6
'HV,A""t\I't",,,, as not. the athletic and artistic alibi would merge, as with the otullipresent reproductions of classical statuary, discus-throwers and the liJ:;e. tbat would remain a key term of tile gayimagiuary tOr generations. Similarly, it was no accident that, as early as the 1880s, the classical statue ora maratllOner in Berlin's Tiergarten became the focus of an important gay cruising area (Andreas Stemweile>t, "Kunst wui schwiiler Alltag", in Micl::me1 EI4of"{ulo; Homosexuelle Frauen und Manner in Berlin /{J50·1950. GeschieJue, Alltag wuf Kullur (Berlin: FrOHch & Kaufnmnn, 1984), p. 76). Of course, the artistic alibi had remarkable staying: power despite its sub.mersionby the athletic alibi, supported its own crypto-gay publishing mini-industry in the 1950s and 1960s, and continues to have a clear judicial and cultural Weight, as evidenced by the recent Mapplethorpe trial in Cincinnati. 1.' Ricl:uud Dyer, Now You See it: Studies an Lesbian and Gay Film (London: Routledge, 1990), pp. 17-27. 18 Linda Williams, Hardcore: Power, Pleasure and tile "Frenzy of the Visible" (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989), pp. 34-57. He describes time in tenns of human memory and life-processes. This scts up a duality where time is cormected to memory and consciousl1ess and intimately expressed through nature, This notion of lime as memflI'Y will lead to a brief discussion of Henri Bergson's concept of duration as a comparative term to help understand Tarkovsky's aesthetics. The connection to a now neglected early 20th century philosopher is not obscurantism if one remembers the impact Bergson's thoughts had on modern art. With Bergsonism in tbe air modem art became haunted by the quest for an aesthetic to represent the flux of time and m.emory. And as Erwin Panovsky, Arnold Hauser and others bavc noted, film is the quintessential time-space art beeause time and space acquire qualities of the other. Througb montage time loses its irreversibility, it is Time, printed in its factual forms aod manifestations: such b the supreme idea of cinema as an art.. On that I build my working hypothesis, both practical and theoretical (63) Time and the Film Aesthetics of Andrei Tarkovsky Andrei Tarkovsky was born in 1932, in Laovrazhe, the lvanova dislrict of the Soviet Union. He died tIfty-four years later in 1986, only months after the release of his last film, The Sacrifice. His prior films are ivall's Childhood 1962, Andrei Rublev 1966, Solaris 1971, The Mirror 1975, Stalker 1979, and Nostalghia 1983. Tarkovsky's films form an intensely personal and consistent oeuvre that have accumuhHed a loyal following in the West and (slOWly) in the East. Tarkovsky's written thoughts on film and art stm remain little discussed. This essay will look into Tarkovsky's aesthetics through both hisfUms and his scattered theoretical conjectures collected in Sculpting ill Time: Reflections on the Cinema (from which all subsequent quotes by Tarkovskyare taken)!. As the title oftbe book indicates, time is the most important working principle for Tarkovsky: Donato Totaro

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'HV,A""t\I't",,,, as not. the athletic and artistic alibi would merge, as with the

otullipresent reproductions of classical statuary, discus-throwers and the

liJ:;e. tbat would remain a key term of tile gayimagiuary tOr generations.

Similarly, it was no accident that, as early as the 1880s, the classical statue

ora maratllOner in Berlin's Tiergarten became the focus of an important

gay cruising area (Andreas Stemweile>t, "Kunst wui schwiiler Alltag", in

Micl::me1 BoU~,ed., EI4of"{ulo; Homosexuelle Frauen und Manner in Berlin

/{J50·1950. GeschieJue, Alltag wuf Kullur (Berlin: FrOHch & Kaufnmnn,1984), p. 76). Of course, the artistic alibi had remarkable staying: power

despite its sub.mersionby the athletic alibi, supported its own crypto-gay

publishing mini-industry in the 1950s and 1960s, and continues to have a

clear judicial and cultural Weight, as evidenced by the recent Mapplethorpe

trial in Cincinnati.

