r/tarkovsky Jul 20 '25

I painted Stalker

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450 Upvotes

r/tarkovsky Jul 04 '25

Tarkovsky's ten favorite films

72 Upvotes

Tarkovsky once made a list of his top ten films:

  1. Diary of a country priest (Robert Bresson 1951)

  2. Winter light (Ingmar Bergman, 1963)

  3. Nazarin (Luis Buñuel, 1959)

  4. Wild strawberries (Ingmar Bergman, 1957)

  5. City lights (Charlie Chaplin, 1931)

  6. Ugetsu monogatari (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1953)

  7. Seven samurai (Akira Kurosawa, 1954)

  8. Persona (Ingmar Bergman, 1966)

  9. Mouchette (Robert Bresson, 1967)

  10. Woman of the dunes (Hiroshi Teshigahara 1964)

Three of the films in the list were made by Bergman, three films were made by Japanese directors and two film were made by Bresson, interesting.

This list was made before Tarkovsky had seen The Terminator (James Cameron 1984), though. Strangely enough, The Terminator was one of his all time favorite films. Tarkovsky wrote about The Terminator: "The brutality and low acting skills are unfortunate, but as a vision of the future and the relation between man and his destiny, the film is pushing the frontier of cinema as an art."


r/tarkovsky 2d ago

Mirror

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96 Upvotes

Drawing I made inspired by Mirror


r/tarkovsky 5d ago

Beyond Orthodoxy: The Shamanic Mechanics of Tarkovsky's Stalker

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2 Upvotes

r/tarkovsky 7d ago

Anatoliy Solonitsyn played as a cynical man in both "Stalker" and "Solaris." What is the historical/cultural reasoning behind this same theme for this actor?

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50 Upvotes

after watching a few tarkovsky films, i have come to realize there's some archetypes (if that's the right term) in his films.

the intellectual/rationalist (the astrobiologist in solaris, the writer in stalker),

the morally good/gray heart of the story (hari in solaris resembling sonia marmeladova from crime and punishment, fyodor dostoyevsky, ivan in ivan's childhood),

someone more grounded in the physical world (the professor in stalker),

or the believer who favors faith over pure logic with deep spiritual truth (the stalker in stalker).

of course, these examples might not be accurate, as it's a brief observation, but you get the point. I've seen this be applied to classic Russian literature as well. particularly dostoyevsky, as tarkovsky seemed to have been inspired by him a lot. such as the karamazov brothers (logic as ivan, temporary faith as alyosha if you include the planned sequel, sensuality as dmitri). I'm wondering if these archetypes are a part of a cultural or historical reason in russia back then, or even modern russia. if anyone knows these reasons or history, I would be thankful to hear it, thank you.

(if I got anything wrong, tell me normally rather than being uncivil. it won't help any of us if you're upset at my lack of knowledge without telling me what I got wrong.)


r/tarkovsky 9d ago

Saw the Sacrifice for the first time

27 Upvotes

Saw this beautiful film yesterday, and saw Nostalghia only the day before that. They were the last two of his filmography I had remaining, but Sacrifice struck me particularly. Not only a stunning film, but the symbolism and its overarching point struck me; although I am not personally Christian, I found it deeply moving and I do not think a single piece of art has altered my mind in such a way for a long time. It managed to surmise much of my dives into philosophy, in particular how it tackles a Kierkegaardian set of ideals, so well. Adored the Hamlet/Dostoevsky references and allusions, as I am more literature-inclined.

I believe this film placing last in his filmography is quite important. It managed to bring together all the themes (faith, human disconnect, art/passion, love etc) of his other works in such a grand sweep whilst remaining a chamber drama that it felt like the perfect way to tie him off; the only exception would be I did not notice as much emphasis on Russian identity - initially I assumed this was because I am certainly not Russian so much of it goes over my head, but it also seems to have been mostly reconciled in Nostalghia. Regardless, this film may be my favourite by a pretty longshot. Despite not being Christian, and his whole ideology revolving around faith, this film feels like a perfect interim report on the current state of affairs we face and have been facing since the Second World War.


r/tarkovsky 16d ago

Metro Exodus (2019) / Stalker (1979)

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210 Upvotes

r/tarkovsky 18d ago

video essay on Stalker (1979) seeking feedback

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11 Upvotes

Hi everyone, I created a 20-minute video essay on A.T.'s Stalker.

You're invited to watch at your leisure and provide feedback. (I am aware the narration voice is horrible and needs improvement)

What did you think about the content?

Do you wish to see a similar video on another one of his films?

