#888: TARKOVSKY, Andrei: Stalker (1979)

TARKOVSKY, Andrei (Soviet Union)
Stalker [1979]
Spine #888
Blu-ray

Andrei Tarkovsky's final Soviet feature is a metaphysical journey through an enigmatic postapocalyptic landscape, and a rarefied cinematic experience like no other. A hired guide — the Stalker — leads a writer and a professor into the heart of the Zone, the restricted site of a long-ago disaster, where the three men eventually zero in on the Room, a place rumored to fulfill one's most deeply held desires. Adapting a science-fiction novel by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, Tarkovsky created an immersive world with a wealth of material detail and a sense of organic atmosphere. A religious allegory, a reflection of contemporaneous political anxieties, a meditation on film itself — Stalker envelops the viewer by opening up a multitude of possible meanings.

161 minutes

Color
Monaural
in Russian
1:37:1 aspect ratio

Criterion Release 2017

Director/Writers

Adapted from the novel Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky.

Andrei Tarkovsky was 47 when he directed Stalker.

Other Tarkovsky films in the Collection:

#397: Ivan's Childhood (1962)
#34: Andrei Rublev (1966)
#164: Solaris (1972)
#1084: Mirror (1975)

The Film

A

Film Rating (0-60):

60

The Extras

The Booklet

Twelve-page wraparound featuring an essay by critic Mark Le Fanu.

Commentary

None.

Interview 1

With Geoff Dyer, author of Zona: A Book About a Film About a Journey to a Room.

Interviews

From 2000 with set designer Rashit Safiullin and composer Eduard Artemyev.

Interview 2

From the mid-1990s with DP Alexander Knyazhinsky.

Extras Rating (0-40):

39

60 + 39 =

99

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