1.' Ricl:uud Dyer, Now You See it: Studies an Lesbian and Gay Film(London: Routledge, 1990), pp. 17-27.

18 Linda Williams, Hardcore: Power, Pleasure and tile "Frenzy of theVisible" (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989), pp. 34-57.

He describes time in tenns of human memory and life-processes. This sctsup a duality where time is cormected to memory and consciousl1ess andintimately expressed through nature, This notion of lime as memflI'Y willlead to a brief discussion of Henri Bergson's concept of duration as acomparative term to help understand Tarkovsky's aesthetics. Theconnection to a now neglected early 20th century philosopher is notobscurantism if one remembers the impact Bergson's thoughts had onmodern art. With Bergsonism in tbe air modem art became haunted by thequest for an aesthetic to represent the flux of time and m.emory.

And as Erwin Panovsky, Arnold Hauser and others bavc noted,film is the quintessential time-space art beeause time and space acquirequalities of the other. Througb montage time loses its irreversibility, it is

Time, printed in its factual forms aod manifestations:such b the supreme idea of cinema as an art.. On that Ibuild my working hypothesis, both practical andtheoretical (63)

Time and the Film Aesthetics of Andrei Tarkovsky

Andrei Tarkovsky was born in 1932, in Laovrazhe, the lvanovadislrict of the Soviet Union. He died tIfty-four years later in 1986, onlymonths after the release of his last film, The Sacrifice. His prior films areivall's Childhood 1962, Andrei Rublev 1966, Solaris 1971, The Mirror1975, Stalker 1979, and Nostalghia 1983. Tarkovsky's films form anintensely personal and consistent oeuvre that have accumuhHed a loyalfollowing in the West and (slOWly) in the East. Tarkovsky's writtenthoughts on film and art stm remain little discussed. This essay will lookinto Tarkovsky's aesthetics through both hisfUms and his scatteredtheoretical conjectures collected in Sculpting ill Time: Reflections on theCinema (from which all subsequent quotes by Tarkovskyare taken)!.

As the title oftbe book indicates, time is the most importantworking principle for Tarkovsky:

Donato Totaro

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Tarkovsky also likens the time-pressure in a shot metaphoricallyto the rhythms of a brook, spate, river, waterfall, or ocean. This now oftime can range from, quoting Tarkovsky, "lazy and soporific to stOUtly andswift:' The extent to wbich these metaphors are reflected in his filmsvaries, but in most eases, like Andrei Rublev, The Mirror, Stalker andNQstalgllia, the mise-en-scene works with and against tbe rhythmic How ofnatural phenomena, For example, the slow-motion tracking shot in 11leMirror whicb follows tbe right to left direction of a fierce wind blowinga(:ross bushes and toppling over objects on a table (this shot appears tWtCCin tbe film); the shot in Andrei Rubley_wbere a left to right cameramovement follows the incidental background aclion of a stranded canoeHoating downstream while the central action oc{;urs in the foreground; thescene follOWing the raid in Andrei Rublev where the spiritual energy of anexchange between Rublev and the ghost of Theophanes is subtlyunderscored by hellish steam rising from the deatb-infcsted floor anddescending dandelion seeds; Nostalghia's stunning opening scene where allthe elements of the time-pressure (camera and figure movement., tnist, mmspeed) come to a halt in a freeze frame. In the same 111m the eonstal1tsound of rainfall on windows, ceilings and puddles creates an aural rhythmthat reflects tbe solitude and overwbelming nostalgia that suffocates thetransplanted Soviet.

Hence the appearance of life~processes in Tatkovsky's mise-cn­scene form a powerful visual tapestry that goes beyond theme or imagery toform and aesthetics. Tarkovsky relies on nature and natural phenomena to

Rhythm, expressed by tbe time-pressure within lit shot, and not editing is themain formative element of Tarkovsky's cinema.

