Zone alone (Stalker (DVD))

Member Name: x_elff_x

Product:	Stalker (DVD)
Date:	04/07/02 (763 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: lots

Disadvantages: bit higgledipiggldy on the dvd side

I debated waiting for the DVD category to appear for this but, as I've said quite a bit about the film, I thought it was just as appropriate to pop it here. The DVD review is at the bottom.



Director Andrei Tarkovsky
Writer Arkady Strugatsky, Boris Strugatsky
Stars Aleksandr Kajdanovsky, Alisa Fredndlikh, Anatoly Solonitsin, Nikolai Grinko, Natasha Abramova
Certificate PG
Running time 155 minutes
Made Russia 1979

In the movie world, where sci-fi equates to hi-tech space operas, like Star Wars, or gothic excess, such as The Matrix, it is good to be reminded that there is more to the genre than flashing light sabres and cool sunglasses. Tarkovsky's Stalker is a film which makes you rethink your perceptions and encourages you to ponder deeper questions of humanity.

The eponymous Stalker makes his living by leading people into a mysterious Zone, much to the chagrin of his long-suffering wife. Thought to have been created by a meteroite or, possibly, an alien species, the Zone is fiercely protected by the government, that doesn't want anyone going there, themselves included. Yet, within the Zone, is a room with the power to grant the deepest wish of those who dare to seek it out and enter in.

The promise of fulfilment of earthly desire is enough to make a professor (Nikolai Grinko) and a writer (Anatoly Solonitsin) prepare to brave bullets to reach it and we follow their journey as they embark on one of the most thought-provoking road trips ever commited to celluloid.

Getting out of the city proves difficult enough, but when they reach the Zone it seems that the going will not get any easier. We travel with them as they debate the nature of desire and dreams in the physically daunting Zone.

Considering that there is little in the way of action in this film and that it moves in a slow and epic manner, it is surprisingly tense. The initial scenes in the industrial wastelands

of the city are shot in bleak sepia, giving way to the vibrant colour and greenery in the Zone - one thing's for certain, as they step off their hijacked train wagon, they're not in Kansas any more.

The Zone is an oppressive force in its own right, bearing witness to people who have ventured into its confines in the past and never returned, hostile to all but those who treat it with care and reverence. The question is, will our intrepid trio make it through the wilderness and what will they do in the room, if they reach it?

There is no easy watching to be gained here, but nor is this a hard slog - each scene is beautifully crafted, painting a vivid and fascinating picture of Tarkovsky's vision. Once you adjust to the pace and frequent long gaps between dialogue, you begin to welcome the pauses so that you can ponder on the questions facing the protagonists at the same time as they do or, if that all gets too much, simply sit back and let the resonant score wash over you - though the version you are listening to (the 5.1 or original mono) will occasionally alter what you hear, more of which later.

The acting is superb throughout, with the enigmatic Stalker paradoxically evangelising the wonders of the Zone while carrying the weight of his own disabled daughter on his shoulders and yet showing no interest in entering the room himself. This internal conflict provides the perfect counterpoint to the analytical and mysterious professor and the self-obsessed alcoholic writer as they find that it is not just the threat of the Zone they must worry about, but the demons they carry within themselves.

There is much that one could make of the symbolism - does it represent a supernatural force, a landscape of the mind or a bizarre parable of the West, where hopes and dreams become reality? The answer, I think, is none of these... and yet all of them, and that is the beauty of the film.

Tarkovsky is adamant that h
is au
dience should think about what they are watching and therefore shies away from neatness and resists the urge to lead his viewers by the hand. I suspect that you could watch Stalker a dozen times and get something different from it on each occasion.

What more can you ask of a filmmaker?


--DVDetails--

Ratio Fullscreen 4:3
Sound Original mono and Dolby Digital 5.1
Extras Scene selection; Stills Gallery; Cast and crew biographies and filmographies; Interviews with director of photography, A Knyazhinsky, and production designer, R Safiullin; Extract from Tarkovsky's diploma film, The Steamroller And The Violin.

Artificial Eye's presentation of Stalker is a bit higgledy piggledy, with the extras scattered across two discs. Perhaps the best way to describe them is "before" and "after".

On the first, we are presented with the first part of the film along with an excerpt from Tarkovsky's diploma offering, The Steamroller And The Violin, Tarkovsky's biography, a Tarkovsy-esque meander through the house he lived in as a child and in-production shots, leaving the post-production interviews and other cast and crew biographies for the second disc.

Aside from the slight quirk of positioning, the presentation is excellent. The animated menus are engaging and easy to navigate, with a good size of print which doesn't leave you squinting around to find the subtitle menu.

The colour and clarity is excellent for a film of its age, with no obvious scratching. The sepia portion is richly coloured and the colour sequences also well realised. The sound is available in the original mono and in Russian 5.1. Beware, these two representations are distinctly different in places. Perhaps most notable is on the train trip into the Zone, where the original version relies on the rhythmic "music" of the train, travelling over the tracks, to carry the viewer, whi
le the 5.1
version overlays some of Artemyev's ambient music. Occasionally the music in the 5.1 version seems overly loud and once or twice the sound is "cleaned up", losing some of Tarkovsky's original intention. The 5.1 version, I suspect, equates more closely to Artemyev's vision than that of Tarkovsky.

As regards the extras, they are few but enjoyable. The excerpt from his diploma film demonstrates how good Tarkovsky was, right from the outset of his career, and it is only a shame that there isn't more than the few minutes we get to see. With luck, Artificial Eye will release the full version at some point.

Tarkovsky's House is, in fact, a short film, entitled Memory, which intercuts sequences from Stalker's dream with Tarkovsky's derelict boyhood home. Shot in the style of the director himself, this is a poignant and thought-provoking sequence in its own right. There are just 10 production photographs here, with only one shot in colour.

The most interesting - and most sad - extras are the interviews with director of photography Knyazhinsky and production designer Saifiullin. The former, filmed in a care home, seems overcome with melancholy at the thought that so many of the cast and crew, who worked on the film, have since passed away - he, too, died not long after. His brief interview - at around five minutes in length - offers an insight into the area of Estonia, where most of the Zone shooting occured, explaining that much of the standing water used on the sets was present already and discussing how they used this to their advantage, but it is disturbing to watch somone who is so ill talk about things that he misses.

Saifullin's interview is much meatier, as he talks about the devastating loss of the first half of the film after negatives were spoiled a year into the shoot. He also reminisces about Tarkovsky's eye for detail - "He wanted to know the motivation of
every flower&qu
ot; - and discusses his belief that elements of the Stalker character were based on himself. The only downside is that occasionally the subtitles slip into pidgen English, not so much that you lose the thread, though.

The cast and crew biographies are in a sensible typeface, so that you can read them from across the room - other DVD manufacturers please take note. Watch out, while you are reading them for Artemyev's, which contains a not-so-hidden feature of a 21 minute interview. Why Artificial Eye hasn't just packaged this to appear alongside the other interviews is beyond me, as it is a fascinating insight into the way that Tarkovsky viewed the scoring of his films. He was keen to use as little music as possible and had Artemyev reading dissertations before composing in order to achieve the right ambience for certain scenes. Also, squirrelled away in Artemyev's filmography, is a teaser for Solaris.

Overall, the DVD extras have been chosen well and genuinely add to the viewer's understanding of the film, without seeming contrived. It is just a shame that some of them are so hard to find.

Summary: