Mirror

In my recent look at the films of Andrei Tarkovsky the next up was Mirror (1975), which is a very intimate and somewhat inscrutable look at time and memory. It is essentially the story of a dying man in his forties, Aleksei (voiced by Innokentiy Smoktunovskiy), remembering his past: his childhood, mother, the war, personal moments and things that tell reflect the recent history of Russian itself. This is achieved in a variety of effective visual means showing great artistry in black and white film, color film sequences, archival documentary footage with the usual powerful music score. So, this film reminded me a lot of Tree of Life- Terrence Malik's film about one man's life scaled down to a collection of memories and impressions pulled together by the director. Tarkovsky makes good use, as usual, of the elements, with standout shots utilizing wind, fire and water to great effect. It is a mesmerizing film despite the fact that the personal themes and motifs might be obscure to the casual viewer.