Time-pressure is perhaps impossible to define in precise,analytical terms, but we can come to a closer understanding of it byexamining how it is manifested, We know tbat the time that flows througha sbot is Tarkovsky's guide to film form, but is there a source point for thistime-pressure? Is there SOlllctbing that TarkoYsky consistently relies on as atemporallrhy1bmic foundation? Tbe rhythm Tarkovsky spe.1ks of, the time­tbrust that shapes each shot and consequently the editing, is predic.'ited onthe spont.:weous rhythms of nature and its forces: water, rain, wind, fire,tbg,snow, vegetation:

Time and the Film Aesthetics olAn/kef T(lrkovsKy 23

Rhythm in cinema is conveyed by the life of the objectvisibly recorded in the frame. Just as from the quiveringof a reed you can teU what sort of current, what pressurethere is in a river, in the same way we know themovement of time from the flow of Ihe lift>processreproduced in the shot (120)

ve time running through the shots makes theis not determined· by the lengtb of tbe

but by the pressure of the time that fUns(17).

Nor can I accept tbe notion tbat editing is the mainformative element of film, as the protagonists of'montage cinema', following KulesboY and Eisenstein,maintained in the twenties, as if film was made on tbeediting table (114).

spatUHized. Through the moving camera space loses its static,homogeneous quality, it is temporalized (as in Cubist painting). Bergsonwas a major figure of tbis time-based zeitgeist and influenced countlessartists who were searching for ways to articulate time and memoryaesthetically. Briefly then, Tarkovsky's aesthetics will be explained interms of time, duralion and nature, My conclusion will hold thatTarkovsky's film aesthetic challenges viewer perception and cognition byshifting between or simultaneously representing inner and outer states ofreality.

rn charting the course of Soviet film history one will find a seriesof importaor connections between filmmaker and theorist The namesKulesbov, Eisenstein, Puoovkin, and Vertov stand oot as prominent nguresin the evolution of filln language. theory, film/politics. Although these fourfllmmaker/thoorists are not singular in their visions they held the commonbelief that montage is cinema's main formative principle. Tarkovsky canbe seen as continuing in this rich tradition of Soviet filmmaker/theorist, butchanging its course,

This opposition is best defmed against tbe early Eisenstein. In theessay 'The Cinematogaphic Principle and the Ideogram," written in 1929,Eisenstein states: "Cinematography is. first and foremost, montage,,2 .Many decades later Tarkovsky states:

Leaving aside other important cultural and political variables, withthis quote Tarkovsky is dearly severing himself from the Soviet traditionof montage hierarchy,

Tarkovsky goes back to Lumiere's Arrivle a'un Train as themomentWhen a new aesthetic principle in art was born: Uthe ability to take;~impm.·fl\ion of time" (62), Out of thL'\ ability to imprint time grows the\,lClIDtJ:fStJDflC of Tarkovsky's aesthetks: what he calls rhythm. This rhythm

by calculated editing but by the sense of time, wbichcalls time~thrust or time~pressure.flowing tbrouglu shot:

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Time as memory is simllar to bow Bergson explains duration: theflux of states within consciousness. For Bei'gs&nthis signifies above aUelse, indivisibility.

Indivisibility can be interpreted cinetmlticaIly as a long take stylethat records real time ora simultaneous representation of different points in

Time and memory merge into cach other; they are Ul<ethe two sides of a medaL.without Time, memory cannotexist either (57),

Time and the Film Aesthetics a/Andrei Tarkolfsky 25

overlapping highways, Iights, skyscrapers and carn. This tecl:mologica!sytnphony is abruptly followed by a cut to astronaut Kelvin's childhooddacha. The image is quiet, peaceful and serene. The time-pressure in thisshot is opposite from tbat in tbe previous sbots.

This IS one of the few examples of Tarkovsky usingexpressionistic editing and deliberately matching shots of differing tinle~

pressures. But the cutis tbeoretically justified because the stark contrastbetween the chaotic time-pressure in the technological montage and thetranquil rhythm in the shot of the natural landscape reflects one of thefilm's thematic conflicts of technology/nature, space/earth. Editing muststrive toward this ideal or mlJsion of a seamless, organic flux.

