Stalker (1979 film)
Stalker (Russian: Сталкер, IPA: [ˈstaɫkʲɪr]) is a 1979 Soviet science fiction film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky with a screenplay written by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, loosely based on their 1972 novel Roadside Picnic.The film tells the story of an expedition led by a figure known as the "Stalker" (Alexander Kaidanovsky), who guides his two clients—a melancholic writer (Anatoly Solonitsyn) and a professor (Nikolai Grinko)—through a hazardous wasteland to a mysterious restricted site known simply as the "Zone", where there supposedly exists a room which grants a person's innermost desires.[2][4] A man works as a "Stalker", leading people through the "Zone", an area where the normal laws of physics do not apply, and remnants of seemingly extraterrestrial activity lie undisturbed among its ruins.He blames the Room, the Stalkers, and their clients for the rise of crime, social strife, military coups, and destructive science.After returning home, the Stalker laments to his wife how humanity has lost its capacity for faith, which is needed to traverse the Zone and live a good life.Martyshka, the couple's deformed daughter, sits alone in the kitchen reading while a love poem by Fyodor Tyutchev is recited.She appears to use psychokinesis to push three drinking glasses across the table, but that is made ambiguous as simultaneously a train passes by the family's apartment and the whole room shakes.In Roadside Picnic, "Stalker" was a common nickname for men engaged in the illegal enterprise of prospecting for and smuggling alien artifacts out of the "Zone".[11] In the film, a "stalker" is a professional guide to the Zone, someone having the ability and desire to cross the border into the dangerous and forbidden place with a specific goal.[5][12] In a review in Slant Magazine, critic Nick Schager describes the film as a "dense, complex, often-contradictory, and endlessly pliable allegory about human consciousness, the necessity for faith in an increasingly secular, rational world, and the ugly, unpleasant dreams and desires that reside in the hearts of men", while conceding that the obliqueness of the imagery renders definitive interpretation "both pointless... [and] somewhat futile".")[17] Slavistic Nils Åke Nilsson says that in the context of late Soviet stagnation, Tarkovsky makes a contrast between the oppressive dystopia[18] of the outside world—marked by industrial decay, pollution, alienation, and political repression—and the Zone, a realm of beauty and mystery.The film reflects the disillusionment of late socialism,[19] which fell short of the communist utopia, resulting in a stagnant and sterile reality.He believes that faith "cannot be dissolved or broken down, [it] forms like a crystal in the soul of each of us and constitutes its great worth," and that when humans feel that there is no more hope in the world, love is what proves them otherwise.[20] Like Tarkovsky's other films, Stalker relies on long takes with slow, subtle camera movement, rejecting the use of rapid montage.Tarkovsky viewed the idea of the Zone as a dramatic tool to draw out the personalities of the three protagonists, particularly the psychological damage from everything that happens to the idealistic views of the Stalker as he finds himself unable to make others happy: "This, too, is what Stalker is about: the hero goes through moments of despair when his faith is shaken; but every time he comes to a renewed sense of his vocation to serve people who have lost their hopes and illusions.[citation needed] In an interview on the MK2 DVD, the production designer, Rashit Safiullin, recalled that Tarkovsky spent a year shooting all the outdoor scenes.[citation needed] The central part of the film, in which the characters travel within the Zone, was shot in a few days at two deserted hydro power plants on the Jägala river near Tallinn, Estonia.Sound designer Vladimir Sharun recalled: "We were shooting near Tallinn in the area around the small river Jägala with a half-functioning hydroelectric station.[29] In addition to the original monophonic soundtrack, the Russian Cinema Council (Ruscico) created an alternative 5.1 surround sound track for the 2001 DVD release.Even after he had shot all the material he continued his search for the ideal film score, wanting a combination of Oriental and Western music.Artemyev proposed to try this idea with the motet Pulcherrima Rosa by an anonymous 14th century Italian composer dedicated to the Virgin Mary.[32] In its original form Tarkovsky did not perceive the motet as suitable for the film and asked Artemyev to give it an Oriental sound.A musician was invited from Azerbaijan who played the main melody on a tar based on mugham, accompanied by orchestral background music written by Artemyev.[31] Rethinking their approach, they finally found the solution in a theme that would create a state of inner calmness and inner satisfaction, or as Tarkovsky said "space frozen in a dynamic equilibrium".[34] To mask the obvious combination of European and Oriental instruments he passed the foreground music through the effect channels of his SYNTHI 100 synthesizer.These effects included modulating the sound of the flute and lowering the speed of the tar, so that what Artemyev called "the life of one string" could be heard.While the camera still shows a pool of water inside the Zone, the audience begins to hear the sound of a train and Ravel's Boléro, reminiscent of the opening scene.[37] On being told that Stalker should be faster and more dynamic, Tarkovsky replied:The film needs to be slower and duller at the start so that the viewers who walked into the wrong theatre have time to leave before the main action starts.The Goskino representative then stated that he was trying to give the point of view of the audience.Its critical consensus states, "Stalker is a complex, oblique parable that draws unforgettable images and philosophical musings from its sci-fi/thriller setting.In The Guardian, Geoff Dyer described the film as "synonymous both with cinema's claims to high art and a test of the viewer's ability to appreciate it as such".
Andrei TarkovskyArkady StrugatskyBoris StrugatskyRoadside PicnicAlexander KaidanovskyAnatoly SolonitsynAlisa FreindlichNikolai GrinkoAlexander KnyazhinskyEduard ArtemyevMosfilmGoskinoscience fictionArkady and Boris StrugatskyfantasyphilosophicalpsychologicalWarsaw Pactone of the greatest films of all timeBritish Film InstituteSoviet Unionroublesrailway work carNobel Prizedirectly to the cameraFyodor TyutchevpsychokinesisSergei YakovlevFaime JurnoVladimir ZamanskyStrugatsky brothersRudyard KiplingStalky & Co.Slant MagazineGeoff DyerChernobyl Exclusion ZoneChernobyl disasterpower plantThe SacrificeTao Te ChingSoviet stagnationlong takesmontageMikhail Kalatozovclassical Aristotelian unityidealisticdeadly forceStalkerMoscowcinematographerGeorgy RerbergTallinnhydro power plantsJägala riverEstoniaMuseum of Estonian ArchitectureTallinn Power PlantTallinn Creative HubMaarduIru Power PlantLasnamäePirita riverLarisa Tarkovskayafilm scoreSolarisMirrorNostalghia5.1 surround sounddraisineBeethoven'sNinth SymphonyAzerbaijani tarArmeniaAzerbaijanmughamIndian classical musictanpuraSYNTHI 100Symphony No. 9Richard WagnerMarseillaiseTonino GuerraBoléroOde to JoyBressonBergmanreview aggregatorRotten Tomatoesrated at 100%Metacritic100 Greatest Films of All TimeSight & SoundThe GuardianDerek AdamsFrancis Ford CoppolaApocalypse Nowheart of darknesshuman consciousnessBBC CulturePrize of the Ecumenical JuryCannes Film FestivalFantasportoPortugalEast GermanydubbedDolby DigitalCriterion CollectionCacophony SocietySan Francisco Bay AreaBlack Rock DesertNevadaBurning ManChris MarkerSans SoleilChernobyl DiariesJonathan NolanWestworldAtomic BlondeAnnihilationAlex Garlandeponymous novelJeff VanderMeerThe Flat EarthThomas DolbyOrchestral Manoeuvres in the DarkAndy McCluskey