Nostalgia
1983
Director Andrei Tarkovsky recasts his lifelong cinematic motif of humanity's quest for faith in the waterlogged and mist-ensconced countryside of Italy for his philosophical masterpiece NOSTALGIA. Andrei Gorchakov (Oleg Yankovsky) is a misanthropic Russian scholar researching the life of an exiled Russian composer who committed .. Read more
| Starring | Oleg Yankovsky, Domiziana Giordano, Erland Josephson |
|---|---|
| Director | Andrei Tarkovsky |
| Genres | Drama |
loading...
Nostalgia
Director Andrei Tarkovsky recasts his lifelong cinematic motif of humanity's quest for faith in the waterlogged and mist-ensconced countryside of Italy for his philosophical masterpiece NOSTALGIA. Andrei Gorchakov (Oleg Yankovsky) is a misanthropic Russian scholar researching the life of an exiled Russian composer who committed suicide. With the help of his beautiful guide, Eugenia (Domiziana Giordano), Andrei visits mystical and religious sites on the trail of the late composer's legacy. In the shadow of the doomed composer's memory, Andrei finds himself crippled by a melancholy nostalgia for his Russian homeland, only to discover redemption in the form of a madman, Domenico (Erland Josephson), whom he encounters at St. Catherine's pool, a religious site in Sienna. Domenico, a former professor who once locked his family away for seven years in anticipation of Armageddon, now leads a seemingly insane existence, believing that if he can travel across the pool with a lighted candle, he can save all of humanity. As in his mystical film THE MIRROR, Tarkovsky weaves a dense, mediatative pattern of images--freely mixing past and present, dream and reality, color and black and white, landscape and architecture--with the scholar and the madman acting as allegorical players in a metaphysical trial by fire and water.
| Starring | Oleg Yankovsky, Domiziana Giordano, Erland Josephson |
|---|---|
| Director | Andrei Tarkovsky |
| Studio | ARTIFICIAL EYE |
| Run time | DVD: 2 hrs |
| Certificate | |
| Genres | Drama |
| Language | DVD: Italian |
| Subtitles | DVD: English |
| Released | DVD: 24 Feb 2003 Production year: 1983 |
| Format | DVD |
-
Critics' reviews (3)
View all -
Andrei Tarkovsky's first non-Soviet picture is clearly the work of an exile who can never regain his lost past. Yet, in rejecting a possible affair and his intellectual researches to undertake the eternal quest for enlightenment, Oleg Yankovsky finds redemption of sorts as he rises to the symbolic challenge of carrying a lighted candle across a sulphurous spa — a challenge posed by Erland Josephson, the apocalypse-obsessed resident of a Tuscan shrine town. Contrasting monochrome flashbacks with desaturated colour landscapes, Tarkovsky poetically employs langorous takes which not only convey Yankovsky's fragile mental and spiritual condition, but also heighten the mesmerising mysticism of this metaphysical allegory.
-
"...In its stately, measured way NOSTALGHIA, in its culminating spirit of affirmation, becomes akin to a religious experience..."
-
Most helpful member's review
View all -
29 out of 30 people found this review helpful
Tarkovsky novices beware
Andrei Tarkovsky was a great director, loved by most high-brow film critics: think Bergman crossed with Kubrick, but Russian and not as accessible! He made only seven feature films and they gradually became lighter on plot and heavier on symbolism (running water, horses, dogs, fire, mist) – from Ivan’s Childhood through to The Sacrifice, via Andrei Rublev (an astonishing historical epic, my favourite) and Solaris (his most famous work). The other three (Nostalgia, Mirror and Stalker) are beautiful to look at, very personal, but often incomprehensible. So if you have never seen a Tarkovsky film do not, under any circumstances, start with this one! My advice is to try them in the order he made them, as his films do require a while to get the feel of, but are well worth the effort. Two other things to note: Nostalgia is his least well-regarded film (even Tarkovsky buffs don’t like it) and there is an inherent problem that his films really are better suited to the cinema rather than DVD – they somehow feel diminished on the small screen . . .
-
Most recent members' review
View all -
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful
looks so wonderful but ...
Oh dear, this is the kind of film that makes the viewer think he/she isn't deep enough to understand it. In fact, it is utterly beautiful to look at but completely vacuous. The pseudo-intellectual ramblings which the protagonist voices Tarkovsky's sense of alienation are risibly banal. Lost in translation possibly ... but maybe not much there in the original either. Andrej Rublev was a great film, this is a truly self-indulgent one.
-
More like this
View allShowing 1 to 4 of 20
Related user collection
86.4% from 128 members
Buy from the LOVEFiLM shop
-
-
-
Nostalgia
Director Andrei Tarkovsky recasts his lifelong cinematic motif of humanity's quest for faith in the waterlogged and mist-ensconced countryside of Italy for his philosophical masterpiece NOSTALGIA. Andrei Gorchakov (Oleg Yankovsky) is a misanthropic Russian scholar researching the life of an exiled ...
-