Tarkovsky says tbat this was his theorettcal working principle forStalker: to maintain the unily of time, space and action. He wanted no timelapse in between shOls; in effecl, he wanted the film to appear as if it wereone shot, with each shot representing a piece of Hme, and the entire filmaspiring to an indivisible time.

This notion of indivisible time leads to Bergson's concept ofduralion. Bergson distinguished between two types of time, spatializedtime and real time. Spatialized time is time thal is ('onceptuallzed,abstracted and divided (clock time). Real time, which he called duration, islived time that fiows, accumulates and is indivisible.

Bergson used two metaphors to help define duration: music andconsciousness. Tbe lalter isrelevunt to Tarkovsky's aesthetlcs, Durationrests within tbe consciousness of a person and can not be "stopped" oranalyzed like the mathematical conception of time as a line. Our true innerself, our emotions, thougbts, and memories do not lie next to each otherlike shirts on a clothesline but flow into one another, Our consciousness isnOl a succession of states but a siml.lll1lneolJs overlapping.

Tarkovsky also expresses time as Hved experience. In lhebeginning of the third and possibly most important chapter of hisOOOk,"Imprinted Time," Tarkovsky emphasizes time a.s human and experientialTarkovsky sees time as a subjective Wreb within each person that isindelibly connected to memory:

_,;;:g::;w...

iiiffcringrhyttuns CM be done witbout destroying thisof an inner necessity. An example is the car. Tbrough camera movement, sound andtbe shots in this sequence slmre the sametens to a frenzied single-frame fusion of

Editing brings together soots which are already filledwith time, and organises the unified, living structureinherent in the film; aDd the time that pulsates throughthe blood vessels of the mm, making it alive, is of av~inJrhytbmic pressure 0 14),

function of editing is to maintain this organic process:

Works of art are...formed by organic process; whethergood or bad they are Hving organisms with their owncirculatory system whicb must not be disturbed (124)

lloderscore and often dictate the time~pressure (rhythm) of a shot. ThemOVetnellt of tune, its flux and quality, flows from the Jjfe~process that isrecofdedjn the shot Even toougb the tires, downpours and gust,> of windare staged, re~soot or recreated there still remains the spontaneous elementOf "nature's timet within the filmic time. Each·of the natural events andelements *water, wind, fire, snow~ bave tbeir own sustained rhythm,Tarkovsky uses· tbese natural rhythms to express his own, that of bischaracters and the tempornlshape of tile film.

Editing stiU plays an important part in TarkoYsky's aesthetics butcreative eletnenl comes from matching the varying time~pressUfcs

already estabHshed in each shot and not from clever or conceptualjuxtapositioning. For example, in Tile Mirror, bis most complex filmstructurally, Tarkovsky combineS bistorical and personal time byintereutting childhood memory and political and culturnI history: theSpanish Civil War\ Russia-Germ.any in VlW2, Ibe Cultural Revoluliofl, theatomic bomb. Tbe surface separation between the personal and thehistorical is shattered by editing tbat carefully joins the various rhythms ofthe stock shots to staged shots.

In one segment he uses stock footage of Soviet soldiers crossingLake Sivasb on fool. The integration of this documentary-time withTarkovsky's time was so convincing that many people believed that thefound footage was staged by Tarkovsky. The reason for this is becauseTarkovsky was conscious of tbe time·pressure in this shot and took care inlin:k:iojt it to contiguous shots ofa similar rhytbm.

Tafkovsky refers to film as if it were a living, breathing entity:

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Time alUi tite Film Aesthetics ofAndrei ]'arlwvsky 27

Andrei looks into a room and from his point of view we see a pile of dirtand watee on the middle of the floor. The image zooms in doser to therubble, flattening the space which nowbccomes clearer. It is a Russianlandscape, with mountains, earth and pockets of water. A zoom*inabstracts the size perspective and places us into Andrei's psychologicalstate. The camera tilts up a mountain, A cut brings us out of this memoryimage and back to physical reality.

