1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:07,000 Downloaded from YTS.MX 2 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:13,000 Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX 3 00:01:42,061 --> 00:01:44,522 By the jasmine lies a stone. 4 00:01:45,148 --> 00:01:47,442 Beneath the stone lies a treasure. 5 00:01:47,817 --> 00:01:50,236 On the path stands Father. 6 00:01:50,612 --> 00:01:52,739 It's a bright, bright day. 7 00:01:53,031 --> 00:01:55,325 The silver poplar blooms... 8 00:01:55,700 --> 00:01:57,869 and the centifolia rose, 9 00:01:57,994 --> 00:02:00,163 and behind it the rambling roses, 10 00:02:00,288 --> 00:02:02,207 and the tender milky grass. 11 00:02:02,624 --> 00:02:06,127 Never have I been happier than then. 12 00:02:06,544 --> 00:02:10,465 Never have I been happier than then. 13 00:02:10,799 --> 00:02:13,176 There can be no going back 14 00:02:13,468 --> 00:02:15,637 and no recounting 15 00:02:15,845 --> 00:02:18,723 the bliss that filled 16 00:02:18,973 --> 00:02:21,810 that Garden of Eden. 17 00:02:47,544 --> 00:02:50,797 An artist feeds on his childhood his entire life. 18 00:02:50,922 --> 00:02:53,800 The shape and form of his childhood... 19 00:02:54,509 --> 00:02:57,011 determine the nature of his art. 20 00:02:57,762 --> 00:03:00,515 The fact my father was a poet 21 00:03:00,640 --> 00:03:03,268 played a huge role in my life. 22 00:03:05,478 --> 00:03:09,524 His poetry had an enormous influence on me... 23 00:03:10,024 --> 00:03:13,069 as did his views about his poetry, Russian literature... 24 00:03:13,194 --> 00:03:15,196 and art. 25 00:03:20,410 --> 00:03:24,581 But it's a kind of unconscious dependence 26 00:03:24,706 --> 00:03:26,875 and connection. 27 00:03:27,375 --> 00:03:30,962 I can't analyze or evaluate its nature. 28 00:03:31,462 --> 00:03:36,092 I feel much more connected to my mother than to my father. 29 00:03:36,259 --> 00:03:39,220 Everything I had to say in that regard 30 00:03:39,679 --> 00:03:42,098 I said in my film Mirror. 31 00:03:42,390 --> 00:03:44,434 Those who've seen that film 32 00:03:44,684 --> 00:03:47,604 probably understand what I meant. 33 00:04:30,438 --> 00:04:33,441 My first memory dates back 34 00:04:33,733 --> 00:04:37,487 to when I was a year and a half old. 35 00:04:37,779 --> 00:04:39,739 I recall a house... 36 00:04:40,114 --> 00:04:42,450 stairs, and a porch. 37 00:04:42,784 --> 00:04:45,328 An uncovered porch 38 00:04:45,453 --> 00:04:48,039 with steps and a handrail. 39 00:04:48,247 --> 00:04:50,792 Five or six steps. 40 00:04:51,209 --> 00:04:55,296 By the steps was a huge lilac bush. 41 00:04:55,463 --> 00:04:59,133 It was cool beneath it, and strewn with fresh sand. 42 00:04:59,342 --> 00:05:03,721 I'm rolling an aluminum saucepan lid down the handrail 43 00:05:04,180 --> 00:05:08,351 when I'm suddenly terribly frightened by a noise. 44 00:05:08,601 --> 00:05:12,605 I crawl under the lilac and look up at the sky, 45 00:05:12,730 --> 00:05:16,442 because the terrible noise that's getting louder and louder 46 00:05:16,567 --> 00:05:18,653 is coming from above. 47 00:05:18,778 --> 00:05:23,157 Suddenly, through an opening in the branches, 48 00:05:23,491 --> 00:05:26,119 I see an airplane overhead. 49 00:05:26,619 --> 00:05:30,832 That was in 1933. 50 00:05:31,332 --> 00:05:33,751 I was born in 1932. 51 00:05:41,718 --> 00:05:45,888 Those postwar years were very hard, with famine and such. 52 00:05:46,014 --> 00:05:48,307 I almost can't remember. 53 00:05:48,850 --> 00:05:53,771 I only remember the hospital where I went in 1947. 54 00:06:02,905 --> 00:06:06,159 As a child I fell ill from hunger and fear. 55 00:06:06,701 --> 00:06:10,538 I peel the scabs off my lips and run my tongue over them. 56 00:06:10,872 --> 00:06:14,000 I recall the cool and salty taste. 57 00:06:14,375 --> 00:06:18,004 And I walk endlessly. I walk and walk. 58 00:06:18,463 --> 00:06:21,758 I sit on the front steps to warm up. 59 00:06:22,383 --> 00:06:26,846 I wander lightheaded, as if to the Pied Piper's tune. 60 00:06:26,971 --> 00:06:31,017 I sit shivering on the steps, trying to warm myself. 61 00:06:31,434 --> 00:06:34,729 And Mother stands a ways off, beckoning to me, 62 00:06:34,937 --> 00:06:37,732 seemingly so close, yet out of reach. 63 00:06:38,024 --> 00:06:41,402 I move toward her. 64 00:06:41,611 --> 00:06:45,239 She stands seven steps away, beckoning... beckoning. 65 00:06:54,123 --> 00:07:00,588 I consider memory a peculiar emotional structure 66 00:07:00,922 --> 00:07:04,550 of enormous importance 67 00:07:04,842 --> 00:07:09,597 to all those whose profession revolves 68 00:07:09,722 --> 00:07:13,935 around imagination and creativity. 69 00:07:23,069 --> 00:07:27,532 I was just three when my father left us. 70 00:07:27,990 --> 00:07:30,243 We saw him very seldom, 71 00:07:30,368 --> 00:07:33,204 so I can only recall the rare occasions 72 00:07:33,329 --> 00:07:35,790 when he'd suddenly appear. 73 00:07:36,165 --> 00:07:40,044 We had two small rooms in an apartment 74 00:07:40,211 --> 00:07:43,631 in the old part of Moscow called Zamoskvorechye. 75 00:07:43,756 --> 00:07:47,218 A few years had passed. I was in school by then. 76 00:07:47,343 --> 00:07:50,346 My father came by late one night. 77 00:07:50,471 --> 00:07:53,391 My sister and I were already in bed. 78 00:07:53,558 --> 00:07:56,477 He argued with my mother in the kitchen, 79 00:07:56,602 --> 00:08:00,314 demanding that she grant him custody of me. 80 00:08:01,357 --> 00:08:03,609 She didn't want to 81 00:08:03,734 --> 00:08:06,988 and was of course terribly hurt by his demand. 82 00:08:07,113 --> 00:08:10,491 Neither of them mentioned it to me directly, 83 00:08:10,616 --> 00:08:12,994 but I remember it. 84 00:08:13,161 --> 00:08:15,997 Hence that scene in Mirror. 85 00:08:18,958 --> 00:08:24,046 Ignat, your mother and I wanted to ask you something. 86 00:08:24,922 --> 00:08:26,382 What? 87 00:08:29,760 --> 00:08:32,638 Perhaps it's better if you live with me. 88 00:08:32,763 --> 00:08:34,473 What do you mean? 89 00:08:35,057 --> 00:08:39,061 Live here with me, go to a new school. 90 00:08:39,312 --> 00:08:41,856 Didn't you mention it to Mama once? 91 00:08:42,023 --> 00:08:43,733 What did I say? 92 00:08:44,567 --> 00:08:47,820 When? No. There's no point. 93 00:08:50,740 --> 00:08:54,619 I realized I'd never ever go live with my father, 94 00:08:54,952 --> 00:08:57,705 even though I always dreamed about it 95 00:08:57,872 --> 00:09:00,416 and suffered from not living with him. 96 00:09:00,541 --> 00:09:04,128 But I'd never in my life go live with him. 97 00:09:29,820 --> 00:09:34,367 I remember her waiting for my father 98 00:09:34,492 --> 00:09:37,036 to arrive from the city. 99 00:09:37,203 --> 00:09:40,456 It happened exactly like in the film. 100 00:09:40,581 --> 00:09:42,583 Maybe that's why I remember it. 101 00:09:42,750 --> 00:09:46,045 I don't remember much else, 102 00:09:46,254 --> 00:09:49,924 except that I know she was in love 103 00:09:50,091 --> 00:09:52,468 with my father 104 00:09:52,635 --> 00:09:54,929 and never loved anyone else. 105 00:10:01,852 --> 00:10:04,772 After my father left us... 106 00:10:05,439 --> 00:10:09,986 we tried to keep in touch. 107 00:10:10,945 --> 00:10:14,115 Or he tried to, since I was just a child. 108 00:10:14,240 --> 00:10:16,325 The war began soon after that, 109 00:10:16,450 --> 00:10:19,578 and life became terribly difficult. 110 00:10:19,704 --> 00:10:23,708 And those difficulties fell on my mother's shoulders, of course. 111 00:10:23,833 --> 00:10:28,296 And though she was totally unequipped for life, 112 00:10:28,546 --> 00:10:33,634 she managed not only to save my sister's life and mine 113 00:10:33,801 --> 00:10:36,846 but to make sure we got an education. 114 00:10:36,971 --> 00:10:39,640 Despite the dire conditions, 115 00:10:40,182 --> 00:10:44,562 she made sure I graduated with a major in music, 116 00:10:44,687 --> 00:10:46,647 studying piano 117 00:10:46,939 --> 00:10:49,191 and also painting. 118 00:10:49,317 --> 00:10:54,113 Looking back today, I simply can't fathom... 119 00:10:54,822 --> 00:10:57,825 how she managed all that, 120 00:10:57,992 --> 00:11:00,161 given the dire circumstances. 121 00:11:01,329 --> 00:11:05,541 If not for her, I'd certainly never have been able 122 00:11:06,292 --> 00:11:09,295 to become a director. 123 00:11:18,346 --> 00:11:22,641 Mama, the kerosene stove is smoking. 124 00:11:23,976 --> 00:11:25,603 What? 125 00:11:38,949 --> 00:11:41,369 Come and take it all. 126 00:11:41,702 --> 00:11:43,579 I need nothing. 127 00:11:43,954 --> 00:11:48,000 What I love I give away. What I don't love, likewise. 128 00:11:48,125 --> 00:11:50,044 I want to replace you, 129 00:11:50,211 --> 00:11:53,381 but if I say I'll turn into you, 130 00:11:53,547 --> 00:11:56,300 don't believe me, poor child. 131 00:11:56,509 --> 00:11:58,177 I'm lying. 132 00:11:58,386 --> 00:12:01,972 Oh, those hands with fingers like vines, 133 00:12:02,139 --> 00:12:05,059 those eyes, open and moist, 134 00:12:05,184 --> 00:12:07,645 those shells of little ears 135 00:12:07,770 --> 00:12:11,065 like saucers filled with a love song 136 00:12:11,190 --> 00:12:14,568 and wings curved sharply by the wind. 137 00:12:14,819 --> 00:12:18,572 Don't believe me, poor child. I'm lying. 138 00:12:18,739 --> 00:12:21,867 I'll try to break away like one condemned, 139 00:12:22,076 --> 00:12:25,037 but I cannot bridge this distance. 140 00:12:25,246 --> 00:12:28,165 I cannot wave your wings 141 00:12:28,416 --> 00:12:32,169 or touch your eyelid with your little finger 142 00:12:32,294 --> 00:12:34,755 or see through your eyes. 143 00:12:35,089 --> 00:12:38,175 You're a hundred times stronger than me. 144 00:12:38,384 --> 00:12:40,803 You are a song about yourself, 145 00:12:40,970 --> 00:12:44,306 while I'm governor of tree and sky, 146 00:12:44,515 --> 00:12:48,769 and by your judgment sentenced for my song. 147 00:13:49,121 --> 00:13:53,501 I must say I have a very hazy sense 148 00:13:53,667 --> 00:13:57,296 of the role children play 149 00:13:57,421 --> 00:13:59,006 in my films. 150 00:13:59,840 --> 00:14:01,926 It's quite murky. 151 00:14:02,176 --> 00:14:05,554 Same with women's roles in my films. 152 00:14:06,138 --> 00:14:08,516 I have the sense I didn't manage 153 00:14:08,641 --> 00:14:10,518 to express 154 00:14:10,643 --> 00:14:14,104 all I should have about children and women. 155 00:14:15,147 --> 00:14:19,610 I've always thought that children... 156 00:14:20,861 --> 00:14:23,155 are much wiser than us... 157 00:14:23,906 --> 00:14:27,826 and thus I've always tried to involve them in my films. 