IB Assignment

IB Text Analysis Worksheet: Stalker

December 5, 2022

black wolf
“black wolf” by Cloudtail the Snow Leopard is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

https://olympia.schoology.com/course/6257709129/materials?f=640554365

Summary

A guide to planning, researching, and creating your IB Film Text Analysis

THIS IS NOT A NARRATIVE PAPER. It’s you showing off what you know about film language related to your chosen film and the cultural context of the film. PERIOD!

  • Follow the directions for each step below
  • Include for your notes, where required

Student Work

Across The Universe

Pan’s Labyrinth

Handmaid’s Tale

Guidance for Your Work

“The TA is an exam. Failure to turn in the work within the 4 weeks, unless the teacher requests extenuating circumstances directly from the IB, should be considered a fail.” – IB Film

13.5 Hours To Complete

  • Please track how long it took you for each stage

Step 1 – Preparation: Spend 2 Hours

Total Time: 1:30 hr

Step 2 – Pick a Film, Watch It, and Write Notes: Spend 4.5 Hours

Total Time: ~5 hours, (2:40 min movie 2 times)

The goal of IB Film is to expose students to films from all over the world and to increase their critical and practical understanding of film as a creative art form and reflection of its time period, society, and political and cultural environment. As a result, this class requires the viewing of a wide variety of films. In some cases, these films may carry an R rating, or, in the case of films made before 1968 and some foreign films, will have no rating at all. Please be assured that all the films selected for this course have a high degree of artistic merit and that many have won numerous awards and are considered part of the film canon. However, if you object to any film shown that does carry an “R” rating, you will always have the opportunity to request that an alternative film be assigned, and/or be excused from class and not view the film.

  1. Watch the trailers and pick ONE of these films – Stalker
  2. Review Drew’s TA Guide Sheet (he scored very high!) (10 minutes)
  3. First Viewing: Watch the film and record your reactions (2 hours)
    • Take notes (below in this post)
      • How does the film (various scenes) affect you?
      • Remember every scene is like a mini-movie
      • Pay attention to which scene best represents the film, for you
  4. Second Viewing: Notice the cinematography, mise en scene, actor movement, wardrobe, sound (diegetic, non-diegetic, music, etc.) choices (2 hours)
    • Review the Big List of Film Terms for cinematic elements, mise en scene (what’s represented on screen), and sound
    • Write notes (below in this post)

Step 3 – Choose Your Extract, Watch It, Write Notes, and Research: 2.5 hours

Total Time: 2 hours

  1. Open your TA Bibliography Google Doc (In Your IB Google Drive Folder – Mr. Le Duc created)
    • You will add your MLA sources as you research
  2. Choose your 5-minute extract (scene)

2:23:00 -> 2:28:00

Re-watch this scene numerous times and write notes in the Task Analysis Guide (below) (15 minutes)

  1. Research to support your notes (1 hour)
    • see what critics say about the film.
    • Cultural context Evidence: Textual analysis and sources
      • Answer these questions:
        • To what extent do you demonstrate an understanding of the cultural context of the film text?
        • To what extent do you support your understanding of the cultural context with research from appropriate and relevant sources?
    • Add to your notes in the Task Analysis Guide
  2. Re-watch your scene numerous times and add to your notes (15 minutes)
  3. Research to support your notes (1 hour)
    • Re-read Criterion B Film Elements Rubric
      • Evidence: Textual analysis and sources
        • To what extent do you evaluate how the extract makes use of film elements to convey meaning in the chosen film?
        • To what extent do you support your observations with the appropriate use of relevant film vocabulary?

Step 4 – Compose A Rough Draft using The Text Analysis Guide: 2 hours

Total Time:

  1. Watch Mr. Le Duc’s Convert a Table into Text with Editpad.org tutorial and do the following: (5 minutes)
    1. Copy and paste the two columns of your Text Analysis Guide notes (below) into editpad.org
      • This will convert your two-column table layout into a regular text document
    2. Copy and paste from editpad.org into your Google Docs TA Paper Template
  2. Thoroughly re-read and examine your work with the Text Analysis Rubric (PDF) (10 minutes)
  3. Compose your rough draft (1.75 hours)
    • Weave in your research the following
    • WHAT: Your observation about a film element in the 5-minute scene
    • WHY: Relate the film element to the shot or scene’s emotional or narrative importance
    • HOW: Explain how the film element works in the context of this scene
    • SO WHAT: Justify it with the cultural context, as needed

Text Analysis Guide (For your 5-Minute Scene)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1K5pRc1Rf4eBnNKNLLGvR56JLzYQzN1Mt/view

NOTES
Time of 5-minute clip Interval: 2:23:00 – 2:28:00
PART 1 – The film, your scene, why it is of interest, and how your scene relates to the whole film.
Brief Summary of Exposition

Writer, Director, Producer, studio, year released Main characters, conflict, identify the genre. Identify the aspect ratio.		In this paper I will analyze an extract from Andrei Tarkovsky‘s film Stalker (1979) that reflects the cultural of ———– in Russia in 1979 through Tarkovsky’s use of ———–. This extract is relevant because —- .


The genre of the film is identified as a science fiction. It is a 1979 Soviet science fiction art film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky with a screenplay written by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, loosely based on their 1972 novel Roadside Picnic.
The main characters are Stalker, Writer, and Professor, and the story follows them as they adventure into the zone, a military protected wastland. They are in search of a place known only as The Room where a person’s deepest desires are fufilled.
Context of Extract in Film

Briefly describe the scene. At what times does your scene occur, how it begins, and how it ends. Do not describe it further. The judges have seen the movie.		The extract begins with the heros: Stalker, Writer, and Professor, sitting together at the precipice of The Room. They are gazing into it yet never enter. It then transitions back outside the zone where the heros are in a bar. The stalker’s wife and child come to meet him there and take him home. The excerpt ends with a shot of the daughter being carried by her father.