The second example is tbe fanlous final shot of Noswighia. As theshot begins we see Andrei lying down in front of what appears 10 he hisRussian bOlne. The camera slowly tracks back 10 reveal that the Russianlandscape is nestled wIthin an open Roman cathedral. To complete thepower Of this fantastic image, rain and snow begin to faU in different planesof the frame. The camera is now static but the illusion is not complete.Somehow, perhaps through nuances in lighting or post-production work,the cathedral seems to shift in tone to match tbe grey/whiteness of thefalling snow. The image progresses to a tonal harmony that echoesAndrei's earlier flashbacks to his homeland. Rhythm. the time-pressurewithin the shot, reaches perfection through the tonal harmony and themerging of dreanHime and real-time, The eudresull of this staggeringshot is, aesthetically, the perfect marriage of form and content, andemotionally, a hauntingly beautiful and moving coda,

A consequence of duration is that shifts between realms of reaUtymake it difficult to be certain of the ontological nature of certain events,Happenings occur in Tarkovsky'.s ftlms thai eitber defy or stretch naturalexplanation: levitations, telepathic acts, temporalJspatial discontinuities,inexplicable natural phenomena. Ohjects, people, and events arcrepresented with mimetic accuracy yet something remains askew, pressingon tlte edge of natural and supernatural, dreanHimc and real-tUne. WithTarkoYsky's duration there is a constant pull between Inner and outerworlds and few conventional cues to clearly separate the ontological statusof events, Petrie in tile quoted essay believes that these ontologicalambiguities arc "meant to shift tbe viewer's attention from therepresentational to the transcendental meaning of the recorded event..: 4In the general sense this is true, since many of these ambigoous momentsare Tarkovskian testimonies of faith in the spiritual and creative act. In a"many eases the'se moments are also based in shifting states ofconsciousness,

The play that exists in Tarkovsky's films with interiors andexteriors reflects the inner/outer, mentallphysicaJduaUty of his aeslhetics.His films contain countless examples of locations that are in a state oflimbo between interior and exterior. Rain and stlOW ~pontaneously fallinside churches, houses, hotel rooms and makeshift dwellings. In anoutstanding st'Cne in The Mirror a ceiling begins to crumble into a shower

of real-time and memory-lime, isTarkoYsky's durauOfkbased aesthetics.

of it in Nostalglna. In the fmt example

here are other ways in which Tarkovsky's camera stylereproduces dWdUon: tbe moving camera as a visual expression of dreams~l;!4 mem~~es io flux; static long takes and agoniZingly slow movements

orality; long takes that capture tbe same real-timein the shooting of a shot (like the cUmax in Theouage burns to the ground in one take); camera

PSycbological time; and the moving camera that

Dimato Totaro

Bazin did), but a complete cinematic interpretation of Bergson'sdt!ratl<:lfI would also include editing that Hnks past/present,l11clllOfylperceptton, fantasy/reality, and dreamAime!real-time. In short,inner and outer reality, Indiv.isibiHty can also be represented bya cuttinglPd narrative style that does not eatl attention to these shifts in time andrealms of rea.Hty (as they are not codified in consciousness). With theex~tion of Ivan'$ ChJ.liliwoa Tarkovsky's films require sevend viewingsrefore one can make easy separations between the inner (mind) and outer(sochd/pbysical reality) world. This is what characterizes Tarkovsky'soorrative structure as duralional.

Tarkovsky's nuanced mise-eo-scene sbifts freely from past topresent, from physical reality to mental reality, from tile outer worid to theinner wodd, It appropriates tIle nux from one state to anotber whetber in acontinuous sbot or contiguous shots. Hence dunllion can be expressedthrough both long take and editing. Duration is tile operative aestheticbecause the demarcation line between the realms of reality are, as incnnsciousness, in a staW of nux.