158 00:14:27,952 --> 00:14:30,538 For me, children somehow connect our world 159 00:14:30,663 --> 00:14:33,707 with another world, a transcendent world 160 00:14:33,874 --> 00:14:37,044 to which they haven't yet lost their connection. 161 00:14:37,169 --> 00:14:39,755 They will soon, but they haven't yet. 162 00:14:40,881 --> 00:14:43,259 That's precisely why I feel 163 00:14:43,384 --> 00:14:46,011 that children's roles are so important. 164 00:14:46,136 --> 00:14:49,890 When a grown-up can't find words to express something, 165 00:14:50,015 --> 00:14:53,394 I think he should ask a child. 166 00:14:53,561 --> 00:14:56,689 The child will be able to clarify everything, 167 00:14:56,981 --> 00:14:59,567 even just by his presence. 168 00:15:25,217 --> 00:15:28,762 I have no doubt 169 00:15:28,887 --> 00:15:31,765 that if the famous Khrushchev Thaw hadn't happened, 170 00:15:31,890 --> 00:15:35,227 it would have been highly unlikely for me... 171 00:15:35,978 --> 00:15:42,443 to establish any kind of career in cinema. 172 00:15:43,152 --> 00:15:45,738 I remember that period very well. 173 00:15:46,071 --> 00:15:49,658 It was connected to the hope we all felt. 174 00:15:49,908 --> 00:15:52,578 We looked to the future with hope, 175 00:15:52,745 --> 00:15:56,749 full of plans and prospects. 176 00:15:56,957 --> 00:15:59,043 Full of hope. 177 00:15:59,460 --> 00:16:02,630 I remember that time quite well for that reason. 178 00:16:02,755 --> 00:16:05,257 We all felt connected 179 00:16:05,507 --> 00:16:09,386 by an urgent, irrepressible desire to express ourselves, 180 00:16:09,511 --> 00:16:12,389 and by the sense that that was now possible. 181 00:16:20,689 --> 00:16:24,401 But all that quickly came to an end. 182 00:16:24,652 --> 00:16:27,780 The "hangover after the feast" 183 00:16:28,322 --> 00:16:30,366 set in all too soon. 184 00:16:30,491 --> 00:16:35,829 I remember when my first film came out in 1962... 185 00:16:36,038 --> 00:16:38,165 Ivan's Childhood. 186 00:16:38,332 --> 00:16:41,502 I remember how state cinema officials 187 00:16:41,627 --> 00:16:45,089 considered it a pacifist film — 188 00:16:45,214 --> 00:16:47,758 that is to say, negatively. 189 00:16:47,883 --> 00:16:50,344 Because, according to Soviet thinking, 190 00:16:50,511 --> 00:16:53,347 war can be just or unjust. 191 00:16:53,681 --> 00:16:56,433 It's a rather Raskolnikovian notion: 192 00:16:56,558 --> 00:17:00,521 Killing is acceptable if the cause is just. 193 00:17:06,276 --> 00:17:09,446 With a bit of distance it becomes clear 194 00:17:09,571 --> 00:17:13,951 how hypocritical and false that point of view is. 195 00:17:14,410 --> 00:17:17,955 Nevertheless, my film was criticized 196 00:17:18,080 --> 00:17:20,666 on those grounds. 197 00:17:20,791 --> 00:17:25,671 Its strong antimilitary position, 198 00:17:25,921 --> 00:17:29,550 its stance against death, literally, 199 00:17:29,717 --> 00:17:31,885 and against destruction 200 00:17:32,010 --> 00:17:34,763 was viewed as suggesting an opposition 201 00:17:34,888 --> 00:17:39,101 to death and war in and of themselves, 202 00:17:39,226 --> 00:17:42,563 regardless of whether they're just or unjust. 203 00:17:49,027 --> 00:17:53,574 When we speak of war, we're really speaking of casualties, 204 00:17:53,949 --> 00:17:57,244 because there are no winners in a war. 205 00:17:57,494 --> 00:18:00,581 Even if we're victorious, we're defeated... 206 00:18:00,831 --> 00:18:03,667 simply by taking part. 207 00:18:20,559 --> 00:18:23,771 The story behind that film is quite odd. 208 00:18:23,937 --> 00:18:28,400 Mosfilm began production on a film to be called "Ivan" 209 00:18:28,692 --> 00:18:30,778 with a different director. 210 00:18:31,028 --> 00:18:34,114 The film was almost half finished. 211 00:18:34,406 --> 00:18:37,659 Half the budget had been spent. 212 00:18:37,910 --> 00:18:41,538 The footage was so awful that production was shut down. 213 00:18:42,247 --> 00:18:46,794 Mosfilm began looking around for other directors. 214 00:18:47,294 --> 00:18:50,130 Starting with the big names 215 00:18:50,297 --> 00:18:54,051 down to the very last people at the studios, 216 00:18:54,176 --> 00:18:57,137 when everyone else had said absolutely not, 217 00:18:57,262 --> 00:18:59,556 they asked me. 218 00:18:59,681 --> 00:19:03,060 I'd just graduated from film school. 219 00:19:03,393 --> 00:19:06,313 I laid down a few conditions: 220 00:19:06,522 --> 00:19:10,192 First, I would read the story by Bogomolov 221 00:19:10,317 --> 00:19:12,820 on which the film was based. 222 00:19:13,320 --> 00:19:17,658 Second, I wouldn't watch even one foot of existing footage. 223 00:19:17,783 --> 00:19:19,993 I'd rewrite the entire script. 224 00:19:20,160 --> 00:19:25,165 I'd replace everyone: actors, cinematographer, art direction. 225 00:19:25,457 --> 00:19:28,001 And we'd start over from scratch. 226 00:19:28,168 --> 00:19:32,381 "Okay, but you'll only have half the money." 227 00:19:32,506 --> 00:19:36,093 "That's enough. Give me complete freedom and I'll do it. 228 00:19:44,935 --> 00:19:46,770 All right. 229 00:19:47,396 --> 00:19:49,356 Let me help you. - I'll manage. 230 00:19:49,481 --> 00:19:51,525 "I'll manage!" 231 00:19:55,654 --> 00:19:59,032 I know the film was very well received, 232 00:19:59,199 --> 00:20:02,828 but I really don't think critics understood it. 233 00:20:03,787 --> 00:20:06,957 They all tried to analyze the story line, 234 00:20:07,165 --> 00:20:09,543 when in reality it was simply 235 00:20:09,668 --> 00:20:12,462 the youthful creation of a young director, 236 00:20:12,671 --> 00:20:17,426 a work of art to be examined from the artist's point of view. 237 00:20:23,473 --> 00:20:25,559 Sartre defended the film 238 00:20:25,726 --> 00:20:27,811 from a philosophical point of view, 239 00:20:27,936 --> 00:20:29,980 but to me that was no defense. 240 00:20:30,105 --> 00:20:33,275 It should have been from an aesthetic point of view. 241 00:20:33,400 --> 00:20:35,944 Because I'm not a philosopher. I'm an artist. 242 00:20:36,069 --> 00:20:38,697 His defense was useless to me. 243 00:21:05,933 --> 00:21:08,769 Within this universe our joyous mind 244 00:21:09,061 --> 00:21:12,064 erects an uncertain shelter. 245 00:21:12,189 --> 00:21:15,484 Men, stars, and angels live 246 00:21:15,692 --> 00:21:18,403 by virtue of this spherical tension. 247 00:21:18,612 --> 00:21:21,239 We've barely conceived a child 248 00:21:21,448 --> 00:21:23,867 when, beneath its feet, 249 00:21:24,117 --> 00:21:26,912 the membrane bends outward into the unknown 250 00:21:27,120 --> 00:21:29,831 along the child's circular orbit. 251 00:21:35,629 --> 00:21:37,756 I'm flying! 252 00:21:45,389 --> 00:21:47,349 Hey! 253 00:21:47,516 --> 00:21:51,478 Chase me! 254 00:21:57,234 --> 00:22:01,321 Very soon after the thaw I sensed a certain chill. 255 00:22:03,073 --> 00:22:07,327 My second film, begun in 1964... 256 00:22:08,036 --> 00:22:10,706 and completed in 1966... 257 00:22:11,164 --> 00:22:13,792 called Andrei Rublev... 258 00:22:13,917 --> 00:22:16,670 very clearly illustrates that critical juncture. 259 00:22:18,380 --> 00:22:19,881 Come on! 260 00:22:20,549 --> 00:22:24,386 The film was very well received by the film community. 261 00:22:24,511 --> 00:22:28,348 I remember that the board of the film committee 262 00:22:28,473 --> 00:22:32,644 all praised the film very highly — to my great surprise, 263 00:22:32,769 --> 00:22:36,898 because I myself hadn't entirely grasped what I'd achieved. 264 00:22:37,024 --> 00:22:41,319 Yet the film was shelved soon after that 265 00:22:41,820 --> 00:22:44,990 and wasn't released for 5 1/2 years, 266 00:22:45,115 --> 00:22:49,286 because it was labeled "antihistorical," 267 00:22:49,494 --> 00:22:51,788 which was completely untrue. 268 00:22:52,372 --> 00:22:56,084 We'd been extremely careful 269 00:22:56,209 --> 00:22:59,046 to maintain historical accuracy 270 00:22:59,171 --> 00:23:03,050 in depicting the circumstances on which it was based. 271 00:23:03,216 --> 00:23:06,261 On the other hand, they called it "anti-Russian." 272 00:23:06,970 --> 00:23:11,725 It was also deemed too close to Western models 273 00:23:11,850 --> 00:23:16,396 in portraying the protagonist as far too individualistic. 274 00:23:16,521 --> 00:23:19,191 He was too self-absorbed 275 00:23:19,316 --> 00:23:22,694 and too often in direct opposition to life 276 00:23:22,819 --> 00:23:27,616 to be a Russian artist — 277 00:23:27,908 --> 00:23:30,077 which was totally untrue. 278 00:23:30,243 --> 00:23:33,747 He couldn't behave otherwise, because he was a monk. 279 00:23:33,914 --> 00:23:37,751 His entire existence was in opposition to worldly existence. 280 00:23:37,876 --> 00:23:39,878 That was the point. 281 00:23:40,003 --> 00:23:42,422 That period was very hard for me. 282 00:23:42,589 --> 00:23:44,424 I could see 283 00:23:44,549 --> 00:23:48,011 that the time of the Party's 20th Congress was over, 284 00:23:48,136 --> 00:23:50,263 and that hard times were coming. 285 00:23:52,599 --> 00:23:54,768 Something goes wrong... 286 00:23:54,935 --> 00:23:57,562 or you feel tired, discouraged. 287 00:23:58,313 --> 00:24:03,527 And then suddenly, in the crowd, you meet a human glance, 288 00:24:04,152 --> 00:24:08,865 and your burdens are made light, as after Communion. 289 00:24:09,282 --> 00:24:11,118 Isn't that so? 290 00:24:13,620 --> 00:24:15,747 A true poet... 291 00:24:15,872 --> 00:24:20,335 if he truly is a poet, cannot but be a believer. 292 00:24:22,254 --> 00:24:26,925 Perhaps that explains the cultural crisis 293 00:24:27,300 --> 00:24:31,138 we've been experiencing for many years now. 294 00:24:33,557 --> 00:24:37,185 We must remind people more often that they are people — 295 00:24:37,477 --> 00:24:41,314 Russians, of the same blood, of the same land. 296 00:24:43,233 --> 00:24:45,986 Personally I can't even remember 297 00:24:46,153 --> 00:24:49,489 when that transition occurred, 298 00:24:49,739 --> 00:24:52,325 when I became a believer, 299 00:24:52,701 --> 00:24:55,996 when I became religious. 300 00:24:56,163 --> 00:24:59,374 But by "religious" I don't mean I'm without sin. 301 00:24:59,499 --> 00:25:03,253 Only that I'm simply more and more convinced 302 00:25:03,420 --> 00:25:07,549 that culture cannot exist without religion. 303 00:25:07,716 --> 00:25:11,678 In a certain sense, religion is sublimated in culture, 304 00:25:11,803 --> 00:25:14,055 and culture in religion. 305 00:25:14,181 --> 00:25:16,600 It's an interdependent process. 