The small life of a great director: Andrey Tarkovsky

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Reading Tarkovsky's biography produces strange sensation. The life of the famous director is nothing that one would expect - given his standing.
The success came early and easily to Andrey - thank in part to his father, a well established Soviet poet. He went to a prestigious cinema school, class of the famous Mikhail Romm, who in 1937 made the original movie "Trinadtsat'" (Thirteen), later remade into the American war film Sahara.
There Tarkovsky met many people who later became the moving force behind the Soviet movie industry, and his 1960 diploma work "Katok i Skripka" (The Steamroller and the Violin) already had the mark of his great talent.
His independent career started with moderate amount of trouble - "Ivanove Destsvo" met some resistance, but it was still not out of ordinary in the stale USSR atmosphere, and it brought him instant fame.
But while his films kept winning internatinal accolade, his life in Russia did not reflect that fact. His films were sold quetly to the West without him even being aware, but in his own country they remained in extremely limited circulation. For a country of a quarter million people, there were about 100 copies of his Stalker made, of which just 3 were allocated to Moscow. Needless to say, these were put to very good use, as about two million Moscowites saw the film in short period of time.
The world famous director continued to live in a small apartment on meager salary, constantly facing hatred, indifference and boneheadedness of the officials.
Pushed to his limit, he defected in 1984, leaving his son behind, shortly after completing the work on "Nostalgia" in Italy.
Unfortunately not much changed in the life of the director... for the rest of his short life he remained a poor famous man... causing his Western acquaintances wonder how it was possible for the person who many had put on the same plane as Fellini, to exist on virtually no income.
Tarkovsky had premonition of death for quite some time. His many references mention the death, its approach, and even its face - he was nearly prophetic in predicting his illness. On one occasion he suddenly asked the famous Russian sculptor Ernest Neizvestnyi to make the crucifiction for his grave. The sculptor agreed, but the monument was never built, as the wife of his last years objected to the idea after his death...
Tarkovsky lived for about another year after being diagnosed with lung cancer. He spent most of it in different clinics, nearly abandoned by all, with rare phone calls from his family and friends in Russia. His son was finally allowed to visit him.
His life, his philosophies in many ways are reflected in Alexander, the main character of Andrey's last work - "Sacrifice". Tarkovsky kept working on its editing while bound to hospital bed.
He died while his wife was still pregnant with his son...

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Topic - The small life of a great director: Andrey Tarkovsky - Victor Khomenko 06:53:23 06/02/04 (3)

Re: Sad...Sad.. - patrickU 12:59:48 06/03/04 (0)

I have always thought "Sacrifice" was autobiographical - grinagog 19:08:37 06/02/04 (0)

Re: Very moving, Victor. Thanks for sharing his story. (nt) - Gee LP 10:10:51 06/02/04 (0)

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