Tarkovsky's camera style is an important element Of his time­based duration aesthetic. Vlada Petrie points to two types of cameramovements in ,s'talku and The Mirror. lateral movements with telephotolenses that obscure all but one plane of tbe image and perpendicularttaclcing movements over objects (usually nature)3. Many directors employthe fomler but tbe latter is unique to Tarkovsky's world. Tarkovsky usesthis ¢Umera movement most emphatically in Stalker and The Sacrifice. AsPetric notes, this as well as other aspects of Tarkovsky's mise~en-scene andcamera style, estranges the objects recorded, This unusual camera vantagepenetrates nonnal ways of looking by placing us in an impossible point ofview. In other cases, as the dream fligbt in Stalker, It appropriates ametaphysical out-of- body-experience. Tarkovsky uses this cameramovement as a unique signifier for dream 9 thne and subjective states(6'talbr, Solaris, The Sacrifice) and as a way of estf'doging natural and

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times unannounced, ecboes Bergson's duration: a state of flux betweenpresent/past, memory/perception, reality/fantasy, dream-time/real·timc. Theflux that Bergson defines as an interpenetration ofinuer states finds itsvisual echo in Tarkovsky's aesthetics,

Few filmmakers communicate this sense of dumtion as weB asTal'kovsky. It is an internally felt sensation of time, achieved by more thanjust thelengtb of the take or pace of tbe camera movement, but by theentire mise-en-scene. All that is seen and heard within the frame is woventogether to complement and augment the rhythm of the scene or shot: thefilm speed, the actions or the characters, the delivery of dialogue, theattention to objects ami empty spaces, the soundtrack, the play in chromatictouaHty; and, most importantly, the all-consuming presence of nature.These elements of the mise><cn-sccne worK toward establishing the temporalflow, the rhythm of the shot/scene, The art of editing l'estsin gauging andappropriately matching these rhythms (stretches of time).

fn conclusion, the act of recording time is the single mostimportant aspect of Tarkovsky's work. Cinema's main fonnative element,rhythm, is detennined by the time-pressure within tbe sbot, which ill turn isdetennined by the intensity of the life processes recorded in the shotNature is connected to duration through the confluence of time, memoryand nature. fn Chinese box-style, Tarkovsky's film aestheticinterpenetrates with rhythm, time, nature and duration, This aestheticchallenges audience perception in the way tbat inner and outer statesmerge. Memories burn tbrough mental and physical barriers and alterspatial and temporal reality. They manifest themselves in naturalenvironments, regardless of whether or not Ulis environment is themetnories point of origin. Personal time follows the kaleidoscopic patternsof memory and consciousness and is expressed through nature'sspontaneous, indivisible rhythm, In Tarkovsky' s durationlnature~based

aestbetic reality achieves a heightened intensity through which Tarkovskyfinds expression for his physical and moral ideals.

Donato Totaro received a B.F.A. (Film Studies) from ConcordiaUniversity. an M.F:A. (Film Studies) from York University, and is "CCD."(Continually Contemplating Doctorate), Presently he is a lecturer atConcordia University.

Time Gild the Film Aesthetics ofAm/rei TarkoYsky 29

I Andrei TarKOysky, Sculpting in Time: ReflectioNS on tfu~ Cinema, KittyHunter·Blair, tr'.lns., (London: The Bodley Head. 1986). This is theflrslEnglish edWolL All page references are the same for the second and thirdEnglish editions except for the odd exclusion from the third edition (1989)of one passHge that 1 quote: "Works of art are."formed by organic process;whether good or bad they are living organisms with their own circulatorysystem which must not be disturbed,"Tarkovsky sUps between realms of reality, often

f)(}naf.a Totaro

of ~stm', 'W(lrer and earth. In Solaris rain inexplicably drenches the Insideof allonse. Likewise in Starker, rain begins to fall 111 the foreground as thethree emotionally exhausted travellers lie outside the Zone's Wish-bearingroom, In Nosta/gilia the madman D01l1enicolives in a ruined home tbat isinfested with water, vegetation and humidity. In the same film, there IS theearUer described scene in wbich a miniature Russian landscape appearsinside Ii room as a subjective hallucinatioo of the hOtnesick Andrei.

This teetering between levels of reality is a central a<;,pect ofTarkovsky's aesthetics. The psychological grounding for it IS the humanmind: free-flowing conscious states, memories, visions, reflections, dreams.'fbe physical grounding is nature. Together they form the inner/outersurface distinction of Tark:ovsky's world.