306 00:25:16,725 --> 00:25:19,519 If a society needs spirituality, 307 00:25:19,686 --> 00:25:23,356 it begins to generate works of art 308 00:25:23,523 --> 00:25:26,151 and give birth to artists. 309 00:25:26,401 --> 00:25:30,739 If it doesn't need spirituality, it will make do without art... 310 00:25:31,198 --> 00:25:34,868 but the number of unhappy people will grow, 311 00:25:35,368 --> 00:25:38,413 the number of spiritually dissatisfied people. 312 00:25:38,747 --> 00:25:41,333 Human beings will lose their purpose 313 00:25:41,458 --> 00:25:44,377 and no longer understand why they exist. 314 00:25:44,502 --> 00:25:48,757 So for me religion is not a purely personal matter. 315 00:25:49,049 --> 00:25:54,179 It's tied to the fate of the culture 316 00:25:54,304 --> 00:25:56,223 of our civilization. 317 00:26:15,700 --> 00:26:18,453 A filmic image 318 00:26:18,745 --> 00:26:22,207 is something indivisible and intangible, 319 00:26:22,332 --> 00:26:25,919 possessing qualities of the world 320 00:26:26,503 --> 00:26:28,838 that it's depicting. 321 00:26:29,089 --> 00:26:32,634 It's the relationship between absolute truth 322 00:26:32,759 --> 00:26:35,762 and our Euclidian conscience, let us say. 323 00:26:35,887 --> 00:26:38,765 We can't perceive that truth in its pure form, 324 00:26:38,932 --> 00:26:41,601 but we can surmise its existence 325 00:26:42,143 --> 00:26:45,897 and express our inner relationship with it. 326 00:26:46,273 --> 00:26:51,152 Essentially, an artistic image can't be decoded. 327 00:27:00,495 --> 00:27:02,664 If the world is mysterious, 328 00:27:02,831 --> 00:27:05,917 the truthfulness of the image consists 329 00:27:06,042 --> 00:27:09,629 in carrying within it a certain mystery as well. 330 00:27:14,551 --> 00:27:17,137 The image in an icon painting 331 00:27:17,762 --> 00:27:22,809 has a purely interior meaning and symbolism, 332 00:27:22,934 --> 00:27:26,563 by no means external or figurative. 333 00:27:26,813 --> 00:27:29,190 It's pure metaphysics. 334 00:27:29,607 --> 00:27:32,652 An icon was not a depiction of the divine 335 00:27:32,819 --> 00:27:35,155 nor its material manifestation. 336 00:27:35,447 --> 00:27:37,657 This is very important, 337 00:27:37,782 --> 00:27:41,036 because the best works by medieval Russian icon painters 338 00:27:41,244 --> 00:27:45,832 are essentially embodied meditations on the Absolute. 339 00:27:46,624 --> 00:27:49,919 The deeper, the more elusive, 340 00:27:50,045 --> 00:27:52,672 and thus more beautiful the image, 341 00:27:52,797 --> 00:27:56,968 the stricter the structure it calls for. 342 00:28:03,391 --> 00:28:06,853 The most poetic image is rooted in naturalism, 343 00:28:07,020 --> 00:28:09,397 not in some ideological way 344 00:28:09,522 --> 00:28:13,568 but in the earthly meaning of the word. 345 00:28:14,194 --> 00:28:16,696 Thus when speaking of simplicity 346 00:28:16,821 --> 00:28:18,865 in the construction of an artistic image, 347 00:28:19,115 --> 00:28:22,243 for me that always equates 348 00:28:22,369 --> 00:28:27,082 to the artist touching the ground with one hand 349 00:28:27,207 --> 00:28:32,212 while pointing with the other to transcendent spheres. 350 00:28:32,462 --> 00:28:33,880 Tatars! 351 00:28:36,466 --> 00:28:38,301 Run! 352 00:28:55,693 --> 00:29:00,031 We mustn't forget we're human beings... 353 00:29:00,240 --> 00:29:02,409 simple matter. 354 00:29:02,534 --> 00:29:05,370 Spiritualized matter, but matter nonetheless. 355 00:29:05,495 --> 00:29:09,791 Because in the final analysis, everything has one source 356 00:29:09,916 --> 00:29:12,419 and is made of the same material. 357 00:29:12,627 --> 00:29:15,588 That's why we sometimes get so irritated 358 00:29:15,755 --> 00:29:18,967 with what we might call 359 00:29:19,092 --> 00:29:22,429 "artistic pretentiousness," 360 00:29:22,637 --> 00:29:26,558 which manifests in an overly exaggerated expressiveness — 361 00:29:26,933 --> 00:29:31,438 "exaggerated" only due to a lack of balance 362 00:29:31,563 --> 00:29:33,606 within the image. 363 00:29:33,773 --> 00:29:36,109 The image has become a symbol. 364 00:29:47,412 --> 00:29:51,624 A symbol can be decoded. 365 00:29:51,791 --> 00:29:55,086 It's actually anti-artistic. 366 00:29:55,503 --> 00:29:59,841 Because an image isn't a charade or a puzzle. 367 00:30:00,133 --> 00:30:04,137 Every puzzle or riddle has a solution, 368 00:30:04,304 --> 00:30:08,892 and when the viewer finds it, the symbol is exhausted of meaning, 369 00:30:09,017 --> 00:30:11,853 thus revealing its limitations. 370 00:30:12,103 --> 00:30:15,940 For how can a symbol representing the world be limited 371 00:30:16,065 --> 00:30:18,985 if it reflects the idea of the infinite? 372 00:30:19,110 --> 00:30:23,364 Generally speaking, art is a symbol of the infinite, 373 00:30:23,531 --> 00:30:26,242 a symbol of the world we live in. 374 00:30:50,475 --> 00:30:53,186 There are no signed icons. 375 00:30:53,520 --> 00:30:57,690 An icon painter didn't think of himself an artist. 376 00:30:57,857 --> 00:30:59,817 If he had a talent 377 00:30:59,943 --> 00:31:04,364 for painting icons, he gave thanks to God, 378 00:31:04,489 --> 00:31:08,493 because he felt that through his craft, 379 00:31:08,618 --> 00:31:11,371 his profession, and his skill 380 00:31:11,538 --> 00:31:14,749 he was serving God and praying to God. 381 00:31:14,916 --> 00:31:17,377 That was the meaning of his work. 382 00:31:17,502 --> 00:31:20,713 It's about the absence of pride. 383 00:31:27,762 --> 00:31:30,306 It's crucial to know, 384 00:31:31,057 --> 00:31:33,434 and if you can't know, 385 00:31:33,560 --> 00:31:37,146 to at least believe in your origins, 386 00:31:37,272 --> 00:31:40,066 where you came from, where you're going, 387 00:31:40,191 --> 00:31:42,402 and what you're living for. 388 00:31:42,902 --> 00:31:45,822 You must feel your dependence on the Creator. 389 00:31:46,072 --> 00:31:49,325 If you don't, you become an animal. 390 00:32:01,546 --> 00:32:05,592 When you kneel down and turn all your feelings to God, 391 00:32:05,717 --> 00:32:07,927 words are born within you... 392 00:32:08,303 --> 00:32:10,263 true words. 393 00:32:11,556 --> 00:32:15,435 The same way true images are born 394 00:32:15,685 --> 00:32:18,229 if your profession is addressed 395 00:32:18,354 --> 00:32:20,690 like a prayer to the Creator. 396 00:32:20,815 --> 00:32:22,817 It's like a gift. 397 00:32:23,067 --> 00:32:25,111 I grow a flower... 398 00:32:25,320 --> 00:32:27,614 and I dedicate it to someone. 399 00:32:27,780 --> 00:32:30,283 But I must first grow the flower. 400 00:32:33,286 --> 00:32:36,289 Art is the reflection in a mirror 401 00:32:36,456 --> 00:32:38,833 of the highest capacity for creation. 402 00:32:39,167 --> 00:32:42,629 In creating art, we imitate the Creator, 403 00:32:42,795 --> 00:32:45,506 because we were created 404 00:32:45,632 --> 00:32:49,427 in the image and likeness of God. 405 00:32:50,053 --> 00:32:54,557 And that's one of the moments when we resemble him. 406 00:33:09,614 --> 00:33:14,661 Art is one of the most selfless of human endeavors. 407 00:33:15,828 --> 00:33:17,914 Art is prayer. 408 00:33:18,706 --> 00:33:20,708 It's my prayer. 409 00:33:26,673 --> 00:33:30,760 And if my prayer becomes a prayer for others, 410 00:33:30,885 --> 00:33:34,347 then my art becomes intimately others'. 411 00:33:40,853 --> 00:33:42,939 It's a matter of duty. 412 00:33:43,272 --> 00:33:47,235 And a human being's duty is to serve. 413 00:33:48,403 --> 00:33:52,115 For that very reason this idea gets distorted 414 00:33:52,365 --> 00:33:55,576 and turned into a power struggle 415 00:33:56,160 --> 00:33:58,621 among those who would not serve 416 00:33:58,746 --> 00:34:02,291 but would exploit the service of others. 417 00:34:02,834 --> 00:34:06,504 Because there's just one principle of interaction in this world — 418 00:34:06,629 --> 00:34:08,715 thank God — 419 00:34:08,881 --> 00:34:11,884 and that is to serve and nothing else. 420 00:34:59,265 --> 00:35:02,268 Our blood is not jealous of home, 421 00:35:02,518 --> 00:35:06,105 but a chasm opens in what is to come. 422 00:35:06,272 --> 00:35:08,983 Because what is earthly imposes upon itself 423 00:35:09,108 --> 00:35:11,277 a limit here on this earth. 424 00:35:11,527 --> 00:35:14,322 A crazed mother dreams 425 00:35:14,614 --> 00:35:17,283 of the neighing of chariot horses — 426 00:35:17,533 --> 00:35:20,787 Phaethon and his chariot 427 00:35:21,037 --> 00:35:24,290 and crimson cubes of stone. 428 00:35:38,304 --> 00:35:42,475 We wanted to make a film based on the novel Solaris 429 00:35:42,642 --> 00:35:45,561 without actually traveling to Solaris. 430 00:35:45,937 --> 00:35:49,857 That would be much more interesting, but Lem was against it. 431 00:35:52,318 --> 00:35:55,154 Russians are closely tied to nature. 432 00:35:56,572 --> 00:35:58,825 They can't imagine themselves extraneous to nature. 433 00:35:58,991 --> 00:36:01,035 They feel a part of nature. 434 00:36:01,160 --> 00:36:03,830 This is a trait of the Russian character. 435 00:36:03,996 --> 00:36:07,416 Perhaps that's why nature and its manifestations 436 00:36:07,667 --> 00:36:11,546 have such an impact on a person's character. 437 00:36:36,487 --> 00:36:39,782 We cut nature out of our films 438 00:36:39,907 --> 00:36:41,993 as if it were unnecessary. 439 00:36:42,118 --> 00:36:44,120 We exclude it... 440 00:36:44,370 --> 00:36:46,914 thinking we're what's important. 441 00:36:47,498 --> 00:36:49,709 But we're not. 442 00:36:49,876 --> 00:36:51,794 We depend upon nature. 443 00:36:51,919 --> 00:36:54,213 It's more important than us, 444 00:36:54,338 --> 00:36:57,383 because we're the result of its evolution. 445 00:37:08,060 --> 00:37:11,856 That's why I believe that neglecting nature is, 446 00:37:12,189 --> 00:37:16,527 in some emotional or artistic sense, criminal. 447 00:37:16,777 --> 00:37:19,780 Maybe not criminal. Just foolish. 448 00:37:19,906 --> 00:37:22,658 Because it's the only place 449 00:37:22,867 --> 00:37:26,329 where a sense of truth awaits us. 450 00:37:31,459 --> 00:37:32,919 Remember Tolstoy? 451 00:37:33,920 --> 00:37:39,091 His suffering over the impossibility of loving mankind as a whole? 452 00:37:39,842 --> 00:37:41,636 See, I love you. 453 00:37:42,011 --> 00:37:46,265 But love is a feeling we can experience 454 00:37:46,474 --> 00:37:48,809 but never explain. 455 00:37:49,435 --> 00:37:52,146 One can explain the concept. 456 00:37:52,271 --> 00:37:54,899 You love that which you can lose: 457 00:37:55,024 --> 00:37:58,444 yourself, a woman, a homeland. 458 00:37:59,570 --> 00:38:04,951 Until today, love was simply unattainable to mankind, to the Earth. 459 00:38:05,076 --> 00:38:07,078 Do you understand me, Snaut? 