It follows the characters in their transition out of the zone.
The Rationale for Selection

Relation to the entire movie. Why is it interesting and why does this scene best illustrate the themes of the whole movie?
PART 2 – Remember to integrate the Director’s intent with each of the following areas in this section
Realism and or formalsim? Film Style.

Research Tarkovsky’s film style. and compare to this exerpt.

Script – Not just dialogue but in terms of being the spine of the story

Explain how this scene advances the plot. How do the events of this scene clarify/complicate matters? How does this scene affect/cause future events? What new information is revealed or suggested about a character? Is there anything deliberately withheld? Anything unusual in the dialogue? Word choice? Delivery? Accents? Repetition?		the silence, no dialogue in the water scene can convey a sense of contemplation for the heros. Or, that they have nothing left to say. The train sounds is famialr to the audience for example it was used in the scene in the beggining of the film with the bed.

The dialogue between the characters is short, simple, normal. Nothing being said is as existential and deep as what was said in the zone. The delivery of the lines for the actors seem fatigued, tired. They talk of dogs vs talking about the meaning of life and hope in the zone.

new information that is revealed in this excerpt is the possible relation/connection between the zone and the daughter, becaue of the color similarities in the shots.
Cinematography
Camerawork – describe shots in specific terms


Shot size: ELS, LS (stage), full shot, MS, CU, ECU.
Camera angles: bird’s eye, high angle, eye level, low angle or Dutch (oblique) camera movement
Invisible V conspicuous. 		Wide shot – water scene from camera inside room. Still no meovement. Zero Zoom. Steadycam I believe. Cut to close up of the bomb piece in the water that was thrown. slow zoom. handheld posssible. not sure. it is steady though. cut to shot through door focus on the mother/wife walking toward camera cut ot full shot of mem at bar handheld. slow zoom in. zoom into girl outside medium speed. cut to woman tracking shot then stay with bar man to the right cut ot the men at the table meduim shot. cut to the woman waling away camera stay put. full shot. as man passes into frame the camera following cut to close up of the two men at table. tracking shot to left of writer gazing at them leaving. cut to the close up of the girl’s head. camra following her movements to the right.

camera movement – is all either a dolly/tracking and steady cam. Except there is a slight left pan CU on the writer as he smokes.

camera angles – eye level in the room/water scene in beggining, then camera pointed staight down with the bomb piece in center/ parallel to the ground. eye level at the bar (although the stairs create a visual of being below) Then when get back to girl alone outside hte camera begins eye level then zooms in/dolly’s toard the girl in a high angle (camera looking down upon her).

The tracking shots/camera postional changes are motivated by character movement.
Camera Height In water scene the camera height is parallel with the group’s positions.

in the outside of bar shots the camera is higher than those outide. When in the bar the camera height is eye-level to the adults. Whne the camera height is eyelevel to the child at the end the scene is in color.
Long takesall of the scenes are long takes – relates to a realist style perhaps.
Mise-en-scene – The overall look and feel of a movie

Composition

Depth of Field

Consider foreground, mid, ground, and background. Deep focus is associated with wide-angle lenses. Could be flat. Narrow ranges of focus may be the result of telephoto lenses.
Water scene – deep, characters in background the room is in foreground.

Shot of bomb – shallow

Mom and child outside of bar – deep. Both in backhrond in begging then child in background nad mother in foreground as she walks into the bar.

shot of men at the table, deep – men in background, woman in forgrond as she appears then walk behind the men to become background.

then a closer shot of the men at table when woman walks out, men in foreground the bar employee in background.

as woman walks out (deep) she is foreground and child is background — child background mother mid ground stalker foregorund

close up to the writer and professor, progessor in foregorund writer in backround
then writer moves to be alonein the frame – moment of contemplation?

Position of characters and objects

Identify the dominant, does movement guide our focus, character proxemics patterns (intimate,  personal, social, and public distances).
How does the director add meaning to these choices? Is one character encroaching on another’s space?
Watch for space being used to portray relationships/changes in relationships.
Watch for windows, doors, parallel lines that frame people or objects.  Entrapment.
Look for actor placement. Front – actor facing camera, greatest intimacy. One-Quarter Turn – very popular. Profile – character lost in the moment, a bit more distant than the previous two. Three Quarters Turn – useful to convey anti, socialness, Back of Head, most anonymous shot. Creates a mystery or feeling of alienation.		water scene – focus on the three men sitting, distance is far. can’t read their faces. the are posiotned close together – shows unity?
bomb shot – focus on the bomb and perhaps the fish, then the oil/sludge in the water as it moves across/spreads in the water.

focus on the woman and child farther away/ then focuson the woman as she approaches the door.

the the shots of the men in the bar. for me, i am most focused on the characters that have movements such as the stalker and the dog and the bar employee as he moves to the right – then on the woman as she moves across the frame until she sits down behind the men.

then focus on the child as she is center frame alone. she is three quarters turned form camera.

positioning of the writer as he moves into frame by himself is significant. the two men are nearly side by side then seperated.

child’s head center frame from side profiile.

the door that is used in the shots is probably significant, perhaps to create entrapment or someting.
Lighting

Low or high key. How does the director use light to focus our attention? Key, fill, and backlighting. What is the source of lighting in the context of the scene?		water scene – lighint is dark light behind the men and lit in the center of the water

bomb – somewhat neutral lighting more light in top right corning the more dar in bottom left corner in begginging. (relating to the oil)

lighting is lighter outside nad darker in the bar.

use of natural light with the girl in last shot.

