Zerkalo (Зеркало) [The Mirror] (April 1975)

directed by Andrei Tarkovsky

starring Margarita Terekhova, Ignat Daniltsev, Larisa Tarkovskaya, Alla Demidova, Anatoli Solonitsyn, Tamara Ogorodnikova, Yuri Nazarov, Oleg Yankovsky, Filipp Yankovsky, Yuri Sventisov, Innokenti Smoktunovsky, Arseni Tarkovsky

Studio: Mosfilm Script: Aleksandr Misharin, Andrei Tarkovsky Music: Eduard Artemyev Running time: 108 minutes Tags: Drama; fires; memories; printing presses; rifles; war Tactical strength: [7/10]

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I often cringe when I hear trailers or other advertisements describe a film as an "experience." Doesn't it make you groan to hear, "The must see summer film experience." Of course, some films really do provide an experience difficult to describe without actually seeing the film. In general, you could describe most of Andrei Tarkovsky's films as an experience, but The Mirror provides one of the most unique film experiences of all Tarkovsky's works. Essentially, The Mirror provides a somewhat autobiographical recollection of Tarkovsky's childhood in a stream-of-consciousness manner that jumps around in time from the 1930s to the present day.

Tarkovsky doesn't take a direct autobiographical approach. Instead, he creates a main character Aleksei whom we see as a child (Ignat Daniltsev) and hear as an adult (Innokenti Smoktunovsky). We never see the modern-day Aleksei but only hear his voice as he talks to his wife Natalya (Margarita Terekhova), son Ignat (Ignat Daniltsev), and mother. To show the generational connection, he uses the same actors from the modern day period to portray the characters in the flashbacks. Terekhova plays both Aleksei's modern day wife Natalya and his mother, and Daniltsev plays both Aleksei's son Ignat and Aleksei as a boy. The first time I watched The Mirror, the dual casting of parts caused me confusion about the time period in which each scene takes place. On a second viewing, I could easily keep the time periods straight.

Once I could differentiate the time periods, I next tried to figure out Tarkovsky's intent when portraying some scenes in color and others in black and white. At first, it seemed that the black and white scenes represented dream sequences. In one scene, Aleksei's mother floats in mid-air and in another the ceiling plaster falls around her just after she washes her hair. But another scene in black and white portrays Aleksei's mother at work at a printing press and worried about a possible editorial error. Perhaps Aleksei must dream this scene since he wasn't present, but the scene has a much more factual feel than the other more fanciful black and white scenes. Then toward the end of the film, we see Aleksei's aged mother from the present day in the setting of the past with very young actors for Aleksei (Filipp Yonkovsky) and his sister. Clearly Tarkovsky has put characters from different time frames in the same scene and then filmed this scene in color, so we have an unrealistic situation presented in full color.

I don't know if one could use reason to come to a complete understanding of The Mirror. It seems to me that Tarkovsky wants more of an emotional response than a rational one. He creates scenes of nostalgic memory combined with emotionally charged scenes of modern day family strife combined with a typical Russian fatalism about life. I think other Tarkovsky movies such as My Name Is Ivan and Stalker more successfully create an emotional impact on the viewer, but The Mirror still provides a pleasant experience, especially for fans of other Tarkovsky films.