460 00:38:07,203 --> 00:38:09,205 There are so few of us. 461 00:38:09,330 --> 00:38:12,166 A few billion altogether. A handful! 462 00:38:13,376 --> 00:38:19,090 Maybe we're here in order to experience people 463 00:38:19,215 --> 00:38:21,550 as a reason for love. 464 00:38:24,470 --> 00:38:28,808 I think that, even without purgatory, 465 00:38:28,975 --> 00:38:32,478 life itself sometimes gives us a chance to confirm 466 00:38:32,812 --> 00:38:34,897 what it's telling us. 467 00:38:35,106 --> 00:38:37,984 It's life that leads us to these ideas. 468 00:38:38,192 --> 00:38:40,236 Purgatory is necessary 469 00:38:40,361 --> 00:38:43,030 to cool down from our suffering. 470 00:38:43,280 --> 00:38:48,577 Shame — the feeling that will save mankind. 471 00:39:16,605 --> 00:39:19,483 I love that house very much. 472 00:39:21,360 --> 00:39:24,655 It's not just a house. It's more than that. 473 00:39:24,947 --> 00:39:27,867 It's a sanatorium. 474 00:39:28,075 --> 00:39:30,494 It's anything I need it to be. 475 00:39:30,953 --> 00:39:35,416 There I become a person capable of writing a book... 476 00:39:36,667 --> 00:39:40,880 or of building other structures all around it. 477 00:39:42,548 --> 00:39:45,384 I'm able to do anything there. 478 00:39:46,093 --> 00:39:48,929 It makes me a human being 479 00:39:49,513 --> 00:39:52,516 and frees me from the need to work — 480 00:39:53,392 --> 00:39:55,394 professionally, I mean. 481 00:40:40,064 --> 00:40:42,775 I could live my whole life there, 482 00:40:42,900 --> 00:40:45,486 but on one condition: 483 00:40:45,861 --> 00:40:50,574 that I know for certain I can leave there 484 00:40:50,783 --> 00:40:52,952 and go anywhere I want. 485 00:41:06,882 --> 00:41:09,009 It's a wonderful house. 486 00:41:09,135 --> 00:41:12,471 It's all I need. I need nothing else. 487 00:41:12,847 --> 00:41:15,141 It burned down once. 488 00:41:15,808 --> 00:41:19,979 I stayed away, afraid of seeing the burned ruins. 489 00:41:20,312 --> 00:41:22,565 But Larissa rebuilt it. 490 00:41:23,983 --> 00:41:28,154 We put our souls into it, because we're happy there. 491 00:41:28,320 --> 00:41:33,951 To sell or leave or betray that house would be 492 00:41:34,076 --> 00:41:37,246 to betray Larissa, which I'm incapable of doing. 493 00:41:37,413 --> 00:41:40,291 Because I bow down before those 494 00:41:40,416 --> 00:41:44,086 who go beyond themselves for me. 495 00:41:45,045 --> 00:41:49,008 And I remember everyone who behaves that way with me. 496 00:41:55,181 --> 00:41:59,351 Everything that happens around that house is a miracle — 497 00:41:59,518 --> 00:42:02,021 that special atmosphere, those particular moments. 498 00:42:02,188 --> 00:42:04,231 I can't explain it. 499 00:42:09,612 --> 00:42:12,865 I go outside and sit on the steps... 500 00:42:12,990 --> 00:42:15,034 and cinema begins. 501 00:42:15,201 --> 00:42:18,621 Not the usual cinema with a plot. 502 00:42:18,746 --> 00:42:21,373 The type of cinema 503 00:42:21,582 --> 00:42:23,959 that for me is real cinema. 504 00:42:24,501 --> 00:42:26,670 It's wonderful. 505 00:42:36,013 --> 00:42:39,683 When Larissa is at our country house, 506 00:42:39,892 --> 00:42:43,229 I witness incredible things: 507 00:42:43,771 --> 00:42:47,274 Birds fly along behind her... 508 00:42:47,816 --> 00:42:49,735 though never behind me. 509 00:42:49,902 --> 00:42:52,738 They land on her shoulders or her head. 510 00:42:53,280 --> 00:42:56,200 Like in that scene in Mirror. 511 00:42:56,492 --> 00:42:59,787 People ask, "What does that mean? 512 00:42:59,912 --> 00:43:02,748 Why does a bird land on a person's head? 513 00:43:02,915 --> 00:43:05,042 What does it symbolize?" 514 00:43:05,167 --> 00:43:07,253 The answer is very simple: 515 00:43:07,795 --> 00:43:11,548 A bird will never land on a bad person. 516 00:43:20,224 --> 00:43:22,309 It's an amazing house. 517 00:43:22,518 --> 00:43:24,895 I take my son there a lot. 518 00:43:25,104 --> 00:43:27,064 He'll always feel at home, 519 00:43:27,189 --> 00:43:31,277 and we'll live there always, for as long as it stands. 520 00:43:32,319 --> 00:43:34,947 And if someone takes it from me, 521 00:43:35,114 --> 00:43:39,159 I'll have nothing left on this earth. 522 00:43:50,087 --> 00:43:52,965 We heap more and more from above 523 00:43:53,173 --> 00:43:55,926 onto the space and time of our open palm. 524 00:43:56,051 --> 00:43:59,305 Yet soon we'll learn that on a sovereign's crown 525 00:43:59,471 --> 00:44:02,224 it's the star of penury that's most precious. 526 00:44:02,516 --> 00:44:05,978 Penury, vanity, and worries 527 00:44:06,270 --> 00:44:08,814 over our bitter morsel of bread. 528 00:44:09,189 --> 00:44:12,151 And we'll settle our scores with alien constellations 529 00:44:12,401 --> 00:44:15,863 here on our maternal earth. 530 00:44:44,099 --> 00:44:48,854 For Proust the concept of time is more important than time itself. 531 00:44:49,063 --> 00:44:51,774 For Russians that's not an issue. 532 00:44:52,024 --> 00:44:55,861 We Russians have to plead our case against time. 533 00:45:02,409 --> 00:45:07,790 With authors who wrote prose based on childhood memories, 534 00:45:08,082 --> 00:45:10,793 like Tolstoy, Garshin... 535 00:45:11,877 --> 00:45:13,921 and many others... 536 00:45:14,046 --> 00:45:19,176 it's always an attempt to atone for the past, 537 00:45:19,468 --> 00:45:21,762 always a form of repentance. 538 00:45:21,887 --> 00:45:24,098 That's all. 539 00:45:46,662 --> 00:45:49,581 This film generated a lot of discussion. 540 00:45:49,748 --> 00:45:53,627 Once, after a public screening before a very everyday audience, 541 00:45:53,752 --> 00:45:56,630 a dispute broke out during the discussion. 542 00:45:56,922 --> 00:45:59,049 It was late... 543 00:45:59,174 --> 00:46:02,511 and a woman came in to clean the huge hall. 544 00:46:02,636 --> 00:46:06,849 She said, "Quit arguing. Leave. I have to clean. 545 00:46:06,974 --> 00:46:10,102 Anyway, the film's very clear. Now leave!" 546 00:46:10,936 --> 00:46:14,398 The people asked her: "Then tell us: What's clear?" 547 00:46:14,523 --> 00:46:16,567 She said, "It's very simple. 548 00:46:16,692 --> 00:46:19,778 A man fell very ill and thought he might die. 549 00:46:19,903 --> 00:46:23,282 He remembered all the terrible things he'd done to others 550 00:46:23,449 --> 00:46:25,659 and wanted to apologize. That's all." 551 00:46:25,784 --> 00:46:29,580 It turned out she hadn't even finished high school. 552 00:46:29,705 --> 00:46:32,499 And the many film critics present 553 00:46:32,624 --> 00:46:36,336 hadn't understood a thing — as usual. 554 00:46:36,587 --> 00:46:40,174 The more they talk, the less they understand. 555 00:46:40,340 --> 00:46:43,218 And that simple woman explained it all. 556 00:46:51,810 --> 00:46:54,980 I think if I were asked... 557 00:46:56,273 --> 00:47:00,319 how I'd connect... 558 00:47:00,861 --> 00:47:04,406 Ivan's Childhood with Andrei Rublev... 559 00:47:06,867 --> 00:47:11,997 and my film based on Lem's novel Solaris... 560 00:47:12,706 --> 00:47:17,544 or with the film I'm working on now... 561 00:47:19,004 --> 00:47:24,301 I'd say that perhaps what unites them — 562 00:47:24,426 --> 00:47:26,428 or should unite them — 563 00:47:26,553 --> 00:47:30,974 is the desire to develop and delve into characters 564 00:47:31,099 --> 00:47:37,231 who exist in a state of extreme tension, 565 00:47:37,356 --> 00:47:40,692 who are going through 566 00:47:40,859 --> 00:47:43,403 an intense spiritual crisis... 567 00:47:44,154 --> 00:47:47,366 in which they must either break down 568 00:47:47,991 --> 00:47:51,370 or finally get their footing once and for all 569 00:47:51,703 --> 00:47:54,623 in terms of being faithful to their ideals 570 00:47:54,748 --> 00:47:56,875 and true to their principles. 571 00:48:05,217 --> 00:48:08,136 When I tried to edit this film... 572 00:48:09,096 --> 00:48:12,391 the way I had originally conceived it, 573 00:48:12,516 --> 00:48:14,893 it simply didn't work. 574 00:48:15,018 --> 00:48:16,812 I don't know why. 575 00:48:17,646 --> 00:48:20,148 In the script, everything was different. 576 00:48:20,274 --> 00:48:23,735 The scenes were in a completely different order. 577 00:48:24,403 --> 00:48:26,905 After a great effort... 578 00:48:27,447 --> 00:48:31,410 and after shuffling scenes around endlessly... 579 00:48:32,077 --> 00:48:36,123 when I'd lost all hope of ever coming up... 580 00:48:37,082 --> 00:48:39,376 with a final version, 581 00:48:39,501 --> 00:48:42,087 when I'd realized the film was a failure, 582 00:48:42,212 --> 00:48:45,424 then I remember it was on my 19th attempt 583 00:48:45,549 --> 00:48:48,260 at thoroughly reordering everything 584 00:48:48,385 --> 00:48:51,847 that the film finally coalesced into its definitive form. 585 00:48:52,681 --> 00:48:56,268 It was clear that dramatic structure 586 00:48:56,435 --> 00:49:00,188 in a traditional, literary sense 587 00:49:00,439 --> 00:49:03,817 wasn't appropriate for this film. 588 00:49:11,283 --> 00:49:13,619 At its core... 589 00:49:14,286 --> 00:49:18,957 film is poetic in its composition of images. 590 00:49:19,124 --> 00:49:24,338 Because it can do without being literal 591 00:49:24,546 --> 00:49:28,675 or adhering to the sequence of everyday life. 592 00:49:29,718 --> 00:49:34,097 It can do without what we usually call "dramatic structure." 593 00:49:34,431 --> 00:49:36,642 The hallmark of cinema 594 00:49:36,850 --> 00:49:39,436 lies in the fact 595 00:49:40,020 --> 00:49:42,981 that its task is to capture 596 00:49:43,190 --> 00:49:45,817 and express time — 597 00:49:46,443 --> 00:49:50,155 time in its philosophical and poetic... 598 00:49:51,031 --> 00:49:52,824 and literal sense. 599 00:49:53,784 --> 00:49:56,161 Cinema was born 600 00:49:56,328 --> 00:50:00,332 precisely when people began to feel a lack of time. 601 00:50:00,707 --> 00:50:04,670 I don't think someone from the 18th or 19th century 602 00:50:04,836 --> 00:50:07,673 could survive in our era. 603 00:50:07,798 --> 00:50:10,300 They'd simply perish from the pressure 604 00:50:10,425 --> 00:50:13,011 imposed on them by time. 605 00:50:13,970 --> 00:50:17,182 And it's cinema's task 606 00:50:17,307 --> 00:50:20,227 to articulate this problem in a poetic fashion. 607 00:50:27,234 --> 00:50:31,029 Cinema is the only art form that literally captures time. 608 00:50:32,406 --> 00:50:37,577 In theory you could watch the same reel over and over forever. 609 00:50:38,328 --> 00:50:41,039 It's like a time matrix. 610 00:50:41,873 --> 00:50:44,876 In that sense, questions of rhythm, 611 00:50:45,043 --> 00:50:47,963 duration, and pacing 612 00:50:48,338 --> 00:50:53,343 find a special meaning in cinema. 