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Stalker, by Andrei Tarkovsky

Alex's Grandma

01:54 / 05.11.04

A friend of mine has to do an essay about it, but instead of watching the film properly, making the relevant notes, etc, ze was persuaded, instead, to just get really stoned.

It would be fair to say that I probably encouraged hir in this nebulous pursuit, so I'm pretty much in the doghouse, and deservedly so, but...
Well if anyone happens to be an expert on this movie, and wouldn't mind posting their thoughts on it now, I would really appreciate,

Ta,

Bed Head

02:31 / 05.11.04

I’d love to! However. I don’t have a copy to hand, I'm not an expert, and anyway I’m knackered.

But, I’d say maybe one of the things that makes Stalker great is the way the editing is used to influence the viewers’ perception of time, so after you’ve been watching for a while, you’re taking in information at a different rate. Perhaps make the essay mirror the film in this respect? - because your friend may well currently be in the *perfect* state to wax lyrical about this quality, for page after page. Every cloud has a, like, silver lining. Maan.

grant

04:39 / 06.11.04

If American sci-fi is about special effects and British sci-fi is about acting, this movie is about locations.

Maybe 'about' is the wrong word -- it's the strong point, though, to the point where it practically becomes another character.

Those drippy rooms, filled with unknown, unseen menace.

In a way, it's also a horror movie about fallout (in almost the same way that Godzilla is about the bomb). A faceless, nameless, zone of terror. Not even a proper monster -- nothing you can point at.

Lord Morgue

08:05 / 07.11.04

There's a F.P.S. game coming out that's loosely based on The Stalker.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl
Anyone read the original story it was based on? I heard there were some changes to the plot for the film.

Kavboj

20:39 / 24.10.06

If still interested, Tarkovsky cut off every science fiction thing that was written in the book Roadside Picnic by brothers Strugatsky, wanting to explore inner depths of human relations and, most of all, human wishes.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

21:00 / 24.10.06

Roadside Picnic's brilliant- it's out of print at the moment, but is being reprinted early next year.

StarWhisper

18:36 / 16.12.06

This is one of the best films I've ever seen. It's deep. Wow. So beautiful. I can't wait to see the original version of Solaris.

Closed for Business Time

11:31 / 30.04.08

A shortish documentary (52 min.) called "Stalker's Dreams" is being shown at Ciné Lumiere, 17 Queensberry Place London SW7 on Saturday 10 May. It's directed by Yevgeni Tsymbal, Tarkovski' assistant on Stalker, and Tsymbal will participate in a Q&A session after the film.

Slightly edited blurb from the flyer: "Tsymbal presents his documentary about Alxander Kaidanovsky who played the stalker. The film features previously unseen archive materials including excerpts from the films of and interviews with Tarkovsky, Kaidanovsky etc."

Stoatie, you see this?

[Edit:] For info and booking go to www.kinokino.co.uk

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

13:56 / 30.04.08

oooooh....

The Idol Rich

14:51 / 09.05.08

Wow, that sounds good. I love Stalker (and Solaris for that matter). My favourite bit is the journey into the zone with that amazing industrial library style soundtrack and then they arrive into the world of colour - and Stalker walks off and lies down in the grass embracing the earth as though it's some long lost friend who is loved and also somehow hated or feared but for a moment or two that doesn't matter. Location as character is right.

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