is the correct answer and playing at film forum!
Feb 21, 2024
Related Recs
I can't recommend something without explaining why it's good in my world.
Well, it seems I've found my favorite Tarkovsky film that completely captivated me—soul, eyes, heart, and ears. It's probably one of the most beautiful and aesthetic films I've ever seen.
I've often heard from stuffy film historians that the director's last two films are a self-parody of himself, suggesting that the form has become so pronounced that it now seems more like an imitation of Tarkovsky rather than Tarkovsky's own work.
Well. We dismiss that opinion and establish our own viewpoint. It's hard to abstract from the author and view the work in isolation from the facts, but despite the autobiographical nature of the beloved "Mirror" (which I didn't enjoy at all)—"Nostalghia" so far seems to me the most intimate, personal, sublimated, and reflective (and prophetic).
The theme of emigration, of the male creator, a Russian in Italy, far from home and consumed internally by guilt for abandoning his family—this is literally cinema about himself. Moreover, the film focuses more on the director's favorite idea—the sacrifice of the artist for humanity.
The visuals are as impeccable as possible. Tarkovsky no longer holds back and makes films that are visually closer to his beloved Fellini and Bergman, rather than his early works.
I admit, this is the first time I've seen Oleg Yankovsky, and now I understand the whole cult around his persona. He's truly monumental. An absolute powerhouse, every frame stolen completely, even if he is standing with his back to the audience and just breathing heavily.
The finale with the candle was the most unusual cinematic experience for me in recent years. A true spiritual revelation occurred on screen. The suspense is breath-holding, yet plot-wise, everything happening is safe.
Ten minutes of continuous meditative take, in which Yankovsky's character tries to light a candle and carry it through a small route—truly charged action, which you experience together with the hero almost to a religious catharsis in the finale. Absolute grandeur.
The final shot of a small house grown inside a destroyed temple is one of the strongest visual images I have ever seen. I sat in the cinema in complete stasis, afraid to move, and when it started to snow, I nearly lost my breath. It's been a long time since a film has captivated me like this.
P.S. I still need to watch "Ivan's Childhood" and "The Sacrifice."
P.P.S. If you don't know Russian(Italian), you'll need to prepare to read subtitles because there is no English version.
Jun 10, 2024
My god. It’s hard to articulate just why this film affects me in the ways it does but if you’re not deeply moved by the film’s gorgeous final shot then maybe go touch some grass or something idk
Feb 3, 2024
The film has so many moments of the most haunting and affecting imagery I’ve ever seen, and beyond that is staying with me in some kind of a sea-change way, which I don’t fully grasp.
It’s freely available on YouTube (linked here). Kanopy, too. Go see it.
Feb 9, 2025
Top Recs from @babyboybrida
this was the epitome of the Obama administration
Feb 19, 2024
❤️
Not a rec but a trend I noticed in music.
In Hayes Code Hollywood (puritanical production mandates against things like sex, violence, swearing in movies), there were musical numbers that took otherwise innocuous songs and added eroti./BDSM undertones. we had “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. The big dance sequence in Minnelli’s The Pirate, where a woman is transformed into a donkey/bunny(? I forget) on all fours (I think?) while Gene Kelly gyrates around her in tight, low cut leather (this is crystal clear).
Fast forward (I’m skipping many steps - an amateur at this sort of thing) to the late 2000s/early 2010s. The latent BDSM becomes more explicitly lyrical in songs Like “Bad Romance” and (obviously) “SM.” However, these songs have erotic purchase - they chart desire ( “ I want your revenge” “Chains and whips excite me”) without the context of the body. The instrument and the lyrics let the listener construct titillation/lust.
Then, in the latter 2010s, we get total assaults of the physical experience of pleasure in Songs like “WAP” artists like Cupcakke, etc. so explicit that they undermine eroticism. At the same time, there’s also artists like Carly Rae Jepsen, who wax about yearning in a mystical, spiritual fashion (that im sure Jia Tolentino wrote about somewhere).
still working out why, but I think this change speaks to how rabidly we want sensation (not contemplation) from art but also (bc we get most of our art electronicall) technology and (still Working this one out) religion?
i told my friend about this and he said, “Sex Positive Accelerationism.”
Feb 26, 2024
The following photos are examples. another instance which belongs only to memory: I was teaching kindergarten on the UES at a point in my life which seemed to have no point but one morning I was walking from 86th street where they have enormous lavish dogs who look like they have a 401k and the sun was coruscating like entire streets were orange and I strolled past this Platonic piece of dog shit that was sculpted like a soft serve and the shit had this gleaming halo from the sun and stopped and stared at it for like 5 minutes
This song from the legend of Zelda always plays when I see these: https://youtu.be/qtCWgWUhA8s?si=f13382M560HRzX6B
Feb 4, 2024