613 00:50:53,969 --> 00:50:56,763 Because in cinema, time expresses itself. 614 00:50:57,264 --> 00:51:01,184 It's an extremely interesting question. 615 00:51:01,309 --> 00:51:05,021 In a certain sense, any art form is poetic 616 00:51:05,188 --> 00:51:07,441 in its best and loftiest manifestations. 617 00:51:07,607 --> 00:51:10,152 Leonardo is a poet of painting. 618 00:51:10,277 --> 00:51:12,028 A brilliant poet. 619 00:51:12,195 --> 00:51:15,907 It would be ridiculous to define Leonardo as a painter... 620 00:51:16,241 --> 00:51:19,411 or Bach as a composer... 621 00:51:20,203 --> 00:51:24,040 or Shakespeare as a playwright... 622 00:51:24,583 --> 00:51:28,295 or Tolstoy as a novelist. 623 00:51:28,587 --> 00:51:31,006 Because they're all poets. 624 00:51:31,298 --> 00:51:33,633 That's the sense in which I said 625 00:51:34,009 --> 00:51:37,429 that cinema has a poetic meaning of its own. 626 00:51:37,721 --> 00:51:42,100 Because there's a part of life, a part of the universe, 627 00:51:42,267 --> 00:51:46,772 that has never been addressed at all 628 00:51:47,022 --> 00:51:50,275 by other artistic forms and genres. 629 00:51:50,859 --> 00:51:53,320 Because what cinema can do, 630 00:51:53,445 --> 00:51:57,073 music and all the other art forms cannot do. 631 00:52:10,629 --> 00:52:14,216 The role of the artist in contemporary society 632 00:52:14,341 --> 00:52:16,468 is an enormous one. 633 00:52:16,843 --> 00:52:19,971 Without artists there'd be no society, 634 00:52:20,138 --> 00:52:24,476 because artists are the conscience of a society. 635 00:52:24,643 --> 00:52:28,188 The less an artist can express himself or herself 636 00:52:28,313 --> 00:52:32,984 and interact with an audience, with other people, 637 00:52:33,151 --> 00:52:35,570 the worse it is for society. 638 00:52:35,695 --> 00:52:38,281 Society becomes soulless, 639 00:52:38,406 --> 00:52:42,410 and in such a society, people can't fulfill their function, 640 00:52:42,536 --> 00:52:44,704 their purpose in life. 641 00:52:44,830 --> 00:52:47,791 It doesn't matter whether it's Russia, 642 00:52:47,916 --> 00:52:51,127 Africa, or Sweden. 643 00:52:51,837 --> 00:52:53,839 What matters is that 644 00:52:53,964 --> 00:52:56,091 when the last poet disappears... 645 00:52:57,509 --> 00:53:00,053 life will lose all meaning. 646 00:53:07,936 --> 00:53:10,814 I'd never have dared ask my father 647 00:53:10,981 --> 00:53:13,525 to write a poem for a film. 648 00:53:14,067 --> 00:53:17,904 But luckily he was kind to me 649 00:53:18,238 --> 00:53:20,532 and paid me a great compliment: 650 00:53:20,699 --> 00:53:24,661 "You know, Andrei, it's not films you're making." 651 00:53:25,871 --> 00:53:29,875 With that, living in the world became easier for me. 652 00:53:34,421 --> 00:53:38,508 From the last leaves the heat rises to the sky 653 00:53:38,800 --> 00:53:40,927 as if in self-immolation. 654 00:53:41,052 --> 00:53:43,680 And on your path 655 00:53:43,805 --> 00:53:46,391 the whole forest lives with the same irritation 656 00:53:46,516 --> 00:53:50,061 you and I have lived with this past year. 657 00:53:50,312 --> 00:53:53,398 Tear-stained eyes reflect the road 658 00:53:53,732 --> 00:53:57,277 the way the gloomy floodplain mirrors the bushes. 659 00:53:57,402 --> 00:54:00,196 Don't fuss, don't threaten, 660 00:54:00,405 --> 00:54:02,741 don't touch, don't disturb 661 00:54:02,866 --> 00:54:05,410 the damp quiet of the woods. 662 00:54:05,535 --> 00:54:09,331 You can hear the breath of old life. 663 00:54:09,581 --> 00:54:13,251 Slimy mushrooms grow in the damp grass, 664 00:54:13,418 --> 00:54:17,339 gnarled by slugs to their very core, 665 00:54:17,631 --> 00:54:21,635 while a damp itch still tickles our skin. 666 00:54:21,760 --> 00:54:25,472 You know how love is like a threat: 667 00:54:25,722 --> 00:54:30,101 "Watch out! I'll be back! Watch it! I'll kill you!" 668 00:54:30,435 --> 00:54:34,773 The sky cringes, holding the maple like a rose. 669 00:54:35,106 --> 00:54:39,486 Let it burn hotter, coming closer, nearly touching our eyes. 670 00:54:59,881 --> 00:55:04,010 I know of no other country with so many talented people. 671 00:55:04,803 --> 00:55:07,305 Something is happening in Russia 672 00:55:07,472 --> 00:55:09,975 that could destroy culture, of course. 673 00:55:10,141 --> 00:55:13,269 That is, the physical possibility to work. 674 00:55:14,270 --> 00:55:19,776 But that doesn't mean you can suppress the spirit. 675 00:55:20,819 --> 00:55:23,071 It's a question of freedom. 676 00:55:23,446 --> 00:55:25,323 What is freedom? 677 00:55:25,490 --> 00:55:29,786 It's one's inner freedom, freedom of the spirit. 678 00:55:30,161 --> 00:55:32,372 It's not a person's rights. 679 00:55:32,664 --> 00:55:34,916 Rights can be taken away. 680 00:55:35,542 --> 00:55:38,003 Inner freedom cannot. 681 00:55:38,211 --> 00:55:42,298 Freedom is an intrinsic part of a person 682 00:55:42,424 --> 00:55:45,510 as a spiritual being. 683 00:55:46,845 --> 00:55:49,764 Hamlet explained this very simply. 684 00:55:49,889 --> 00:55:53,685 That is, Shakespeare put the idea in Hamlet's mouth: 685 00:55:53,977 --> 00:55:57,355 "I could be bounded in a nutshell 686 00:55:57,480 --> 00:56:00,692 and count myself a king of infinite space." 687 00:56:02,402 --> 00:56:05,155 Or as the ancients said... 688 00:56:05,280 --> 00:56:08,241 "If you want to be free, be free!" 689 00:56:09,034 --> 00:56:12,412 Freedom is a personal matter. 690 00:56:13,705 --> 00:56:17,333 Thus you can deprive a person of their rights 691 00:56:17,459 --> 00:56:19,669 but not their freedom. 692 00:56:20,378 --> 00:56:22,172 That's why... 693 00:56:22,672 --> 00:56:26,051 in politically oppressive places 694 00:56:26,217 --> 00:56:28,970 we often find very free people, 695 00:56:29,095 --> 00:56:31,973 while in traditionally democratic countries 696 00:56:32,098 --> 00:56:34,559 we find people who are totally unfree. 697 00:56:45,070 --> 00:56:48,990 HAMLET Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky 698 00:56:49,866 --> 00:56:53,578 Hamlet is clearly the most important 699 00:56:53,745 --> 00:56:57,707 dramatic and poetic work ever created, 700 00:56:57,832 --> 00:57:02,921 because it addresses the most important problem, 701 00:57:03,213 --> 00:57:07,425 which existed both before and during Shakespeare's time 702 00:57:07,550 --> 00:57:11,387 and will exist throughout all time. 703 00:57:15,642 --> 00:57:19,437 Hamlet's tragedy lies not in the fact 704 00:57:19,771 --> 00:57:22,565 that he perishes physically 705 00:57:22,816 --> 00:57:25,944 as a result of his obsession 706 00:57:26,194 --> 00:57:28,613 with revenge 707 00:57:28,780 --> 00:57:30,865 or a sense of justice. 708 00:57:30,990 --> 00:57:32,784 That's not the point. 709 00:57:32,951 --> 00:57:37,372 The point is he condemns himself to death... 710 00:57:37,997 --> 00:57:42,252 by trying to set right "time out of joint." 711 00:57:42,836 --> 00:57:45,922 He condemns himself in the service of others 712 00:57:46,047 --> 00:57:50,760 out of a desire to mend the torn fabric of time. 713 00:57:50,885 --> 00:57:55,807 He gives his own self up as a catalyst 714 00:57:55,974 --> 00:57:59,435 in service of the historical process, 715 00:57:59,561 --> 00:58:03,940 leading to his own final and irrevocable undoing. 716 00:58:04,232 --> 00:58:07,861 This danger of vanishing and perishing 717 00:58:08,111 --> 00:58:10,989 in the name of progress, 718 00:58:11,156 --> 00:58:13,241 and being dissolved entirely in the process — 719 00:58:13,366 --> 00:58:17,120 this is Hamlet's tragedy, because he completely disappears. 720 00:58:17,245 --> 00:58:20,248 He's present only as a catalyst 721 00:58:20,373 --> 00:58:22,667 for that historical process. 722 00:58:23,126 --> 00:58:27,172 It's a tragedy of the individual, because not everyone 723 00:58:27,338 --> 00:58:30,466 can so easily sacrifice themselves for others. 724 00:58:30,758 --> 00:58:33,052 That's not given to everyone. 725 00:58:33,469 --> 00:58:35,847 Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended. 726 00:58:36,014 --> 00:58:38,516 Mother, you have my father much offended. 727 00:58:38,641 --> 00:58:40,935 Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue. 728 00:58:41,144 --> 00:58:43,563 Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue. 729 00:58:43,688 --> 00:58:45,565 Have you forgot me? 730 00:58:45,690 --> 00:58:48,318 No, by the rood, not so: 731 00:58:48,902 --> 00:58:51,446 You are the queen, your husband's brother's wife. 732 00:58:51,696 --> 00:58:54,866 And — would it were not so! — you are my mother. 733 00:58:55,825 --> 00:58:59,037 Nay, then, I'll set those to you that can speak. 734 00:58:59,787 --> 00:59:02,624 You go not till I set you up a glass 735 00:59:02,749 --> 00:59:05,460 where you may see the inmost part of you. 736 00:59:05,710 --> 00:59:08,880 What wilt thou do? Thou wilt not murder me? 737 00:59:09,047 --> 00:59:10,798 What, ho? Help, help! 738 00:59:10,924 --> 00:59:12,842 How now, a rat? 739 00:59:18,181 --> 00:59:20,058 O me, what hast thou done? 740 00:59:20,225 --> 00:59:21,935 Is it the king? 741 00:59:23,269 --> 00:59:25,271 What does it mean, this vengeance 742 00:59:25,396 --> 00:59:28,691 and this setting right "time out of joint"? 743 00:59:28,816 --> 00:59:32,403 It means... blood. 744 00:59:33,029 --> 00:59:35,740 It means spilling another's blood. 745 00:59:35,907 --> 00:59:38,534 It means reinstating truth 746 00:59:38,660 --> 00:59:41,871 by means unfamiliar to a philosopher, 747 00:59:42,580 --> 00:59:46,125 to a student educated in Wittenberg, 748 00:59:46,251 --> 00:59:49,254 by staining his hands with blood, 749 00:59:49,420 --> 00:59:52,298 albeit in the name of justice. 750 00:59:52,423 --> 00:59:55,009 Not everyone is capable of that, 751 00:59:55,134 --> 00:59:57,345 and for Hamlet it's tragic. 752 00:59:57,470 --> 01:00:00,598 At that moment he ceases to be a philosopher 753 01:00:00,723 --> 01:00:02,767 and becomes a man of action. 754 01:00:11,359 --> 01:00:13,903 As for artistic freedom, 755 01:00:14,028 --> 01:00:17,949 without the concept of artistic freedom, 756 01:00:18,116 --> 01:00:21,077 art simply doesn't exit. 757 01:00:21,327 --> 01:00:23,621 It's inconceivable. 758 01:00:24,289 --> 01:00:27,959 For example, it doesn't make sense to speak 759 01:00:28,084 --> 01:00:31,796 of a work of art falling short of success 760 01:00:31,963 --> 01:00:36,134 due to a lack of artistic freedom. 