Tarkovsky ’ s

Носталь
гия

Tayaz Fakhri
Jan 2011

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or A Sanctuary of
Meaning?

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 Some Quotes on
Tarkovsky
 What his constant use of tracking shots, slow motion, and never-
ending pans - indeed his entire visual rhetoric - seems to
emphasize is that he is molding the images. He is a virtuoso,
and he wants us to be aware of the fact.
 "Tarkovsky is the greatest of them all. He moves with such
naturalness in the room of dreams. He doesn't explain. What
should he explain anyhow?" Ingmar Bergman.
 "Juxtaposing a person with an environment that is boundless,
collating him with a countless number of people passing by
close to him and far away, relating a person to the whole
world, that is the meaning of cinema." - Andrei Tarkovsky.
 The inscription on his grave stone reads: To the man who saw
the Angel.

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 Andrei Tarkovsky's
Madonna del Parto
 Is an Article by James
Macgillivray from
Toronto.


 He is currently (2003)
finishing his Masters
in Architecture at
Harvard Design
School.
 “The Thing from Inner
space” by Slavoj
Zizek.

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
 The Madonna del Parto is a fresco painting by the Italian
Renaissance master Pireo della Francesca, finished around
1460. It is housed in Tuscany, Italy.
 The portrayal of a pregnant Madonna was a theme depicted
sometimes in the early 14th century Tuscany. The Madonna
was portrayed standing, alone, with a closed book on her
belly, an allusion to the embodied Word. Piero della
Francesca's Madonna has neither books nor royal attributes as
in the medieval predecessors of the picture. At her side are
two angels, who are keeping open a pavilion decorated with
pomegranates, a symbol of Christ's passion. The upper part of
the painting is lost. The two angels are mirrored.
 M. Calvesi has suggested the theological symbolism behind the
representation that the tent would be a representation of the
Arc of the Covenant; Maria would be thus the new Ark of
Alliance as mother of Jesus. For other scholars the tent is a
symbol of the Catholic Church and the Madonna would
symbolize the tabernacle (Portable dwelling place), as she is
portrayed containing Jesus' body.
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In 1979 Tarkovsky saw the fresco for the first time


in the sparse, cramped space of the chapel.



v What is it about the Madonna del Parto in this state

that eventually inspires him to film it?
v On a more basic level, what does it mean to
Tarkovsky to film a painting, and what aesthetic
and artistic rules does Tarkovsky see at the
intersection of film and art?
v What is the main anti-feminist(?) theme of the
movie?

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A. T. 1932 - 1986  Born April 4, Zavrazhe,
Russia

 In July of 1984, Andrei Tarkovsky attended a press conference

in Milan where he announced to the world that he would
not return to the Soviet Union. When a journalist asked him
if he would be seeking political exile in Italy, Tarkovsky
answered, "I'm telling you a drama. You cannot ask me
bureaucratic questions. Which country? I don't know. It's
like asking me in which cemetery I wish to bury my
children”.

 This laconic announcement came at the end of the drama
that began in 1979 when he first chose to go to Italy to film
Nostalghia. The film itself stands as a testament to his own
experience of nostalgia during his exile; in fact Tarkovsky
calls the protagonist, Andrei Gorchakov, a "mirror" of
himself.
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Resurrection by Pireo della
Francesca

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Reconstructive drawing of
original architectural
frame (Guido Botticelli,
1994)

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 Suture in Time and Explosion of
Architectural Space

Camera Movement

G o to Eugenia’s Move
5 ’: 3 0 ’’
http://www.youtube.co
m/watch?
v=IU1gNassY04&feat
ure=related 10
 Opening Sequence &Exploding
Architectural Space
How is it then that, by the time the shot cuts, the
viewer has forgotten the empty apse at the
beginning of the shot?
The answer lies in the fact that this shot is the longest one
in the scene (2:08 minutes compared to the average of
0:32).
Tarkovsky's appropriation of the Madonna del Parto within
the sexual dimension of his film should therefore be
understood as a radical adaptation of the painting's
meaning. The Madonna finds itself, as it were, between
the mirrors of Tarkovsky and Gorchakov. The nostalgia of
the tourist and the relentless self-exploratory drive of
Tarkovsky's artistic process darken the fresco behind a
veil of projected meanings; it appears “en abyme”.
 11
 12
Mise en abyme

s; Theology of painting
Is His View an Anti-feminist
One?
 "What is a woman's driving force? Submission, humiliation in
the name of love. And a man's? Creation".
 Artistic creation is visualized in terms of procreation and
conception. In Sculpting in Time he writes, "It is like
childbirth ... The poet has nothing to be proud of: he is not
master of the situation, but a servant".
 Not only is the creative force associated with childbirth but
also with the female trait of submission.
 Thus within Tarkovsky's concept of male artistic creation, we
find aspects that are similar to those of pregnancy and
childbirth: the work matures as a child does, and the artist
during the process of creation experiences the same
humility and submission that the woman does in
miraculous, selfless love for the man.
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Unfolded Mysteries
 Saving the World with a burning candle or burning yourself?!
 Eugenia’s humiliation.
 Who is The Madman? Who is Sosnovsky?
 Dialogue with the child.
 Three Dreams: Andrei, Eugenia & Writer.
 Who is dreaming the Last Dream?
 Dialogue with God.
 Three Deaths: Andrei, Madman & Writer.
 Dogs, Winds, Drops of Water, Accidents, Miracles.



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d Child by Flippo Lippi