Andrei Tarkovsky

Author: Fu Songyan
Publisher:
Publication Date: 2004-01-01
Features: Image Gallery. Film is regarded as "a (human) phenomenon of fantasy." "Image" () is more focused on psychological and physiological sensations than "image" (), and it builds a complete form with life. Here, "image" replaces the perception and impression of the projector's projection of images at the birth of film. "Image" also has a certain "ideological" presupposition. Image Gallery is a series of books that systematically organizes the works and creations of contemporary film masters. To be precise, it is a record of texts and images showing respect to the "author" directors. It is not an extensive exploration of film history; this scope may be relatively unfamiliar to what people usually know as "film directors." Therefore, the target audience of Image Gallery was destined to be narrow from the beginning. The creation of Image Gallery stems from the passion and sustained enthusiasm of a few people for film. Here, it is hoped to establish an effective and healthy language environment, forming a focus and scrutiny on the "aesthetic value" beyond the "entertainment function" of film, and placing it above the conventional "reception response" of "watching" films. Furthermore, in the current era of rapidly expanding visual information and the lack of specialized research materials for film, if Image Gallery can simplify the complex and serve as a "reference book" in the process of "understanding" film, this would be some of the value of Image Gallery.
Andrei Tarkovsky: Born in 1932 in Zavrazhino, Russia, he was the son of poet Arkady Tarkovsky. He studied at the Soviet Film Institute and graduated in 1961. His films have won numerous international awards; his Ivan's Childhood won the Golden Lion at the 1962 Venice Film Festival. His second film, Andrei Rublev, won the Grand Prize at the 1969 Cannes Film Festival. Subsequent works, such as Solaris (1972), Mirror (1974), and The Stalker (1979), were widely acclaimed in the West. His works are renowned for their masterful use of striking symbolic imagery. In 1983, while filming Nostalghia in Italy, Tarkovsky decided never to return to the Soviet Union. His final work, Sacrifice, won the Jury Prize at the 1986 Cannes Film Festival. In December of the same year, Tarkovsky died of lung cancer in Paris at the age of 54. Many critics have attempted to interpret his intense, personal vision, but have always struggled to fully grasp it. Finally, in Time in the Desert, he records his thoughts and memories, revealing for the first time the creative inspiration, development, working methods, and deeply autobiographical essence of his major works, as well as an in-depth exploration of various issues in visual creation. These essays were written over a long period, with the chapter on Sacrifice being dictated in the last weeks of his life. In this artistic testimony, we see this master sculpting life within "a bundle of time," as if time races through the lens, imprinted on the. The book also includes several poems by Arkady Tarkovsky—Andrei Tarkovsky's father—these captivating verses often appear in Andrei Tarkovsky's poetic film scenes.