761 01:00:36,759 --> 01:00:39,804 If we sense in a work of art 762 01:00:39,929 --> 01:00:42,974 a lack of that freedom to any degree, 763 01:00:43,182 --> 01:00:47,895 we can say with certainty it's a failure. 764 01:00:48,646 --> 01:00:50,648 In a work of art... 765 01:00:50,773 --> 01:00:54,569 we should see nothing but the work itself. 766 01:00:54,986 --> 01:00:57,405 Unfortunately, during the 20th century, 767 01:00:57,530 --> 01:01:01,284 the meaning of creativity has shifted away from the work 768 01:01:01,492 --> 01:01:06,748 to focus instead on the artist's presence or signature. 769 01:01:23,056 --> 01:01:26,851 I wanted my new film 770 01:01:27,185 --> 01:01:31,981 to be even drier and more "ascetic." 771 01:01:32,148 --> 01:01:36,110 That's the word that expresses my aspiration. 772 01:01:36,361 --> 01:01:41,491 Because I believe that the artist's Olympian calm 773 01:01:41,783 --> 01:01:45,203 is vital to the creative act. 774 01:01:45,370 --> 01:01:48,289 An artist shouldn't be bustling about, 775 01:01:48,706 --> 01:01:51,584 carrying on... 776 01:01:52,293 --> 01:01:56,130 and externally demonstrating his or her concerns. 777 01:01:56,255 --> 01:02:00,718 Because usually, the stronger the artist's temperament, 778 01:02:00,885 --> 01:02:04,097 the less it's expressed externally. 779 01:02:14,065 --> 01:02:18,319 I think Stalker is the most successful of my films 780 01:02:18,569 --> 01:02:24,075 in that the end result matches the initial concept. 781 01:02:24,409 --> 01:02:30,415 And also because it's simpler in construction, 782 01:02:30,665 --> 01:02:34,877 with a pared-down number of expressive devices, 783 01:02:35,086 --> 01:02:38,089 which is very important to me. 784 01:02:38,673 --> 01:02:45,096 Stalker clearly expresses my frame of mind as an artist 785 01:02:45,430 --> 01:02:47,849 over the past few years. 786 01:02:58,234 --> 01:03:01,446 For me this film is about a man... 787 01:03:02,113 --> 01:03:05,199 who is, of course... 788 01:03:06,701 --> 01:03:08,661 facing defeat... 789 01:03:09,120 --> 01:03:11,080 in practical terms. 790 01:03:11,456 --> 01:03:14,167 But since he's an idealist, 791 01:03:14,292 --> 01:03:16,711 he remains chivalrously loyal 792 01:03:16,836 --> 01:03:19,922 to his spiritual values. 793 01:03:20,298 --> 01:03:22,633 The protagonist 794 01:03:22,758 --> 01:03:26,637 is of the same stuff as Don Quixote and Prince Myshkin, 795 01:03:26,762 --> 01:03:31,476 literary characters whom we recognize as ideals, 796 01:03:31,684 --> 01:03:35,980 and because they're ideal, they're defeated in real life. 797 01:03:36,981 --> 01:03:40,693 For me this work expresses 798 01:03:40,985 --> 01:03:43,488 the strength of the weak man 799 01:03:43,654 --> 01:03:46,324 who believes in his dependence 800 01:03:46,616 --> 01:03:50,495 on the spiritual force that gave him birth. 801 01:03:51,954 --> 01:03:54,499 What I'm saying is that... 802 01:03:55,458 --> 01:03:58,503 it doesn't matter what a person does 803 01:03:58,878 --> 01:04:02,882 in the name of what they perceive in their soul 804 01:04:03,007 --> 01:04:06,511 as a connection with a higher being. 805 01:04:13,392 --> 01:04:17,688 I've always suspected that these actions might seem 806 01:04:17,855 --> 01:04:21,692 absurd and meaningless, utterly impractical. 807 01:04:21,984 --> 01:04:24,695 To me such impractical behavior 808 01:04:24,862 --> 01:04:27,532 is a sign of a lofty spirituality. 809 01:04:27,698 --> 01:04:30,076 It means selflessness. 810 01:04:30,493 --> 01:04:32,745 Because there are other ideas, 811 01:04:33,412 --> 01:04:37,875 and the world, conceived and structured as it exists now, 812 01:04:38,000 --> 01:04:40,711 can't satisfy a spiritual person. 813 01:04:41,212 --> 01:04:44,048 That specific force that urges them 814 01:04:44,173 --> 01:04:47,760 to behave impractically is very important. 815 01:04:52,723 --> 01:04:55,101 Yes, I'm a louse. 816 01:04:55,226 --> 01:04:59,063 I've never achieved anything, and I can't do anything here. 817 01:05:00,731 --> 01:05:03,317 I have nothing to give my wife. 818 01:05:04,277 --> 01:05:08,864 I can't have any friends, but don't deprive me of what's mine. 819 01:05:08,990 --> 01:05:12,994 They took everything from me behind the barbed wire. 820 01:05:16,956 --> 01:05:19,250 Everything I have is here. 821 01:05:19,709 --> 01:05:22,461 Here, in the Zone. 822 01:05:23,796 --> 01:05:27,633 My happiness, my freedom, my dignity. 823 01:05:27,758 --> 01:05:29,594 They're all here. 824 01:05:30,636 --> 01:05:34,223 The people I bring are unhappy and tortured like me. 825 01:05:34,390 --> 01:05:37,059 They have nothing left to hope for. 826 01:05:37,393 --> 01:05:39,186 Nobody can help them. 827 01:05:39,604 --> 01:05:41,939 But I can — a louse. 828 01:05:42,106 --> 01:05:45,610 A louse can help them! 829 01:05:48,279 --> 01:05:51,532 I weep for joy because I can help them. 830 01:05:52,283 --> 01:05:54,535 I ask for nothing more. 831 01:06:05,004 --> 01:06:09,175 I'm prepared to give an actor absolute freedom 832 01:06:09,300 --> 01:06:11,927 if, right from the start, 833 01:06:12,053 --> 01:06:15,389 they demonstrate total loyalty to the film's concept. 834 01:06:15,514 --> 01:06:18,184 But I'm unbearable as a director 835 01:06:18,309 --> 01:06:22,897 if the actor doesn't share my point of view 836 01:06:23,022 --> 01:06:25,900 about the film's concept. 837 01:06:26,150 --> 01:06:29,195 But I adore and love those actors 838 01:06:29,320 --> 01:06:32,990 who do share it, and I give them absolute freedom. 839 01:06:38,287 --> 01:06:39,997 This is the most important thing. 840 01:06:40,122 --> 01:06:43,459 One or two takes, 300 or 600 feet — 841 01:06:43,584 --> 01:06:45,586 none of that matters. 842 01:06:45,711 --> 01:06:49,507 What matters is that you not "show" me anything. 843 01:06:53,678 --> 01:06:58,391 It's important that you yourself feel where to give more, 844 01:06:58,516 --> 01:07:00,518 where to give less. 845 01:07:00,643 --> 01:07:02,812 Only you can control that. 846 01:07:02,937 --> 01:07:05,356 Keep it in check. 847 01:07:06,190 --> 01:07:07,900 You understand? - Yes. 848 01:07:08,442 --> 01:07:12,196 It has to stay right on the edge. 849 01:07:12,363 --> 01:07:15,324 All right! Places, everyone! 850 01:07:16,367 --> 01:07:17,868 Camera! 851 01:07:19,370 --> 01:07:21,580 Take 288/1. 852 01:07:24,750 --> 01:07:30,548 But when he came up to me and said, "Come with me," I went. 853 01:07:31,549 --> 01:07:34,218 And I've never regretted it. 854 01:07:38,097 --> 01:07:39,557 Never. 855 01:07:42,226 --> 01:07:44,854 There was a lot of grief 856 01:07:45,354 --> 01:07:47,690 and fear and pain. 857 01:07:47,815 --> 01:07:51,652 But I've never regretted it nor envied anyone. 858 01:07:53,654 --> 01:07:55,489 It's just fate. 859 01:07:57,158 --> 01:07:59,744 It's life. It's us. 860 01:08:05,082 --> 01:08:09,211 And if there were no sorrow in our lives, it wouldn't be better. 861 01:08:10,463 --> 01:08:12,423 It would be worse. 862 01:08:14,800 --> 01:08:19,889 Because then there'd be no happiness either. 863 01:08:22,099 --> 01:08:24,143 And there'd be no hope. 864 01:08:27,813 --> 01:08:29,482 That's how it is. 865 01:08:48,626 --> 01:08:52,963 I have these dreams nearly every night, 866 01:08:53,214 --> 01:08:55,841 and they're amazing. 867 01:08:55,966 --> 01:09:00,137 They go very deep. I can't even write them down. 868 01:09:00,304 --> 01:09:04,642 And I needn't anyway, since I'm inseparable from them. 869 01:09:05,768 --> 01:09:08,312 Dreams can be divided into two groups: 870 01:09:08,437 --> 01:09:11,816 simple dreams, which I remember simply as colors, 871 01:09:11,982 --> 01:09:15,319 and those that I know have profound meaning. 872 01:09:15,486 --> 01:09:19,990 Those are not for us but for our children and other people. 873 01:09:20,115 --> 01:09:24,245 In those dreams we ascertain the power of spiritual connection. 874 01:09:59,196 --> 01:10:02,366 Nostalgia is a totally enveloping feeling. 875 01:10:02,700 --> 01:10:06,579 A person can feel nostalgic 876 01:10:07,037 --> 01:10:11,041 while at home in their own country, surrounded by loved ones. 877 01:10:11,250 --> 01:10:15,671 A person can feel nostalgic even in a happy home, 878 01:10:16,255 --> 01:10:20,551 because they feel their soul can't expand 879 01:10:20,801 --> 01:10:23,721 to the extent it desires. 880 01:10:43,741 --> 01:10:46,869 Love is what shapes human beings. 881 01:10:47,286 --> 01:10:49,747 Love as a capacity for sacrifice, 882 01:10:49,914 --> 01:10:52,249 for offering oneself up for others. 883 01:10:52,374 --> 01:10:54,919 If love is obstructed... 884 01:10:55,628 --> 01:10:59,006 it warps a person and wears them down. 885 01:10:59,465 --> 01:11:04,219 When you feel that kind of love and encounter the terrible barriers 886 01:11:04,887 --> 01:11:06,889 erected by humankind, 887 01:11:07,014 --> 01:11:09,600 the barriers people place between themselves and others, 888 01:11:09,725 --> 01:11:12,311 then you begin to suffer, 889 01:11:12,686 --> 01:11:16,482 just like when lovers are parted. 890 01:11:17,232 --> 01:11:20,194 The protagonist suffers from the impossibility 891 01:11:20,319 --> 01:11:22,613 of being friends with everyone. 892 01:11:22,905 --> 01:11:25,491 He suffers because he can't stay 893 01:11:25,616 --> 01:11:29,370 in that country just a few more days. 894 01:11:29,787 --> 01:11:32,706 He finds a friend who's also suffering. 895 01:11:32,831 --> 01:11:34,959 That's what brings them together 896 01:11:36,126 --> 01:11:38,379 We must destroy the borders 897 01:11:38,629 --> 01:11:41,131 so that all can live freely 898 01:11:41,256 --> 01:11:44,176 and not suffer the consequences of the collision 899 01:11:44,301 --> 01:11:46,762 between social systems. 900 01:11:47,346 --> 01:11:50,641 Because there will be enough problems as it is. 901 01:11:50,766 --> 01:11:54,395 But the borders between us make life unbearable. 902 01:11:54,812 --> 01:11:57,648 The uncertainty of life pains him, 903 01:11:57,815 --> 01:12:00,567 the complete uncertainty of life. 904 01:12:00,693 --> 01:12:02,736 He can't be happy 905 01:12:02,861 --> 01:12:05,364 when so many people are miserable. 906 01:12:05,489 --> 01:12:07,491 His problem 907 01:12:07,616 --> 01:12:09,994 is compassion, a purely Russian idea. 908 01:12:10,244 --> 01:12:13,831 He can't achieve his idea of compassion. 909 01:12:20,838 --> 01:12:22,881 Is he writing about Italy? 910 01:12:23,007 --> 01:12:25,968 He's writing the biography of a Russian composer. 911 01:12:26,093 --> 01:12:28,178 Then why come here? 912 01:12:28,303 --> 01:12:30,639 Because that composer studied in Bologna 913 01:12:30,764 --> 01:12:33,392 and came to these baths every summer. 