Color scheme

How does the director use color and what is the director’s intent for doing so? Look for color symbolism or color associated with characters. Color to suggest a mood. Color as foreshadowing. Contrasting colors ( the monolith v white room)		color in the water scene is dark blue, dark yellow, and black

color in the bomb scene is white, black, dark brown, and grey

color outside the bar and inside the bar is blck and white filtered. but with a yellow-dark yellow, black, brown, dark brown tints.

color in the shot with the girl in last shot is in color again like in the shots from the zone. maybe to infer that she is of the zone or resembles the zone?

in both the colored shots the colors used are rather dim, dark, and mellow or depressing mood – just not cheerful.


seems to me that the colored shots = zone
black and white = “real world”/society

Set/location/props

Set design. Studio or on, location, describe props, scenery, what was the Director ́s intent for using them? How dense is visual information? Stark, moderate, or highly detailed?		location gives the feeling of being cold in the colored scenes. not many props, there is a fish however in the shots with the bomb. maybe to give a snese of the pollution on living things as a correlation to humanity?


location of the bar is city like, winter, cold feeling, smokestacks in backhround, not a very “homey” feel from this, the bar is sparse with not much/ almost no decoration just a table 1 chair and some bottles. the glasses of the men’s drinks are half to less than half filled. bar seems dirty inside. needs to be swept. windows dirty.

could the smoke from the cigarette of the writer be significant?

Costume, hair, make up

Period, class, gender (emphasize or diminish), age-appropriate, silhouette (close-fitting or baggy), fabric (plain, sheer, rough, delicate), accessories. Color is very important in relation to character.		cannot really see the hair or makeup in the water scene but the costume/sillowette of the men is dark/black.

the young girl is wearing a large headscarf, mother wearing large winter coat, stalkings, and dull shoes. Both of their outfits lack any excitement rather dull colors and fits. seems like more practicality than fashion. the woman’s makeup is clean, she does not have a dirty face. her hair seems clean. either stianing or wet spots on her jacket. the outfits of the men are also dull but pretty dirty from their journey into the zone. the hair nad makeup fo the men is dirtied faces and disheveled hair. hands also dirty. faces dirty/sweaty/oily.

the doughter’s hair (if any) is covered by the scarf, her face is clear/clean more of a natural look doesnt appear to be any makeup.
Acting/body language

Acting style, body language, blocking, period, or contemporary. Individualized (Joker), Stylization. Look for subtext (character says one thing but means something else). Consider typecasting as a shortcut to characterization.		water scene – they look fatigued, relaxed, in contemplative position.

outside of bar – mother is acting in a caring way for the child. setting her upon the bench. the child’s movements are emotionless almost like a doll being placed by her mother’s actions.

the mother walks in fixes her hair.

the men look tired, the body lang. of the progesser is bent over the table for suppor. the writer is leaning on hte talbe. the stalker is a more upright posiotn feeding the dog. the employee stands watching the woman smoking the employee in the CU seems super mellow almost like he doesnt want to be there.

writer is the most upbeat when talking/remarking that he has dogs at home.

the man is giving the vibe that he is tired and he doesn’t want to be given a hard time by his wife.

the professer has a dazed look the writeer has a contemplative mood/look as he gazes with the cigarette in the CU shot.



Sound – watch scene w/o picture

Live sound, sound effects, and music. Sound can be diegetic, meaning characters would hear it, or non, diegetic, meaning that characters would not hear it, such as narration or music over the credits. Explore the relationship between diegetic and non, diegetic sound when appropriate.		water scene – water droping, echo, water splash, no other sound than the water. creschendo of the trian. at climax music plays volume is loudest, the music is upbeat, it gets quieter as the woman comes up the stairs.

the bar is quiet just sound of the character;s feet, a match, dog eating, distant train calls, and boat honk. glass on table. match for cigarette again.

footsteps with the girl CU.
Music –

Is the music telling you what to feel?  Music can be used as a counterpoint to the action.		see above, there is really not music except during the train sound with the bomb.

why might there be music during this? refer to sound design video? I think he talks about this.
Editing –

Ellipsis (time compression) and cross-cutting, fades, dissolves (fades between scenes), wipes,  matching cuts, straight cuts, dialogue overlap, and sound bridges. Consider how long each shot lasts.		there is never a fade or dissolve between scenes each transition is just a straight cut.

there is a sound bridge from the bomb scene to the scene outside with the mother and daughter.

the shots are long. There are only 10 shots in the whole excerpt.
Part 3 – Analyzing the Film as a Product
Sociocultural Context

In what way was this movie a product of its time? What does the audience learn about the culture or historical context of the film?

WHO was he?
WHAT were his passions?
HOW did he create his films?
how did CRITICS recieve his work in Russia at the time of release? Today?

Look into the creation of the movie. Tarkovski filmed in locations that were very dangerous…and as a result of that, many of the cast and crew died! Look into that too. There are lots and lots of articles and films that look at this amazing film story from the outsider’s perspective as well as surviving cast and crew that can tell their story.

