Andrey Tarkovsky, the genius of modern Russian cinema--hailed by Ingmar Bergman as "the most important director of our time"--died an exile in ... read full description
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Dec 16, 2009
Kenneth
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"The allotted function of art is not, as is often assumed, to put across ideas, to propagate thoughts, to serve as example. The aim of art is to prepare a person for death, to plough and harrow his soul, rendering it capable of turning to good" (p. 43).
Wow!
Wow!
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Nov 09, 2011
Ben
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A book that both inspired me immensely, and aided in destroying all interest I had in film. Every film student should read this, even if they don't enjoy his work. I think his ideas are far greater than his films. His way of explaining is a bit off-beat, and reminded me of Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky quite a lot (see Concerning the Spiritual in Art - Highly recommended to anyone who enjoyed this, by the way). In this book Tarkovsky explains the methods behind his films; and not in a techni
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Jun 23, 2010
أحمد
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كتاب بائس جدا
ينتمى إلى جنس كتابة الصبنيات والآهات والدموع، والآلم الإنساني الحارق في الطيز، والسؤال الوجودى، والتقديس والتأليه المفرط للفن ودوره.
رأى لا في تاركوفسكى عموما أنه كان يحتاج لزيارة طبيب نفسانى لعلاجه من الاكتئاب، قبل أن يعمل في مجال السينما.
ثم طبعا دع عنك اللغة المتذحلقة المستخدمة في الترجمة، المترجم بذل أقسي ما يمكنه علشان يحاول يكسب الكلام قدر من الحكمة أو العمق، لكن الحقيقة أن تحت كل هذه الزخارف البلاغية، لا توجد إلا أفكار مراهق رومانسي عبيط More...
Apr 16, 2011
Benjamin
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It's an influencial film language book. The concept and technique of film making is so brilliant. He's my ultimate film maker.
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Feb 10, 2012
Grant
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I will expound developments I made while reading the great Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky’s poetic accounts, and they will collectively be an indirect review in the process...
After reading Tarkovsky’s autobiography, I can’t help but feel utterly overwhelmed, disturbed, and changed in some profound way. My own considerations and world views have been upturned. Parts of Sculpting in Time were so engrossing and beautifully told (even penetrating the sometimes overly literal translat More...
After reading Tarkovsky’s autobiography, I can’t help but feel utterly overwhelmed, disturbed, and changed in some profound way. My own considerations and world views have been upturned. Parts of Sculpting in Time were so engrossing and beautifully told (even penetrating the sometimes overly literal translat More...
Apr 21, 2011
Hugo
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Este libro viene de una revisión y edición de el libro Yuxtaposiciones, que se publico originalmente fragmentado en la URSS, después del exilio artístico de Tarkovski, lo termino completamente y lo rebautizaron Esculpir el Tiempo en Berlín a principios de los 80’s.
Tarkovski escribe a corazón abierto lo que es ser un cineasta, de sus primeras experiencias después de terminados sus estudios, de la responsabilidad del artista y de cómo este busca una conexión con su publico sin que la industri More...
Tarkovski escribe a corazón abierto lo que es ser un cineasta, de sus primeras experiencias después de terminados sus estudios, de la responsabilidad del artista y de cómo este busca una conexión con su publico sin que la industri More...
Oct 14, 2010
Adam
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Tarkovsky is my favourite film director. Yet his view of cinema is way too dogmatic: it must present the artist’s direct experience of the world, and anything else it can do debases that basic requirement. And the distinctions he draws between film and the other arts, based on his dogmatic definition of cinema, are way too strict.
His view of editing is especially problematic. He says that it does not provide rhythm, that the rhythm is inherent in the flow of time in each shot. This see More...
His view of editing is especially problematic. He says that it does not provide rhythm, that the rhythm is inherent in the flow of time in each shot. This see More...
Mar 01, 2011
Michael
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Tarkovsky remains vague about most cinematic and artistic issues he touches on in this book, including his central idea of the film medium's unique ability to record and preserve time. Too often his explanations about conceiving, shooting, and editing such chunks of time are reduced to simply having an innate feel for their tonal correctness; many of his points are repeated ad nauseum. Only toward the end when he speaks of the current crisis in the spiritual condition of man does Tarkovsky illum
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Apr 15, 2011
Mary
rated it:
Worth the work of reading if you have the patience to
learn more about how a director--in his choice of subject
and actors, and his way of manipulating both--may make
great "art films" (for lack of a better term). Tarkovsky,
known in the U.S. mostly for "Polaris," considered that
his worst work, not his best. The book is based on his
notes over the last 20 years of his life, from 1967 to
1986, and shows, as he says, his evolving viewpoints an More...
learn more about how a director--in his choice of subject
and actors, and his way of manipulating both--may make
great "art films" (for lack of a better term). Tarkovsky,
known in the U.S. mostly for "Polaris," considered that
his worst work, not his best. The book is based on his
notes over the last 20 years of his life, from 1967 to
1986, and shows, as he says, his evolving viewpoints an More...