914 01:12:33,684 --> 01:12:34,768 When? 915 01:12:34,893 --> 01:12:36,979 The late 1700s. 916 01:12:37,354 --> 01:12:39,565 Who was it? Tchaikovsky? 917 01:12:39,690 --> 01:12:42,359 No, his name was Sosnovsky. 918 01:12:42,609 --> 01:12:45,195 Didn't he marry a local girl? 919 01:12:45,362 --> 01:12:49,491 I doubt it. Sosnovsky was in love with a Russian slave. 920 01:12:49,992 --> 01:12:53,370 It was a horrible and unexpected blow. 921 01:12:53,620 --> 01:12:56,665 I suddenly realized for the first time 922 01:12:56,790 --> 01:13:00,544 that the Soviet film authorities didn't consider me 923 01:13:00,961 --> 01:13:03,172 a Soviet director, 924 01:13:03,297 --> 01:13:06,425 because they sent their jury member to Cannes 925 01:13:06,550 --> 01:13:09,720 with the task of completely undermining my success 926 01:13:09,845 --> 01:13:12,473 at the 1983 festival. 927 01:13:12,598 --> 01:13:16,268 It was Sergei Bondarchuk, a Soviet director. 928 01:13:16,643 --> 01:13:21,148 I still don't understand what prompted that desire. 929 01:13:21,356 --> 01:13:23,776 With Nostalghia I was declaring 930 01:13:23,901 --> 01:13:28,030 the utter impossibility for a Soviet or a Russian intellectual 931 01:13:28,155 --> 01:13:30,699 of living in the West. 932 01:13:30,824 --> 01:13:33,660 I'd have expected anything — 933 01:13:33,827 --> 01:13:37,247 their customary inability to comprehend 934 01:13:37,414 --> 01:13:40,292 my filmic language 935 01:13:40,542 --> 01:13:43,337 or some other aesthetic aspect. 936 01:13:43,462 --> 01:13:47,341 But I never expected the authorities of my own country, 937 01:13:47,466 --> 01:13:49,968 my fellow countrymen, my superiors, 938 01:13:50,094 --> 01:13:54,056 to stab me in the back so treacherously. 939 01:13:59,937 --> 01:14:03,774 I suddenly realized I was no longer needed in the USSR, 940 01:14:03,941 --> 01:14:07,611 and I imagined for a moment what would happen 941 01:14:07,736 --> 01:14:10,906 if I were to return to Moscow, 942 01:14:11,031 --> 01:14:15,619 given the Soviet authorities' behavior at Cannes. 943 01:14:15,911 --> 01:14:18,664 I simply had no other choice. 944 01:14:18,831 --> 01:14:21,125 I couldn't return to the Soviet Union. 945 01:14:21,291 --> 01:14:25,546 My wife and I were compelled to stay here in the West, 946 01:14:25,671 --> 01:14:28,966 despite the fact that I have no illusions 947 01:14:29,091 --> 01:14:31,468 about life in the West, 948 01:14:31,635 --> 01:14:34,847 and despite the fact... 949 01:14:35,597 --> 01:14:38,976 that part of my family was still in Moscow. 950 01:14:40,144 --> 01:14:44,148 It was a terribly difficult decision for Larissa 951 01:14:44,314 --> 01:14:46,692 and myself. 952 01:14:54,783 --> 01:14:59,830 Larissa and I haven't yet decided on the country. 953 01:15:02,332 --> 01:15:06,503 The most important thing is to come to a decision. 954 01:15:10,591 --> 01:15:13,719 None of the rest matters. 955 01:15:43,457 --> 01:15:46,877 If in 20 years of being on "diplomatic terms" 956 01:15:47,044 --> 01:15:49,963 with film authorities in Moscow, 957 01:15:50,088 --> 01:15:53,550 I was able to make just five films there, 958 01:15:53,675 --> 01:15:56,428 now, after the scandal at Cannes, 959 01:15:56,887 --> 01:16:01,391 it's clear I wouldn't be allowed to make anything else. 960 01:16:10,734 --> 01:16:16,490 It makes me terribly sad to be cut off from my audience, 961 01:16:16,698 --> 01:16:20,744 my friends, and my homeland. 962 01:16:21,745 --> 01:16:24,414 And of course most of all 963 01:16:24,748 --> 01:16:27,501 I'm sad and depressed 964 01:16:27,709 --> 01:16:30,545 not to be able to work 965 01:16:30,671 --> 01:16:34,466 for those I considered — and still consider — my audience. 966 01:16:34,591 --> 01:16:36,927 It's a real tragedy for me. 967 01:16:38,512 --> 01:16:43,517 I'll of course suffer terribly from being cut off from all of you, 968 01:16:43,976 --> 01:16:48,272 all you who looked forward to and loved my films, 969 01:16:48,397 --> 01:16:51,775 all you for whom I worked 970 01:16:51,942 --> 01:16:54,528 and shall continue to work. 971 01:16:54,736 --> 01:16:58,532 I had no other way out. I had no choice. 972 01:16:58,782 --> 01:17:02,619 What happened was the only logical step 973 01:17:02,828 --> 01:17:09,251 after my clash with the Moscow film authorities. 974 01:17:26,310 --> 01:17:29,604 Lord, do you see how he's asking? 975 01:17:30,230 --> 01:17:32,316 Why don't you speak to him? 976 01:17:32,482 --> 01:17:36,570 Can you imagine what would happen if he heard my voice? 977 01:17:36,737 --> 01:17:38,947 Let him feel your presence. 978 01:17:39,614 --> 01:17:41,616 I do so constantly. 979 01:17:41,742 --> 01:17:44,036 He just doesn't notice. 980 01:17:47,789 --> 01:17:49,791 The hunt is over. 981 01:17:50,083 --> 01:17:52,085 They chased me down. 982 01:17:52,419 --> 01:17:55,172 A hound hangs from my thigh. 983 01:17:55,589 --> 01:17:57,632 I throw my head back 984 01:17:57,758 --> 01:18:00,385 till my antlers rest on my shoulders. 985 01:18:00,510 --> 01:18:02,179 I bellow. 986 01:18:02,304 --> 01:18:04,348 They cut my tendons. 987 01:18:04,556 --> 01:18:07,642 They shove a rifle in my ear. 988 01:18:08,352 --> 01:18:10,187 He falls on his side, 989 01:18:10,395 --> 01:18:13,523 his antlers clinging to wet twigs. 990 01:18:13,940 --> 01:18:16,109 I see a dim eye, 991 01:18:16,234 --> 01:18:18,862 a blade of grass stuck to it. 992 01:18:19,029 --> 01:18:23,575 A black, ossified ball reflecting nothing. 993 01:18:23,950 --> 01:18:27,871 They'll tie his legs together, pass a pole through, 994 01:18:28,205 --> 01:18:30,749 and sling him over their shoulders. 995 01:20:29,868 --> 01:20:32,746 From a historical perspective, 996 01:20:32,871 --> 01:20:35,665 our spiritual development 997 01:20:35,790 --> 01:20:38,502 has lagged behind our material development, 998 01:20:38,627 --> 01:20:40,670 and we're paying for that. 999 01:20:40,795 --> 01:20:42,672 If humanity perishes, 1000 01:20:42,797 --> 01:20:47,010 it will be only because the process of human development 1001 01:20:47,344 --> 01:20:49,513 wasn't harmonious, 1002 01:20:49,679 --> 01:20:53,892 and because humanity didn't evolve spiritually 1003 01:20:54,184 --> 01:20:56,686 but was driven by fear. 1004 01:20:56,895 --> 01:21:01,024 Humankind defended itself against the world 1005 01:21:01,316 --> 01:21:04,528 instead of merging with it 1006 01:21:04,694 --> 01:21:07,447 and establishing a connection with it. 1007 01:21:07,614 --> 01:21:11,117 Humans transformed interaction... 1008 01:21:11,826 --> 01:21:17,207 into a painful daily leveraging of power against one another 1009 01:21:17,332 --> 01:21:20,835 that is irritating, useless, and excruciating, 1010 01:21:20,961 --> 01:21:24,464 instead of making that exchange something pleasurable. 1011 01:21:24,923 --> 01:21:28,301 Mankind grabbed the first toy available, 1012 01:21:28,510 --> 01:21:32,013 and it believed in that stone ax 1013 01:21:32,305 --> 01:21:38,937 rather than the magical effect of a human gaze, or of desire... 1014 01:21:39,604 --> 01:21:43,733 that could have prevented the blow of that ax. 1015 01:21:52,409 --> 01:21:54,869 As for salvation... 1016 01:21:54,995 --> 01:21:59,291 life on this planet recently seems to suggest 1017 01:21:59,749 --> 01:22:03,920 that it perhaps makes sense to save our individual selves 1018 01:22:04,045 --> 01:22:08,049 as quickly as possible, thereby denying life 1019 01:22:08,174 --> 01:22:10,552 and, consequently, art. 1020 01:22:11,136 --> 01:22:14,097 There are no hopes for the future today. 1021 01:22:14,556 --> 01:22:17,017 There's a notion of joining forces 1022 01:22:17,142 --> 01:22:20,687 against the global evil represented by the atomic bomb. 1023 01:22:20,812 --> 01:22:22,772 But you've seen 1024 01:22:22,939 --> 01:22:27,027 what the explosion of a small nuclear plant can do. 1025 01:22:27,152 --> 01:22:29,237 What if ten were to explode? 1026 01:22:29,362 --> 01:22:33,783 In fact, the greatest concern for our future 1027 01:22:33,950 --> 01:22:36,328 may not be war 1028 01:22:36,536 --> 01:22:40,457 but the gradual destruction 1029 01:22:40,624 --> 01:22:43,960 of an ecological niche for humans to exist in. 1030 01:22:44,210 --> 01:22:46,338 Even without war... 1031 01:22:46,630 --> 01:22:49,591 we'll suffocate in this atmosphere. 1032 01:22:49,841 --> 01:22:52,802 That's why the question of art and salvation 1033 01:22:52,969 --> 01:22:55,847 is becoming increasingly relevant today. 1034 01:22:55,972 --> 01:22:57,891 There's no time to lose. 1035 01:23:10,904 --> 01:23:13,865 By "spirituality" I mean first and foremost 1036 01:23:14,115 --> 01:23:17,077 that a person be inquisitive 1037 01:23:17,452 --> 01:23:20,163 regarding what is referred to as 1038 01:23:20,330 --> 01:23:22,207 "the meaning of life." 1039 01:23:22,332 --> 01:23:25,293 That's at least a first step. 1040 01:23:25,543 --> 01:23:28,004 A person who has asked that question 1041 01:23:28,129 --> 01:23:31,299 can no longer fall below that level. 1042 01:23:31,424 --> 01:23:33,760 They will begin to evolve. 1043 01:23:34,052 --> 01:23:36,012 They will wonder... 1044 01:23:36,179 --> 01:23:38,348 "Why do we exist?" 1045 01:23:38,473 --> 01:23:41,184 "Where do we come from, and where are we going?" 1046 01:23:41,351 --> 01:23:45,230 "What's the purpose of our presence on this planet 1047 01:23:45,355 --> 01:23:50,110 during — let's flatter ourselves — the 80 or so years... 1048 01:23:51,569 --> 01:23:54,531 that we have in this world?" 1049 01:23:55,657 --> 01:23:57,659 To put it simply... 1050 01:23:57,867 --> 01:24:00,203 a person who doesn't ask 1051 01:24:00,370 --> 01:24:03,331 or hasn't yet asked those questions 1052 01:24:03,665 --> 01:24:07,043 is soulless, lacking in spirit. 1053 01:24:07,877 --> 01:24:11,673 An artist who doesn't take those questions seriously 1054 01:24:11,798 --> 01:24:16,553 isn't an artist, because he's not a realist. 1055 01:24:16,678 --> 01:24:20,140 He has neglected one of the most important questions, 1056 01:24:20,265 --> 01:24:22,142 one that makes us human. 1057 01:24:22,851 --> 01:24:27,063 When we begin to address these issues... 1058 01:24:28,356 --> 01:24:33,695 is when what we call "true art" emerges. 1059 01:24:38,575 --> 01:24:40,285 I believe... 1060 01:24:40,410 --> 01:24:43,079 that the meaning of life lies 1061 01:24:43,413 --> 01:24:46,291 in elevating our spiritual level 1062 01:24:46,416 --> 01:24:48,960 in the time we're given to live. 1063 01:24:50,837 --> 01:24:55,884 Even if it's just one iota compared to when we were born, 1064 01:24:56,009 --> 01:24:59,095 our life won't have been lived in vain. 1065 01:25:04,267 --> 01:25:08,688 I think evil and the devil 1066 01:25:09,147 --> 01:25:12,859 are the absence of good and of God... 1067 01:25:13,860 --> 01:25:16,154 like shadow and light. 