Title: Mirror
Release Date: March 7, 1975
Director: Andrei Tarkovsky
Production Company: Mosfilm
Summary/Review:
This film through a nonlinear narrative structure examines the life of a dying man by way of his memories. The man, Alexei (Innokenty Smoktunovsky) does not appear on screen but we hear his voice and see him as a child in the 1930s (Filipp Yankovsky) and a young teenager during World War II (Ignat Daniltsev). The film intercuts vignettes of memories from before and during the war with more recent memories as various images, dreams, and newsreel-style footage.
The film is held together by Margarita Terekhova who plays Alexei’s mother in his memories as well as is ex-wife in the present day scenes. Terekhova does a remarkable acting job, especially as the camera remains on her most of the time even when off-screen characters and the narrator are doing the speaking. The film contains some remarkably beautiful shots and impressive camera work. I can see this movie being studied at film schools.
Rating: ****
Panorama of the Mountains 