Nostalghia

Starring:Oleg Yankovsky, Erland Josephson, Domiziana Giordano, Patrizia Terreno, Laura De Marchi, Delia Boccardo, Milena Vukotic, Raffaele Di Mario, Rate Furlan, Livio Galassi, Elena Magoia, Piero Vida, Alberto Canepa, Vittorio Mezzogiorno, Lia Tanzi, Sergio Fiorentini
Director: Andrei Tarkovsky
Studio: Fox Lorber
Product Type: DVD

Product Description

EDITORIAL REVIEW - Amazon.com - This is another haunting film by Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky--his first made outside of the Soviet Union. Like all of his films, Nostalghia has a mystical quality, as it follows the spiritual journey of a poet on a research mission in Italy. While traveling with his beautiful Italian interpreter in a Tuscan village, the poet suddenly becomes transfixed by memories of Russia and his family. A local mystic helps him see the right path in his life. Once again, Tarkovsky's imagery is gorgeous, and the narrative insightful. The past and the present collide in existential angst. Truly a cinematic feast for those interested in exploring life's deepest concerns. --Bill Desowitz ### This officially licensed region-free DVD from South Korea includes the original audio track in ITALIAN with optional subtitles in English and Korean.

Customer Reviews:

Save sixty bucks!.......2007-01-26

This Korean DVD (with the silver frame around the image on the front of the case) is, beyond a reasonable doubt, identical to the Fox Lorber disk: The video release trailer that is included states ". . . from Fox Lorber". The picture is great, although the audio track has a tiny bit of crackle and pop, apparently from the source material used. This is a much better-looking transfer than Kino's "Zerkalo" or "Offret", and better than Kino's/Ruscico's "Stalker". Also, please note that the AR is NOT 4:3 or full-frame as stated above and on the DVD case. It is widescreen and, I assume, the correct aspect ratio.
I won't attempt to praise or critique the film itself: If you're going to buy it, you KNOW what it is!

Transcendental image-wizardry from the other side of the pool.......2006-07-04

A quite, withdrawn man lights a candle and walks with it through a old, abandoned, disintegrated swimmingpool. With his other hand he protects the flame from the wind.
But the wind sneaks through his fingers and blows out the candle. The quiet, withdrawn man turns around, walks back to the edge of the pool, lights the candle, and walks again through the shallow, slack water towards the other side once more.
But again the wind gets behind his hand and blows out the candle. Grey-faced but without any hesitation, the quiet, withdrawn man turns back to the edge of the pool, lights the candle again, and goes for a third attempt to reach the other side.
This time, he succeeds.

And with this quiet, withdrawn scene, a miracle succeeds, that, in simple, lame terms, is called `movie making'. And whatever otherworldly magician, whatever caleidoscopical entity and hunter of enigma's hides behind the pseudonym Andrei Tarkovski - it's a tour-de-force of art, nature and sheer genius (ever so close to madness, one might utter) blend together, like some holy white screen trinity.

And, by the way, after the quiet, withdrawn man plants the candle with almost ritualistic gesture into the soil, he collapses and dies, as any quiet, withdrawn man, who just inflicted with his bare hands a small miracle upon us, should.

Fade-out.

Average customer rating:

Corrected Film Year
One of the most beautiful films ever committed to celluloid...
Transcendental image-wizardry from the other side of the pool
1 + 1 = 1
The Memory of Angels

Nostalghia
Starring: Oleg Yankovsky , Erland Josephson , Domiziana Giordano , Patrizia Terreno , and Laura De Marchi
Director: Andrei Tarkovsky
Manufacturer: Fox Lorber
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: 6305069654
Release Date: 1998-10-07

Amazon.com

This is another haunting film by Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky--his first made outside of the Soviet Union. Like all of his films, Nostalghia has a mystical quality, as it follows the spiritual journey of a poet on a research mission in Italy. While traveling with his beautiful Italian interpreter in a Tuscan village, the poet suddenly becomes transfixed by memories of Russia and his family. A local mystic helps him see the right path in his life. Once again, Tarkovsky's imagery is gorgeous, and the narrative insightful. The past and the present collide in existential angst. Truly a cinematic feast for those interested in exploring life's deepest concerns. --Bill Desowitz

Customer Reviews:

Corrected Film Year.......2007-02-06

Just a correction to the date of this film: Nostalghia was originally released in 1985. It was Tarkovsky's first film outside of the Soviet Union. The Sacrifice was released in 1986. Andrei Tarkovsky died of cancer in 1986.

This is a beautiful film and closest that film has ever come to being pure art.

