The creator of this magnificent chateau was Nicolas Fouquet, Louis XIV’s Superintendent of Finances, who was a great patron of art.

Read More

More about Tarkovsky's Cinematic Landscape

Related Topics

Open Document