Aug 27, 2009
Alexa
rated it:
"I see it as my duty to stimulate reflection on what is essentially human and eternal in each individual soul, and which all too often a person will pass by, even though his fate lies in his hands. He is too busy chasing after phantoms and bowing down to idols. In the end everything can be reduced to the one simple element which is all a person can count upon in his existence: the capacity to love. That element can grow within the soul to become the supreme factor which determines the m
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Sep 29, 2011
Ahmed
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One of the best books....for those who have cinema in their blood...or for a person who want to enjoy a good book....essential to understand the time cinema school of tarkovsky
Jan 11, 2012
Luisa
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Awesome. This book should be read by every person who aspires to be a film maker, even by those who want to be any kind of artist. Although I can't agree with him completely, I think he's one of the most important film makers of all the times. He explains things with such clarity, and makes it very simple to understand, he's not pretentious and I really appreciate that. I will carry this as my Bible from now on.
Feb 17, 2010
Lawrence
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By far the greatest film-maker in history
-- poetry in emotion pictures --
-- poetry in emotion pictures --
Oct 16, 2010
Peter
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Tarkovsky's succeeds in presenting a philosophy of film making which stands on the edifice of existential truth actualized by the distillation of images into a pure, simple, self-evident state.
Dec 16, 2009
Xavier
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This is an essential read for anyone interested in Tarkovsky's films. It's insightful to read about what his philosophy toward film was. I revere Tarkovsky's films, as well as those of his protege Sokurov, and other filmmakers with similar style, Bela Tarr for example. If you're interested The Mirror and The Sacrifice are both outstanding films. For Sokurov, check out Mother and Son, and for Tarr you should see Werckmeister Harmonies.
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Jun 07, 2008
Amonkey00
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tarkovsky is a sub-modern idealist who as p adams sitney says has been stroking away at the same old subject 'the tragic failure of spirituality in conflict with its conditions'. meaning...the role of illusion, the artist as subject.....andre rubulev.....or re-observed memory...either way you mind will be blown by his earnest brilliant olfashion intellectual self....
Oct 28, 2008
Geoff
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A fantastic read! Tarkovsky's faith shines through as the guiding, directing factor of his films. His spirituality is so misrepresented on sites like YouTube, when it is offered as a kind of new age mysticism!
Wonderful chapters on the Responsibility of the Artist, After Nostalgia and The Sacrifice. A much more complete read than Bergman's existentialist poverty.
Wonderful chapters on the Responsibility of the Artist, After Nostalgia and The Sacrifice. A much more complete read than Bergman's existentialist poverty.
Nov 25, 2007
Paul
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This book was given to me by Joseph Ramirez, with whom I worked in the independent film Viridian (1994). The great Russian director writes of film, "For the first time in the history of the arts, in the history of culture, man found the means to take an impression of time." The essence of the director's work is therefore "sculpting in time."
May 21, 2008
Ian
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The more I have returned to this book, the more I have found his writings on art, literature, cinema and philosophy to be incredibly insightful in my own writing and film making. I read an interview with Richard Linklater that he has read this book many times, and that's good enough recommendation for me!!
Jun 06, 2007
Nathan
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Probably the best book written by any filmmaker. Tarkovsky reflects very carefully on his craft, his reasons for making art, and human life in the modern age. He worked on this book for decades, and it bears the fruit of a lifetime of serious work and thought.
Feb 06, 2012
Abdelhamid
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i like tarkovsky's films , but after i read this book i start to watch films in a different way , every dettail is important, the music, the silence , the script, i knew that , but i start to open my eyes and catch the time !
Feb 20, 2008
Marice69
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Tarkovsky is.... just watch Stalker...Mirror...Solarice... and see how cinema can be..
also if you can get it. the Criterion collection of "The Killers," has his graduate film of the Hemingway classic short story.
also if you can get it. the Criterion collection of "The Killers," has his graduate film of the Hemingway classic short story.
Sep 15, 2011
Roberto
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Tarkovsky en su faceta más narcicista, pero ayuda bastante a comprender el cine y terminar de enamorarse del 7o arte.
Jan 20, 2008
David
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I love Tarkovsky and his work. This is an endlessly frustrating book though. Everything is interesting, but some of his views could cause incessant head-scratching.