One of the most beautiful films ever committed to celluloid..........2006-07-31

This is Tarkovsky's most underrated film. It is also his most beautiful, with some of the greatest cinemtography ever committed to celluloid (Giuesppe Lanci was the cinematographer). The film concerns itself with a Russian coming to Italy to research on a Russian composer who died there. As others have pointed out, the word "Nostalghia" is the Italian pronuciation, and the film is about nostalghia for one's homeland, specifically Russian nostlaghia. Tarkovsky has said that Russians, more than other nationalities, miss their homeland more than others, and have a hard time assimiliating in other lands. This film gives you one amazing shot after another. Some of the shots are truly amazing. The most famous shot here in where Andrei carries a candle across the pool, believing that if he makes it without the candle going out, he will save mankind. They rehearsed this shot for 3 days, and on the 4th day they shot it. Tarkovsky told Oleg Jankovsky (the lead actor) "one action can be experienced as if it is your whole life", then told him "we've only got one take". They completed in one take, after which the crew burst out into appaulse. This film is a deeply spirtual film, like all Tarkovsky, and it's one of his most meditative films. A must see for anyone who takes cinema seriously....

Transcendental image-wizardry from the other side of the pool.......2006-07-04

1 + 1 = 1.......2005-07-06

As the camera slowly pans across the interior of a once great Italian stucture, we hear the rain as it seeps through the roof adding to the puddles below. We also notice a sign of sorts on the wall with "1 + 1 = 1" carefully written. It's one of those "What's this all about?" moments of the film, which commonly occur throughout much of Nostalghia. What Tarkovsky is doing is what he does best: muddling accepted reality for something greater and more spiritual.

The Russian interpretation of "nostalghia" is longing for one's homeland. For me, it's longing for the best of one's past. For those of you who have or have lost a beloved dog, this film will touch you all the more, especially during the piazza scene when the German Shepherd seen throughout the film reacts while the detached humans do nothing.

What is this film about? The blurring between dreams and reality, abandonment, the deterioration of society and the deleterious effects of that deterioration to one's spirit, and no doubt much more. We have become a people so consumed with the materialistic stuff heaped around us, that we no longer know what is important because we are too busy maintaining all that is unimportant. We need to heed what Dominico cries out on the piazza: "Life is simple-we must go back to where we were." In that simplicity, lies our spirit; in that simplicity, thrives our spirit. But in the reality we have created as a society--and sadly now as a global intersociety--we cannot go back. There is no going back; we have traded simplicity for complexity, luxury, beautiful bodies, rap music, i-pods, Paris Hilton, and other things of little importance. We have trivialized our spirit to the point that it is a withered vine neglected in some broken clay pot, pushed aside unnoticed behind a collection of DVDs. Domenico says that the "heart's path is covered in shadow." I say it is covered with materialistic crap as well.

But don't get me wrong. This film is also about the beauty of life, and that that beauty is attainable because it is found within ourselves. That's where the search for beauty needs to begin; that's where the journey toward fulfillment needs to start--within ourselves. The black and white scenes of personal reflection in Nostalghia excel in radiating this beauty.

This film is definitely not for all. It's pace at times is slower than our most boring days. But it's that slowness that needs to be experienced and embraced if one is going to fully appreciate the art of this film. And this film is just that, art, and fine art at that.

The Memory of Angels.......2005-03-07

There is much to be said for a film about light, air, time, fire, stone, and ghosts. In this case, the ghost is the past, the longing for what we once had. It is beautifully portrayed in the black and white portions of the film.

Tarkovsky's works are all subtle. He has denied any intent to include or use symbolism in his films. Despite these claims, as viewers, we expect and perhaps require representation in order to find a relation between his films and our own lives.

Each film is crafted into layers: Landscape and visual atmosphere, Texture and light, Subject and object, Framing and alignment, and Aural atmosphere (including non-diegetic poetry). While large papers can be written on any of these aspects, it is important to be conscious of what Tarkovsky has done. While his films do not necessarily require cerebral stimulation, I recommend watching his films several times with varying degrees of attentiveness.

Nostalghia is an important film to me. I was introduced to it in college, and it is one of only a very few motion pictures that I consider a personal treasure. I do not take offense to the ones I love who could care less about this film. If everyone understood and appreciated Tarkovsky, it wouldn't be the art it is today.

Nostalghia is a celestial film, drifting far above any claims of comprehension. This film is deeper and far more complex than many viewers realize. (This could probably be said of any film in general, unfortunately.) The film is "angelic." There are angels throughout this film, both in the form of light, divine intervention, sculpture, and if you look closely, there is even a real one walking, solitary, a stark white contrast to the misty landscape in which she has been immersed.

Have you ever closed your eyes and re-lived those memories that haunt you, only to realize that you see yourself, as if the memory were from someone else? The brilliant Stan Brakhage once claimed this as proof of angels, perhaps your guardian angel; you are seeing that angel's memory of you. This neuro-testament to the mind and its connection to spiritual, or molecular, life, makes up the black & white shot at the very end of Nostalghia.

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