Andrei Tarkovsky

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Personal

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Notable

Russian filmmaker, writer, film editor, film theorist, theatre and opera director. He was the most famous Soviet film-maker since Sergei M. Eisenstein. His father was the noted poet Arseniy Tarkovsky. He studied music and Arabic in Moscow before enrolling in the Soviet film school V.G.I.K. He shot to international attention with his first feature, "Ivan's Childhood" (1962), which won the top prize at the Venice Film Festival. This resulted in high expectations for his second feature "Andrei Rublyov" (1969), which was banned by the Soviet authorities until 1971. It was shown at the 1969 Cannes Film Festival at four o'clock in the morning on the last day, in order to prevent it from winning a prize - but it won one nonetheless, and was eventually distributed abroad partly to enable the authorities to save face. "Solaris" (1972), had an easier ride, being acclaimed by many in Europe and North America as the Soviet answer to Kubrick's "2001" (though Tarkovsky himself was never too fond of it), but he ran into official trouble again with "The Mirror" (1975), a dense, personal web of autobiographical memories with a radically innovative plot structure. "Stalker" (1979) had to be completely reshot on a dramatically reduced budget after an accident in the laboratory destroyed the first version, and after "Nostalghia" (1983), shot in Italy (with official approval), Tarkovsky defected to Europe. His last film, "The Sacrifice" (1986) was shot in Sweden with many of Ingmar Bergman's regular collaborators, and won an almost unprecedented four prizes at the Cannes Film Festival. His work is characterized by spirituality and metaphysical themes, long takes, lack of conventional dramatic structure, and distinctively authored use of cinematography. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest film-makers of all time. Ingmar Bergman said of Tarkovsky: "Tarkovsky for me is the greatest [director], the one who invented a new language, true to the nature of film, as it captures life as a reflection, life as a dream." Tarkovsky died of lung cancer on 29 December 1986 in Paris, France. He was 54. Link to Wikipedia biography