1068 01:25:20,033 --> 01:25:22,410 Humankind harbors evil 1069 01:25:22,535 --> 01:25:24,746 as well as good. 1070 01:25:24,996 --> 01:25:27,582 And the purpose of our existence 1071 01:25:27,791 --> 01:25:31,628 is above all to fight the evil within us. 1072 01:25:32,128 --> 01:25:36,257 That's why we were given free will. 1073 01:25:36,841 --> 01:25:40,303 We can fight evil, 1074 01:25:40,720 --> 01:25:44,265 or we can let the evil within us prevail. 1075 01:25:44,599 --> 01:25:47,477 It's up to us, and us alone. 1076 01:25:50,396 --> 01:25:53,316 The worst thing is when we begin 1077 01:25:53,691 --> 01:25:56,653 to fight evil not within ourselves 1078 01:25:56,945 --> 01:25:59,072 but within others. 1079 01:26:19,509 --> 01:26:22,428 This film, to be shot in Sweden 1080 01:26:22,554 --> 01:26:28,393 and to be called Sacrificio in Italian, or Sacrifice... 1081 01:26:29,060 --> 01:26:32,689 is the logical evolution of Nostalghia 1082 01:26:32,897 --> 01:26:36,526 and of the central character of Domenico, 1083 01:26:36,693 --> 01:26:40,154 a provincial math teacher. 1084 01:26:40,530 --> 01:26:43,867 But of course it will take on certain new angles 1085 01:26:43,992 --> 01:26:47,996 much more relevant to the issues I mentioned before. 1086 01:26:54,377 --> 01:26:57,755 Once upon a time long ago... 1087 01:26:59,173 --> 01:27:04,596 an old monk lived in an Orthodox monastery. 1088 01:27:05,555 --> 01:27:07,473 His name was Pamve. 1089 01:27:07,974 --> 01:27:12,020 One day he planted a dried-up tree on a mountainside... 1090 01:27:12,478 --> 01:27:14,397 just like this. 1091 01:27:15,732 --> 01:27:18,359 Then he told his young pupil... 1092 01:27:18,735 --> 01:27:22,196 a monk named Ioann Kolov... 1093 01:27:22,739 --> 01:27:26,492 that he should water the tree every day 1094 01:27:26,618 --> 01:27:29,245 until it came back to life. 1095 01:27:31,039 --> 01:27:35,418 This film speaks about personal responsibility 1096 01:27:35,543 --> 01:27:40,089 when events come bearing down swiftly and inevitably. 1097 01:27:40,340 --> 01:27:43,593 It's dedicated to personal responsibility 1098 01:27:43,843 --> 01:27:47,221 and the intention and desire to become involved 1099 01:27:47,347 --> 01:27:52,393 in those events that we usually entrust to politicians, 1100 01:27:52,685 --> 01:27:58,483 those professionals whose occupation is to plan out our future, 1101 01:27:58,733 --> 01:28:01,569 to interact with other countries, 1102 01:28:01,694 --> 01:28:04,906 social categories, social strata, etc. 1103 01:28:05,031 --> 01:28:08,368 That's precisely what my film is about: 1104 01:28:08,493 --> 01:28:11,579 involvement of the individual 1105 01:28:11,704 --> 01:28:14,290 in contemporary social processes, 1106 01:28:14,415 --> 01:28:17,210 and the desire to return the individual 1107 01:28:17,335 --> 01:28:19,963 to the very heart of events. 1108 01:28:20,129 --> 01:28:22,465 It's a parable, an allegory, 1109 01:28:22,590 --> 01:28:26,803 that narrates in poetic fashion the fate of a family 1110 01:28:26,970 --> 01:28:31,641 in a very tense and dramatic way, in my opinion. 1111 01:28:37,146 --> 01:28:39,273 As I was saying... 1112 01:28:39,399 --> 01:28:42,860 we were enchanted as we took in the beauty of the place. 1113 01:28:43,444 --> 01:28:45,446 We couldn't tear ourselves away. 1114 01:28:46,322 --> 01:28:48,491 The stillness, the quiet... 1115 01:28:49,826 --> 01:28:51,369 And... 1116 01:28:52,161 --> 01:28:55,206 it was clear that the house 1117 01:28:55,581 --> 01:28:57,667 was made just for us. 1118 01:28:58,418 --> 01:29:02,213 And it happened to be for sale — a real miracle! 1119 01:29:02,755 --> 01:29:05,174 And you were born in that house. 1120 01:29:06,342 --> 01:29:08,052 Do you like it? 1121 01:29:09,554 --> 01:29:12,390 Do you like your house, my boy? 1122 01:29:16,686 --> 01:29:18,938 The more evil triumphs, 1123 01:29:19,063 --> 01:29:22,025 the more reasons there are to create art. 1124 01:29:22,316 --> 01:29:25,028 In fact, all the more reasons. 1125 01:29:25,695 --> 01:29:27,530 Art is... 1126 01:29:29,032 --> 01:29:31,200 how should I put it? 1127 01:29:32,869 --> 01:29:36,247 As long as human beings exist... 1128 01:29:37,081 --> 01:29:40,334 they will instinctively strive to create. 1129 01:29:41,377 --> 01:29:45,548 In a way, that's what binds them to their creator. 1130 01:29:45,715 --> 01:29:48,301 And what is creation? 1131 01:29:48,593 --> 01:29:50,845 What is the purpose of art? 1132 01:29:51,054 --> 01:29:52,972 Why does it exist? 1133 01:29:53,556 --> 01:29:55,558 Is it good or bad? 1134 01:29:56,100 --> 01:30:00,730 Is it something constructive, or just art for art's sake? 1135 01:30:00,855 --> 01:30:04,692 But one thing is clear: Art is prayer. 1136 01:30:04,901 --> 01:30:06,986 That says it all. 1137 01:30:07,695 --> 01:30:11,365 Through art humankind expresses hope. 1138 01:30:11,616 --> 01:30:14,077 Everything else is irrelevant. 1139 01:30:14,327 --> 01:30:17,038 All that which doesn't express hope 1140 01:30:17,163 --> 01:30:19,749 and isn't built on a spiritual foundation 1141 01:30:19,916 --> 01:30:22,418 has nothing to do with art. 1142 01:30:49,403 --> 01:30:54,534 If someone were to ask where I see hope for the future, 1143 01:30:55,076 --> 01:30:59,622 I'd say only in Russia, despite everything. 1144 01:31:02,667 --> 01:31:04,919 Hope in the sense... 1145 01:31:06,796 --> 01:31:10,800 that civilization may end 1146 01:31:11,134 --> 01:31:14,345 before the first nuclear bomb falls. 1147 01:31:14,804 --> 01:31:20,268 That will happen when the last man who believes in the creator dies. 1148 01:31:21,102 --> 01:31:24,147 A civilization without spirituality, 1149 01:31:24,480 --> 01:31:29,068 without belief in the immortality of the human soul, 1150 01:31:29,735 --> 01:31:32,864 is no more than a gathering of animals. 1151 01:31:33,906 --> 01:31:37,577 It's no longer civilization. 1152 01:31:38,327 --> 01:31:40,955 It's the end, the decline. 1153 01:31:41,873 --> 01:31:45,668 That's why I see in Russia 1154 01:31:46,002 --> 01:31:50,214 many more signs of spiritual rebirth 1155 01:31:50,423 --> 01:31:54,010 than here, in the free West. 1156 01:32:25,166 --> 01:32:29,170 There was a time when I could name those 1157 01:32:29,462 --> 01:32:32,215 whom I considered my teachers. 1158 01:32:32,882 --> 01:32:37,720 But now only those come to mind... 1159 01:32:38,679 --> 01:32:44,393 whom I would call not so much "masters" 1160 01:32:45,102 --> 01:32:47,313 as "holy fools," 1161 01:32:47,438 --> 01:32:49,982 who don't belong to this world, 1162 01:32:50,107 --> 01:32:52,235 lunatics. 1163 01:32:52,360 --> 01:32:55,988 With no offense intended toward anyone living, 1164 01:32:56,113 --> 01:32:59,242 among them I would consider Bresson, 1165 01:32:59,408 --> 01:33:04,080 Tolstoy, Bach, and Leonardo. 1166 01:33:04,580 --> 01:33:07,583 Ultimately, they all were crazy... 1167 01:33:08,251 --> 01:33:13,798 because they didn't have to think up their art. 1168 01:33:14,674 --> 01:33:17,843 They all were possessed. 1169 01:33:21,597 --> 01:33:24,725 People like that frighten me 1170 01:33:24,934 --> 01:33:27,895 and at the same time inspire me. 1171 01:33:28,145 --> 01:33:31,107 Their work 1172 01:33:31,232 --> 01:33:34,277 is absolutely impossible to explain. 1173 01:33:35,278 --> 01:33:38,322 So much has been written about Tolstoy 1174 01:33:38,531 --> 01:33:42,618 and Leonardo and Bach. 1175 01:33:42,785 --> 01:33:46,455 Yet no one really managed to say anything at all. 1176 01:33:46,580 --> 01:33:49,625 Thank God no one could explain their talent. 1177 01:33:49,959 --> 01:33:54,088 That means it's impossible to explain. 1178 01:33:54,338 --> 01:33:56,465 Miracles can't be explained. 1179 01:33:56,882 --> 01:33:59,969 A miracle is... God. 1180 01:34:00,094 --> 01:34:03,806 BELIEVE IN SPITE OF EVERYTHING. 1181 01:34:04,390 --> 01:34:08,519 FAITH IS KNOWLEDGE THROUGH LOVE. 1182 01:34:08,728 --> 01:34:12,606 For my part, I'm not afraid of death. 1183 01:34:12,815 --> 01:34:14,817 It doesn't frighten me. 1184 01:34:15,568 --> 01:34:18,696 Perhaps the only thing that's scary... 1185 01:34:20,072 --> 01:34:22,325 is physical suffering. 1186 01:34:23,159 --> 01:34:26,329 For a person who has... 1187 01:34:27,663 --> 01:34:30,499 some understanding of life, 1188 01:34:30,624 --> 01:34:34,378 I don't think death can be frightening. 1189 01:34:35,796 --> 01:34:38,466 I'm sure of that. 1190 01:34:38,591 --> 01:34:42,803 I'm not sickened by the thought of approaching death. 1191 01:34:42,928 --> 01:34:45,306 On the contrary. 1192 01:34:45,431 --> 01:34:48,100 Sometimes I feel that death... 1193 01:34:49,018 --> 01:34:52,313 and even the sense of despair around it... 1194 01:34:52,438 --> 01:34:55,316 can bring on an incredible sense of freedom 1195 01:34:55,441 --> 01:34:59,236 that we've never experienced before in our lives. 1196 01:35:17,421 --> 01:35:22,885 A masterpiece could be bearing witness to a soul 1197 01:35:23,135 --> 01:35:25,971 passing by you 1198 01:35:26,180 --> 01:35:30,726 and clearly moving upward, somewhere skyward, 1199 01:35:31,060 --> 01:35:35,398 sweeping past you and leaving behind 1200 01:35:35,564 --> 01:35:38,359 just a breeze that you feel. 1201 01:35:38,484 --> 01:35:41,612 That is sufficient for a work of art 1202 01:35:41,737 --> 01:35:44,156 to become a creation of genius. 1203 01:36:08,973 --> 01:36:11,934 A delicate breeze wafts through your heart, 1204 01:36:12,143 --> 01:36:14,770 and you fly and fly headlong. 1205 01:36:15,312 --> 01:36:17,773 Meanwhile, love on a photo negative 1206 01:36:17,940 --> 01:36:20,276 holds your soul by the sleeve 1207 01:36:20,401 --> 01:36:22,862 as, grain by grain, like a bird 1208 01:36:22,987 --> 01:36:25,614 it steals what it can from oblivion. 1209 01:36:25,823 --> 01:36:28,200 It won't let you be scattered to the winds. 1210 01:36:28,325 --> 01:36:30,619 Even when dead, you'll live on — 1211 01:36:30,744 --> 01:36:33,289 not completely, just a hundredth part, 1212 01:36:33,456 --> 01:36:35,791 beneath our breath, in our dreams, 1213 01:36:35,916 --> 01:36:38,461 as if you're wandering in some field 1214 01:36:38,586 --> 01:36:40,796 in the land beyond. 1215 01:36:40,963 --> 01:36:44,550 All that's dear, alive, and visible to the eye 1216 01:36:44,884 --> 01:36:47,344 takes flight again and again 1217 01:36:47,470 --> 01:36:49,972 if the Angel of the Lens 1218 01:36:50,347 --> 01:36:53,517 takes your world under its wing.