The film is loosely based on a short novel called “Roadside Picnic”…so when you research the background for this film, you should also look into that angle
Like Kaurismaki (LE HAVRE)…Tarkovski is considered an “AUTEUR”…so you I think you will find GREAT research on WHAT the Auteur Film Theory is…and assess its qualities against Tarkovski to see if he fits the description
Generic Expectations

http://www.filmsite.org/filmgenres.html also research  http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Tropes		About Science Fiction Generally:

Science Fiction depends on asking “what if?” Or as an obscure 1930s Science Fiction musical asked, “just imagine”…
…travel between stars were possible.
…aliens came to Earth.
…a utopia or a dystopia.
…the future.
…we had superhuman abilities.
…a war had favored the other side.
…you could visit a world where you were never born.
The one defining trait of Science Fiction is that there is technology that doesn’t exist in the time period the story is written in. Consider 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. The story was written in a time when submarines were still at the prototype stage, so 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea falls within the boundaries of Science Fiction.
However, Science Fiction is as much a genre as a setting. Often, the technology is a means to explore a concept, and the story could be a detective story focusing on how advanced technology affects crime and policing.
Themes

Man V Man, or one of the others, is this film an allegory?		there is a clear theme dealing with the role of faith in an increasinging secular society that devalues faith.

research Russia, find articles and films that look at how Russia struggles with that very issue.

The role of faith in a faithless society. What it means to be alive…and what it means to live in a society…and what choices we face to do both with integrity…
Motifs/Symbols

What specific devices support your definition of the theme? Look for recurring elements.		Motif, the train sound creshendo. The Color changes in the film can be a symbol.
Film Criticism – see what critics say about the film.

Both contemporary and current. Use brief quotes from two different sources. Record the details:  reviewers’ names and publication names/dates		Contemporary Criticism:
Upon its release the film’s reception was less than favorable. Officials at Goskino, a government group otherwise known as the State Committee of the USSR on Cinematography, were critical of the film. On being told that Stalker should be faster and more dynamic, Tarkovsky replied:
“The film needs to be slower and duller at the start so that the viewers who walked into the wrong theatre have time to leave before the main action starts”
The Goskino representative then stated that he was trying to give the point of view of the audience. Tarkovsky supposedly retorted:
I am only interested in the views of two people: one is called Bresson and one called Bergman. (those are both directors)

To me it seems like the censcorship/criticism was not too much of a problem for him. It also seems that this censorship was directed to religous type themes in his movies.

Soviet censors were unhappy with the excess of religious symbolism in Andrei Rublev (1966), and as a result, the film was shortened by 25 minutes. Tarkovsky was not allowed to make a film for six years following its release. Showings of The Mirror (1975) and Stalker (1979) were limited because of their complex language, and the press either gave them negative reviews or kept silent. Solaris (1972) was Tarkovsky’s only more or less successful film. Even though Soviet officials were irritated by its philosophical line and its arguments about God and cognition – and despite the fact that they demanded more than 40 changes to it – the film was still well known in the Soviet Union.


Current Criticism: “It is masterfully done, contains some haunting images, and has a difficult-to-pinpoint mesmerism in the way it progresses. Once it gets you (which, for some, may never happen), it will hold you like a fly trapped in amber.” – James Berardinelli
Publication Name: ReelViews.Net
Date: April 27, 2019
TASK COMPONENTS (ACTION) – Compose Paper
Part 4 – Sources
Source 1 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhK7hMBli4s

Stalker (1979): The Sci-Fi Masterpiece That Killed Its Director		Very difficult production. Filmed three times.

Russian film directer whose main ork was between 1962 and 1986. His style was slow, methodical, and atmospheric oftem involving really beatuful shots of nature. He is most similiar to directors like ingmar bergman and Robert bresson. One of his interests in his films revolved around time. He thought of filmaking as sculpting time and he is konw for lingeron on a shot for longer peiords for the purpose of, absorbing you rather than entertianing you.

it envelopes the audience. the long takes allow your mind to wander as if you were the character, you are intrigued by the zone and what will happen next but you are given space to contemplate the convept as the character would wthout being told what to think at any given moement.

the footage of the first film was ruined. Kodak 5427.

Cooke Varotal 20-100mm T3.1 zoom lens (but not the close ups)

many of the parts of the film was shot in areas with hazardaous chemicals and radiation which is believe to lead to the death of many of the crewmembers including Tarkovsky.
Source 4 – Translated interview of Tarkovsky from Tarkovski’s meeting in Italy : ‘Il cinema è un mosaico fatto di tempo’ (1984) Via this cite. In his words:
On color:
“The cinema is going through a bad period in terms of aesthetics. Filming in colour is regarded as getting as close as possible to reality. But I look on colour as a blind alley. Every art form tries to arrive at truth and seeks a form of generalisation. Using colour is related to how one perceives the real world. Filming a scene in colour involves organising and structuring a frame, realising that all the world enclosed in this frame is in colour and making the audience aware of this. The advantage of black and white is that it is extremely expressive and it doesn’t distract the audience’s attention.”

“You can find examples of expressive modes in colour cinema, but most directors who are aware of this problem have always tried to film in black and white. No one has succeeded in creating a different perspective in colour film or in making it as effective as black and white. Italian neo-realism is not only important for the fact that it turned a new page in the cinema by exploring the problems of everyday life, but also, essentially, because it did this in black and white. Truth in life doesn’t necessarily correspond to truth in art, and now colour film has become a purely commercial phenomenon. .”

On comprehension of his film for the public:
“Cinema is an art form which involves a high degree of tension, which may not generally be comprehensible. It’s not that I don’t want to be understood, but I can’t, like Spielberg, say, make a film for the general public—I’d be mortified if I discovered I could. If you want to reach a general audience, you have to make films like Star Wars and Superman which have nothing to do with art. This doesn’t mean I treat the public like idiots, but I certainly don’t take pains to please them.”





Source 5
To judge from his published diaries, the 1970s were a difficult period for Andrei Tarkovsky, full of anguish, heartache, and uncertainty. 