Both duration and nature are guiding principles to Tarkovsky'saesthetics {rhythm), Tarkovsky reconciles them by using nature as afairground for Proustian memories. Tbe haunting memories, visions,dreams and hallucinations that leave Tarkovsky's clJarncters emotionaHydmined and sometimes spiritually rejuvenated are triggered or take placewithin a natural landscape. Examples include Ivan's escapist dreams inIvan's Childhood; the opening aod dosing scenes of Solaris (Kelvin's realand reoonstituk."d cbildbood home); Andrei's monochrome visionS of bisRussian homeland in Nostalghia; tbe Stalker's lake-side dream in Stalker;,and the kaleidoscopic memory-time of The Mirror.

In tbese and otber moments, nature and duration co·exist,Tarkovsky wrote that with each subsequent film tbe presence of naturebecame mL)re prominent Speaking of his next film (The Sacrifice) he says:"1 sbaIl aim at an even greater sincerity and convictiOn in each shot, usingthe immediate impressions made upon me by nature, in which time willhave left its own trace (212)." Here we see the merging of nature, time andmemory.

On a basic dialectical level these natural elements constitute anideal counterpoint to the modem, industrial landscape (it isn't surprisingthntTarkovsky once claimed that Walden was bis favorite book). Tbisdualism reaches its ironic pinnacle in Stalker. In Stalker Tarkovsky:pil:ft.Ullcs tllerem worldio black: &, white and monochrome and the magical

color. 10 the dangerous Zone nature is alive, (It appears tbat theto preserve nature is to mine it witb fatal booby traps). The water\I.. fresh; grass and vegetation is fuU and green. In tbe real world

nuclear wasteland. The oil-drenched water ishes arc acbemical depository. Visible in the

factoties, In the Zone, surrounded by a healthyto dream, Again, Tarkovsky welds nature to

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30 DemaIO TOlaro

2' Sergei Eisenstein, Film Form, Jay Leyda, ed., trans., (New York:MeridallBooks, Inc" 1957), p. 28.

3 VladaPetric, hTarkovsky's Dream lmagery," Film Quarterly, voL 43,no.2, (Winter 89~9Q), p. 29,

4 Petrie, 1'.32 . 33

Spectacles of Daily Life:Up To a Point (Cuba 1983, Tomas Gutierrez Alea)

Zuzana M. Pick

To Tit60 with my best wishes for a prompt and funrecovery, and in the hope you will soon challenge uS withmany other wonderful films. Salud yabrazos!

To creme a revolutionary cinema was probably one of the mostresolute slogans of the New Cinema of Latin America. Oftenmisunderstood as a utopian and prescriptive formulation, it reflected thepromise of a radical practice capable of breaking from dominant modes offilmmaking modeled on Hollywood cinema, Revolutionary cinema wasconceived as always open, never complete, and capable of fostering linksbetween filmmaker and spectator, between ideology and social change,Therefore, the movement developed participatory sWdtegies of productionand reception in accordance to existing conditions within its diversenational cinemas.!

Tomas Gutierrez Alea is a Cuban filmmaker best known forMemories of Underdevelopment (1968). His prestige as a director, bOlhwithin and outside his country, has been the result of a distinguished careerspanning over the three decades. Tempting as it might be to rank him as anauthor, the well·deserved reputation of Gutierrez Alea furnishes only onecritical key to appro.lch his films. His work can equally be projected into abroadened perspective tbat engages colleclive and subjective positions. Iwill look at Up to a Point (983) by taking into account its simultaneousinscriptions within the institutional and aesth.etic features of contemporaryCuban film, In other words, 1 will consider how the establishment of astatl.>funded agency bas structured production strategies, and howcbangesin the aesthetic conceptualization of Cuban filmmaking have affected theproduction and reception of tbis feature film.

The production of Up to a Point wall preceded by the publicationof a critical study written by Gutierrez Alca entitled The Viewer's Dialecticand followed by a structural re-organization within the Cuban I'il m