Public Lecture: Seer or Cinematographer?: The Making of Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker

Starts: November 9, 2009 at 5:00 PM
Location: Blow Hall 332

Summary

Evgeny Tsymbal (Filmmaker and Historian)

Full Description

As Tarkovsky's last film made in Russia, Stalker occupies a special place among his works, especially in Russia itself, where it has become increasingly shrouded in myth, while Tarkovsky himself has been posthumously transformed into a prophet. Thus Stalker is reduced to a vehicle for the director's Christian or Buddhist mysticism. Critics claim the film foretold the Chernobyl disaster or predicted the date of the director's own premature death. Stalker's tortured production over two years has also contributed to this atmosphere of speculation, and in the West too, the myth of Tarkovsky the seer has gained acceptance. Stalker is again central to such interpretations. But what of Tarkovsky the cinematographer, the artist?