Subsequently, a num­ber of people associated with Stalker—includ­­ing Rerberg, the actor Solonitsyn, Tarkovsky’s wife, Larissa, and the director himself—passed on . . . one shouldn’t say “mysteriously,” but at any event, before their natural term. To be a bit more specific: there are people close to Tarkovsky’s legacy who swear that the cancer that killed him, and possibly others, had its origins in the terrible months of Stalker’s multiple shootings.
Source 6 – A Historical Analysis of the Films of Andrei Tarkovsky
in Relation to the Post-Thaw Soviet Moment		The use of religious, spiritual, and artistic
themes in Andrei Tarkovsky’s films often conflicted with the state-sanctioned policies on these topics in the Soviet Union. Although he did not label himself a dissident, his tumultuous relationship with the Soviet Union regarding the freedom of his artistic expression inspired him to delve deeper into these themes in his work. The widespread appeal of his films confirms that many people, both in the Soviet Union and abroad, were not as strictly supportive of Soviet policies as the state would have hoped.

In order to contextualize Andrei Tarkovsky’s placement within the dissident movements
of the late-Soviet era, one must first consider the history of these socio-politically active cultural
groups which can be traced back to the intelligentsia class in the early nineteenth century.(8)

From an artistic standpoint, members of the intelligentsia began to see the revolution as being “betrayed” since under Stalin they “were servants of the repressive regime.” Due to the stringent censorship of the Stalinist regime, the younger members of the intelligentsia pursued their own forms of artistic expression, which developed further following the death of Stalin and the Khrushchev Thaw. Members of the Thaw generation were often influenced by international styles of film, music, and other modes that managed to permeate into
the Soviet Union following the collapse of Stalinist policies.31 Eventually, the freedom of the Thaw experienced by Zhivago’s Children waned in the 1960s. It was into this cultural environment that Tarkovsky made most of his films in the Soviet Union (12)

While Tarkovsky directed these three films during the 1970s, the Soviet Union
experienced an era of political, economic, and socio-cultural stagnation under the premiership of Leonid Brezhnev. Although Brezhnev had been in power since 1964, this stagnation hit its zenith during the 1970s. Artists and religious figures who did not adhere to the state mandated norms,
and had experienced a wider level of freedom during the Khrushchev Thaw, experienced harsher regulations and were often persecuted. As a reaction to this, dissident groups became more organized. By the end of the decade, as well as the beginning of the 1980s, many important
cultural figures who were either associated with dissident movements (such as writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn) or sought to produce more artistic work with less political impediments (such as
Tarkovsky) emigrated from the Soviet Union. Although he was not explicitly associated with Soviet dissident groups, he worked at the same time as them and eventually emigrated as many of their members did. (30)

It was his last film produced in the Soviet Union before he went abroad in the 1980s. Due to the similarity in their genres, it is important to compare and contrast Stalker with Solaris to view the evolution of Tarkovsky’s approach to filmmaking. One prominent similarity between the two films is the fact that they were both adaptations of novels. While Solaris was
adapted from the Stanislaw Lem novel of the same name, Stalker was based on the novel Roadside Picnic by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky. Whereas Tarkovsky had an artistically strained partnership with Lem over several changes he made to the screenplay of Solaris, his relationship
with the Strugatsky brothers was far more productive. He worked closely with them throughout the production of Stalker, and both of them received screenwriting credits on the film. However, although he had a congenial relationship with the authors of the source material, Tarkovsky still changed much of the content between the novel and the film. While the novel dealt with the nature of knowledge and an individual’s capacity for thought (much like Lem’s version of Solaris), he shifted the underlying philosophies in the film to focus on the nature of spirituality. (39)

The opportunity presented by working in science fiction allows Tarkovsky to explore the theme of spirituality in Stalker. The main way the science fiction genre presents itself in the film is the futuristic society that creates the foundation for the plot. Set in the distant future, the alienlike nature of the Zone allows Tarkovsky to explore a rigid society that lacks almost all semblance of faith.101 The Stalker alone among the characters maintains any sense of spiritual
faith. Conversely, the Professor represents an adherence to mechanical scientific restrictions and the Writer’s slow realization about the nature of the Zone leads to his loss of what little faith with which he may have started. During the production of Stalker, Tarkovsky revealed his own fear of
the future in his diary: “I am afraid of the future … I am afraid for the children and for Larissa [his wife]. God, give me strength and faith for the future, give a future in which to glorify you.”102 By exploring his anxiety of the future, Tarkovsky hints at his dissatisfaction with the current state of artistic spirituality in the Soviet Union, as well as a desire to escape the increasingly oppressive political regime in Russia that developed in the 1970s. (40).

Tarkovsky’s criticism of the Soviet Union in Stalker is not direct. Although he depicts a
militaristic, seemingly dictatorial regime that restricts access to the Zone, he does not fault the actual governmental system with the problems of this fictional society. Rather, he says that it is a matter of maintaining the status quo: “It’s probably the instinct for self-preservation. It’s natural, and furthermore every society has an interest in maintaining its own stability.”108 He views
children as the key to remedying the degradation of spirituality. In the film, this is conveyed through the character of the Stalker’s daughter, who “represents hope, quite simply. Children are always something hopeful. Probably because they are the future.” This idea mirrors the generation of Russian intelligentsia members known as Zhivago’s children, who rose to prominence in the early years of Tarkovsky’s career. The Stalker’s daughter’s inexplicable powers represented, ““new perspectives, new spiritual powers that are as yet unknown to us, as well as new physical forces.(42).
Source 7 -Hauntology, Ruins, and the Failure of the Future in Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker
traditionally understood as an allegory about fiath is not only a cinematic repsresenation of the failure of the promised societ fureure to arrive but also a still pertinent guide to our present moment. (18)

Stalkerm through from the Soviet era, mobilizes ghosts that are traces of a represssed past and of a promised but aborte furure thorugh the film.s use of sceience fiction tropes and supernatural imagery. (19).