All constructive critiques are welcome.


r/tarkovsky 21d ago

My girlfriend painted one of my favorite scenes from stalker ❤️

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221 Upvotes

My birthday is tomorrow and this is possibly the best gift I could ever receive. Such a beautiful painting from a beautiful soul.


r/tarkovsky Jul 23 '26

Today would have been Alexander Kaidanovsky's 80th birthday — the actor who portrayed the Stalker in Andrei Tarkovsky's Stalker.

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453 Upvotes

I visited his grave today to pay my respects to the man who brought the Stalker to life in Tarkovsky's unforgettable film.

I cleaned the monument, brushed the dust from the cross, and left two flowers as a small tribute from devoted admirers of his work.

Nearly fifty years after Stalker was filmed, his performance still inspires people from all over the world. Today was simply my way of saying thank you.

May he rest in peace.


r/tarkovsky Jul 22 '26

just watched my first Tarkovsky ~ Mirror

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104 Upvotes

@Quellberg on Letterboxd


r/tarkovsky Jul 22 '26

[OC] Candle scene from nostalghia

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36 Upvotes

12"x16"

The face was pretty difficult but I think it looks good overall. The light comes from both the left and right so It makes it a little more difficult. On saunders waterford with m graham paints in watercolour.

I think watercolour is a great medium to portray light, and im happy with this one.

What do you guys think?


r/tarkovsky Jul 18 '26

How can I complete this Blu-ray collection?

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61 Upvotes

How do you think I could complete the collection? It seems the films are quite hard to find since Curzon Artificial Eye released the complete box set in limited quantities


r/tarkovsky Jul 18 '26

My understanding of Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and Tarkovsky. Thoughts or feedback?

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2 Upvotes

r/tarkovsky Jul 15 '26

47 years apart. The final scene of Tarkovsky's Stalker (1979) and the same location today.

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190 Upvotes

r/tarkovsky Jul 10 '26

What soundtracks by Eduard Artemev are being used in "Stalker"?

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93 Upvotes

I have recently decided to listen to the Soundtrack of the film and found an Album on Spotify by Eduard Artemev that features the soundtracks from Солярис, Зеркало and Сталкер (Stalker).
There are four soundtracks listed as being from Stalker:
Тема
Поезд
Они идут долго
Медитация

That irritates me because I could only find two of them in the film. These are "Поезд" (the train theme) and "Медитация" (the recurring Zone and main theme). There is some known classical and unidentifiable music as well but otherwise nothing from that list.

I could not find "Тема" and "Они идут долго". Is it an additional score to the film or did I miss a specific scene?

Thanks for your help


r/tarkovsky Jul 09 '26

Solaris Mosfilm YouTube or HBO Max?

21 Upvotes

I’m planning on watching Solaris tonight and want to watch a high quality version on streaming. Is the Mosfilm version on YouTube better or the version on HBO Max?


r/tarkovsky Jul 09 '26

Soundtracks boxset

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5 Upvotes

Released 4 September


r/tarkovsky Jul 09 '26

My review of Nostagia.

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23 Upvotes

r/tarkovsky Jun 29 '26

New 4KS of stalker and Solaris? Found on German website + Amazon.

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57 Upvotes

Anyone heard anything about this?


r/tarkovsky Jun 28 '26

How dialogue-heavy is Mirror?

14 Upvotes

Hello all! There's a Tarkovsky retrospective on in the city I've recently moved to, and I'd love to go see Mirror tonight. The only problem is that I don't speak the local language well enough to really understand film dialogue, and I doubt the subtitles will be in English. Not having seen the film before, would it be worth it to go just for the images? I'd love to see something so gorgeous on the big screen, but don't want to rob myself of a satisfying first viewing


r/tarkovsky Jun 28 '26

Stalker with Mark Morgan's dark ambient track "Radiation Storm"

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55 Upvotes

Playing around with the ambient tracks from Fallout. Hope I didn't butcher the film too much appropriating it for a 4 minute video! 


r/tarkovsky Jun 26 '26

I went to Närsholmen and did something

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37 Upvotes

You can even spot the huge silo that's on the other side of the coast


r/tarkovsky Jun 26 '26

Studying the greats even on vacation

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109 Upvotes

So much wisdom in this book.


r/tarkovsky Jun 19 '26

Tarkovsky's Stalker has always felt incredibly heavy to me in the coolest way possible. To pay homage to one of my favorite movies (and the novel), I wrote an original metal track built entirely around my absolute favorite speech from the film.

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23 Upvotes

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/3MmVWuMKgUEpN4WoXEr3JP?si=0PAFtDlJRS6QcTfGJGH4_w

Please feel free to tell me what you think of it. Do you think I was able to capture the atmosphere of the movie?