Tarkovsky’s films, I want to suggest, are implicity Cold war films. His debut film, Ivan;s childhood (1963) arose from the fractious political atmosphere of the soviet thaw, his career matrueduring the long stagnation of the brezhnev period, and audiences in both the east an west viewwed his films agianst the backfdrop of the cold war. His final two films wer made in italy and seweden after a much publicized defection that is usaully concieved aof as an “exile” by his most fervent admirers intent o hagiography. The films themselves are erely discuassed in this context becuae, as I have staed, discourse around tarkovsky’s films has so often been guied vy parameters he set himself. (19)

Vladimir Golsteirn remarks that “tarkvosky continures to be appreciated fro a nubmer of resons tha tno longer apperar convincing” The ideological charge of the cold warhas gone, and the hihg art values of Tarkovsky champoined have been largely repleced by knowning irony ans pastiche in obth popular cinama and contemporty fine art. Glossing Golstein’s original assertion, J.Hoberman summarizes, “Bck in the 60s and 70s Tarkovsky was a hero of cold war artistic dissidencefor some while at the same time living proof that only thhe state would subsidize so trippy a countercultural genius(19).

It is my contention that the context in which Tarkbosky’s films were made has not entirely gone away; in fact it still exists in new transfigured forms…not as bulwarks of conservative aesthetics but as guides through our complex subjectibe responses ot the geopolitical situation….mystically inclined admiriers of Tarkovsky like to note that he foretold the chernobyl disatser in stalker. In another , less paranormal sense we can conceptualize stalker as fortelling or foreshadowing of these new national partiions that er wer imposed in the wake of the soviet union;s collaspe. The themse of death and return, failed fuures, military and industrial catasphoes, excile, and natsliga, which dominate Tarkovsky’s films continure to be relevant in this reconfigiured geopolitical landscape. (20).

“As soon as we arrive in the zone then the film foregrounds the notion that ruined building overrunn with grass, lichen, and other signifieers of the natural world are the sire of meditative uncanny and epophanic exeerpiences. (22) – in relation to the scene when the stalker leaves the writer and professer when they first get into the zone, he goes and reclines on the grass.

the film is haunted or stalked by the prewar soviet era and by the legacy of the Gulag. This era constantly makes itself felt through Tarkovsky;s vanishment of moderon or futristic trappong from the mise en secen and his emphasis instaead upon the antiquated and upon obhects and linguistic terms that recall the stalinish 1930s.
Source 8 -How ‘Stalker’ claimed the life of Andrei Tarkovsky and his wife
filmed in the post-industrial wasteland in Estonia

As well as being a reflection on religion and contemporary political anxieties, the film seems to predict the Chernobyl nuclear disaster of 1986, which lead to the formation of an exclusion zone around Pripyat, Ukraine.

After an earthquake forced him to abandon his plans…Tarkovsky and his crew relocated to an abandoned hydroelectric power station in Estonia

According to sound recordist Vladimir Sharun, the deaths of Tarkovsky in 1986, his wife Larissa and Anatoly Solonitsyn (who plays the Writer) were caused by contamination from the chemical plant located upstream from the set. “We were shooting near Tallinn in the area around the small river Jägala with a half-functioning hydroelectric station,” Sharun recalled in 2001. “Up the river was a chemical plant and it poured out poisonous liquids downstream. There is even this shot in Stalker: snow falling in the summer and white foam floating down the river. In fact it was some horrible poison.” The sound recordist concluded that the deaths of various crew members were a result of Tarkovsky’s decision to shoot in Estonia: “Many women in our crew got allergic reactions on their faces. Tarkovsky died from cancer of the right bronchial tube. And Tolya Solonitsyn too. That it was all connected to the location shooting for Stalker became clear to me when Larisa Tarkovskaya died from the same illness in Paris.”
Source 8.5

Composer Eduard Artemyev recalls:
“My first meeting with Tarkovsky — that was back on Solaris — left me perplexed. He stated that what he needed was not music but a series of musically arranged noises.


Source 9“Tarkovsky would still have an aura of the enigmatic, the intractable, the ineffable about him. Like his clostest western counterpart, stanley kubrick, he tends to make what gene youngbblood once called “trance” films, characterized by slowm dreamlike pacing created with large, static, tableux, statley camera movemtns, and an extensive use of classical music. intead of the marxist certainties promiulgated by the rulers of his country, tarkovsky purues a degree of uncertainty, which can be callled mystical or merely vague, depending on your outlook. Implicitly, his style and his concern with large abstaction like love and nature deny that marterialsim and rationality can expalin everying. His taste for cosmic mystery has a religious tinge which makes him comparable to Alexandr solshenitzyn, except that he replaces the writer;s overbearing nineteenthcentury russian orthodoxy with a mistiaer, birtually oceanic pantheism and humanism….the ealy shots of the anomic astroluat in solaris, staring at grasses as they ripple hyponitcaly beneath the surgace of a pond could be his signature shots; the mesmerizing , balletic sway of the grasses bears witness to a powerfully infectious belief in the natural world as the emboiment of a primal peace which we can regain. This vision of lost harmoney is what hauntes every aspecto f Tarkovsky;s work, from his choices of colors to his liking for entranced tracign shots trhough forestt o his recurring interset in the commingled joyes and sorrows of memory…but something has changed in The Mirror and Stalker; the tarkovsky spirit of struggling but finally soaring hope has clouded. In these films he works with muc hthe same material as before…The Staker, contrasting a silted over, trashed out urban socieyy with the allure of a mysterious cordoned off natural wonderland known as the zone is viewable as a contepmorary companiion piced to andrei roublev whihc presents equally sharp contrasts between dazzling landscapes and the barbaric would inflicted ion their inhaittants in the name of what passes for civilization….the promis of the zonw athat a room somewhere in its mdist can makes ones wishes come true is not mereely betrayed, it is pathetically bereayed leaving the horrors of pollution” (13).

“Herbert Marshall’s account of how soviet authories and several of Takovsky’s fellow directed reacted when thet first saw the mirror has them all complaining about its obscurity or its inabitlity to make itself easy understood by a mass audeice.” (14).

“With the stalker, tarkovsky has returned to straight-line, though not convential, story-telling. The hero, a single minded visionary sneaks two outlandesr (american , like himself, in the films loose source, a novel called picnic bt the roadside, but evidently russian in the movie, though metaphorically all proeple) into the zone. They are a writer and a scienctistm both as anomic as the space man of solaris and both like their guide namelss. Whaterever may have created the zone and its reputed magic (hints center on a meteor like one which is siad to have creshed into siberia some years ago) the wto wayfareers each a varation on your basic disillusionedintellectual are making their faray past barbed wire and borger gaures in to thope to that thair shaman can lead them to arenwal of sapped faith and vidor as the preceed of land which proves to have some sceince ficiton traits lke oderelss flowers for instancce the thorught arises the atarbofsky is presented us with an elongated episode of the twilight zone. At times when the writer and the sceientist falll to a discoursing about the roles and the weaknesses of art and scenes the parallel with the late rod serling show eding aphorism seems even stronger. but the climax of their sortie silences thwm and these thoughts when the room not only proves importent to live up to its reputation bur aslo turns out to be a neartwin of the stalkers wretched house where he ekes ofut bare subsustence with his wife nad their crippeld girl. The stalker, then, is a negitive image of both solaris and andei roublev, .their journeys through hel end in serentiy, here theresult is a deepeend disillusionment.” (16)

“The stalker begins in atinted black and white almost as if there were mildew in the emulsion…the opening sequences of The Stalker exude bleaknesss, rattinesss, stagnation like noxious fumes. Itis as though the whole world has taken of the character of a weedy, diseased railroad sideing. Tarkovsky uses his slow pacing and carawork ot heighton our desire to break out and brace the zone with his three explorers. This method links him to what kubrick di with similar pacing in 2001, which also centrers on the lure of exploring the unkonw for people mired in mundane ife at its most stulutifying. All through 200, watching apes stumble toward their great discover of the bone as a tool wapon and astronautes float endelssly thorugh their jupirer misssion, we long to speed things up, only to be held back by the inexporable measeued drift of the film, which will reach its goals in its own good tiem not ours. This effect translated directly into cinematic terms the frustation of exploring in any form the dogged labor, the lind alleys, the slowness of discovery, the difficulty of making leaps to new ideas or approaches. Thisis a primary component of the “trance” style and tarkovsky uses it in the stalker both before and after we and his characters make it into the zone.”(16).

“the zone, even compared to the hellhole from which the stalker and his companions emerge is quite unprepossessing, neither beautiful nore escpecualy other worldy, like the natural wonderlands of solaris, andrei roublev, and themirror. Instead itlooks initially like an ordinary, dowdy wilderness. Accordingly, tarkovsky brinfs up the intensity of his color just slightly from the monochrome look of the opening scenes and never maeks it ravishing, as he has done in the past. For the zone too proves to be a large illusion. Even through the stalker for instance tries to lay down the law about how his charges must proceed if thet are to reach the room they violate the several times without comeoing to any harm, Much of the land prove to be as litteered with civilization;s garbade as the outer world does. again reversing key images of solaris, tarkovsky shows us waterways in the zone chioked with junk even with armed patrols and a fence to protest it, the region cannot remain clean. The trios long struggle thoruhg some kind of subtereanea culvery suggests an abandoned subay or sever sysem there is no yellow brick road in the zone” (16)
Source 10 – The Cinematic Aesthetics of Andrei Tarkovsky“Three major aspects of Tarkovsky’s cinematics need be explored and explained: narrative
and its relation to mise-en-scene, especially the use of the actor; the shot; and rhythm”(11).
“To clarify, Tarkovsky’s great theme, the one that permeates all his work, as freedom does for
Dostoevsky or ethics does for Tolstoy, is how far mankind has fallen—from the wonder of the natural world and from himself.” (11-12)
“We might note the
dearth of insert shots in Tarkovsky. Even if an insert shot is not a throw-away its purpose is
either to convey necessary narrative information, or more rarely to comment on narrative events.
Tarkovsky had little use for this technique because an insert shot practically never has what
Tarkovsky termed “time-pressure””(14)

“One does not get the sense that
Tarkovsky’s films ever had a schematic, programmatic treatment or that they could even have a
synopsis and retain any interest. Indeed, Tarkovsky’s narratives are so slight as to merit less
attention than they have. Better said, Tarkovsky uses narrative as a skeleton which the cinema
enfleshes. His films are no more their stories than you or I are our skeletons. His shots are not
reducible to the communication of narrative information, and instead focus on the seemingly
extraneous material surrounding narrative.”(15).

“His goal lies not so much in visual-storytelling, in the conveyance of narrative
information, as it does in the cinematic. As an artist, his concern lay very much in the materials
of his art and what was possible within the medium and what was not. If Tarkovsky’s narratives
are simple, his style is far from it, in the sense that the style itself demands attention and is not
simply a flourish”(20)

“Tarkovsky’s calibrates his performances to this pitch. He had no patience
for a character’s “motivation.” This does not mean that he had no idea of what he was doing, but
that he had an uncanny ability to visualize an inner world in physical actions. As a director of
actors, he was able to put himself squarely in the character’s shoes, not within the confines of the story he wanted to tell, but as a character living that moment, not knowing how anything
would pan out, and still to retain the requisite distance to visualize how this state, at a given
moment, would manifest itself”(21-22).
“His characters have no “arc” in the course of the film; the performances at any rate do not
betray any such conception. They may change, yes, but the viewer never knows how lasting that
change was (except in the cases of death) and in the course of the film never feels that there is a
clear path before these personages. To use a particularly dramatic example, what is the arc of
Writer in Stalker?…Tarkovsky’s cinema is not about
telling a story, but his films are instead a sustained attempt to prove that the mechanical art can
take responsibility for time after its own fashion, as literature and other acknowledged arts have
long proved themselves capable. Cinematically, his films are not about plot or story but about the
moments of which plot and story consist.”(22)

Tarkovsky is justly famous for his long takes and astounding camera moves…rthythm , does not so much arise from the editing scheme, as in the majority of films
from Griffith and Eisenstein onwards, but from the shot itself. At least in the works of
Tarkovsky, cinematic rhythm begins well before a print comes to the editing table.” (22-23).

“Despite the restrictions of life in the Soviet Union, Tarkovsky did not exist in a vacuum,
and as a filmmaker (an internationally known and award-winning one at that), he was not
without access to other national cinemas.”(23)

“Tarkovsky is a filmmaker with no concern for the “movement-image” and keen
interest in the “time-image.” But the long take, of course, is only a device, and different
filmmakers use it for different ends. Orson Welles, a genuine pioneer of the long take still used it
mainly to tell a story; his bravura camera moves almost seem to be flourishes, showing just how
much he was capable of imagining and executing. Andre Bazin’s formulations on the
significance and ontology of the long take come more to the point of the device’s capability, in
much the same way that Shklovsky’s formulation of de-familiarization isolates a device and so
reveals some of its potential. Our task is ascertaining what insight Tarkovsky had into that device
and to what use he was able to put it. In this context it is of utmost importance to note how rarely
Tarkovsky’s camera remains still, especially in his long takes. Most obviously, Tarkovsky’s
preference for the long take and the moving camera, in the early films almost baroque, and in the
later films displaying few flourishes, indicate his distaste for a montage-based cinema”.(24)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Soviet_Union_(1964%E2%80%931982) – .
My own words:

The period of time that this movie was released is refered to as the Brezhnew Era it is also refered to as the period of stagnation (of the economic growth in particular was at a standstill). This standstill is regarded as the worst financial crisis in the Soviet Union history.

There was a new constitution in 1977.

Political repression tightened during the Brezhnev era. The Brezhnev-era Soviet regime became notorious for using psychiatry as a means of silencing dissent. Many intellectuals, religious figures, and sometimes commoners protesting their low standard of living were ruled to be clinically insane and confined to mental hospitals.

Increasingly modernized Soviet society, becoming more urban, and people became better educated and more professionalized.

Despite Brezhnev’s failures in domestic reforms, his foreign affairs and defense policies turned the Soviet Union into a superpower. His popularity among citizens lessened during his last years, and support for the ideals of communism and Marxism-Leninism waned, even if the majority of Soviet citizens remained wary of liberal democracy and multi-party systems in general.
The political corruption which had grown considerably during Brezhnev’s tenure had become a major problem to the Soviet Union’s economic development by the 1980s. Brezhnev was seen as very vain and self-obsessed, but was praised for leading the Soviet Union into an unprecedented age of stability and domestic calm.
Russia History source 1






During the 1960s and 1970s, the Communist Party elite rapidly gained wealth and power while millions of average Soviet citizens faced starvation. The Soviet Union’s push to industrialize at any cost resulted in frequent shortages of food and consumer goods. Bread lines were common throughout the 1970s and 1980s. The divide between the extreme wealth of the Politburo and the poverty of Soviet citizens created a backlash from younger people who refused to adopt Communist Party ideology as their parents had.
RH S -2 Brezhnev was instinctively a conservative and had little sympathy for experimentation in art and literature. 
He preferred art and literature that lauded the Soviet system. Brezhnev published several tomes himself, but they were always ghostwritten. The Brezhnev leadership quickly revealed its intolerance. In September 1965 the writers Andrey Sinyavsky and Yuly Daniel were arrested and later sentenced to seven years’ and five years’ hard labour, respectively, for publishing works abroad that slandered the Soviet state. Over the following years many other writers and their sympathizers also were arrested, imprisoned, or placed in labour camps. Dissent flourished. 

The might of the state crushed overt cultural dissent, but it stimulated the development of a counterculture. Networks of like-minded individuals to discuss common interests formed and flourished. Works that could not be published in the U.S.S.R. were circulated in typescript (samizdat) or sent abroad for publication (tamizdat). The arrival of the audiocassette and later the videocassette permitted youth to enjoy the forbidden fruits of Western pop culture. The widespread teaching of foreign languages, especially English, accelerated this process. The state and the KGB probably lost control of culture in the mid-1970s. Unofficial culture became vibrant and dynamic, while official culture atrophied. The educational system was geared to producing mediocre school leavers and graduates who would not challenge the system. This stimulated many of the more able to seek out restricted and forbidden information.
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