- Born
- Died
- Birth nameAndrei Arsenevich Tarkovsky
- Height5′ 7½″ (1.71 m)
- The most famous Soviet film-maker since Sergei Eisenstein, Andrei Tarkovsky (the son of noted poet Arseniy Tarkovsky) studied music and Arabic in Moscow before enrolling in the Soviet film school VGIK. He shot to international attention with his first feature, Ivan's Childhood (1962), which won the top prize at the Venice Film Festival. This resulted in high expectations for his second feature Andrei Rublev (1966), which was banned by the Soviet authorities for two years. It was shown at the 1969 Cannes Film Festival at four o'clock in the morning on the last day, in order to prevent it from winning a prize - but it won one nonetheless, and was eventually distributed abroad partly to enable the authorities to save face. Solaris (1972), had an easier ride, being acclaimed by many in Europe and North America as the Soviet answer to Kubrick's '2001' (though Tarkovsky himself was never too fond of his own film nor Kubrick's), but he ran into official trouble again with The Mirror (1975), a dense, personal web of autobiographical memories with a radically innovative plot structure. Stalker (1979) had to be completely reshot on a dramatically reduced budget after an accident in the laboratory destroyed the first version, and after Nostalgia (1983), shot in Italy (with official approval), Tarkovsky defected to Europe. His last film, The Sacrifice (1986) was shot in Sweden with many of Ingmar Bergman's regular collaborators, and won an almost unprecedented four prizes at the Cannes Film Festival. He died of lung cancer at the end of the year. Two years later link=Sergei Parajanov dedicated his film Ashik Kerib to Tarkovsky.
- IMDb mini biography by: Michael Brooke <michael@everyman.demon.co.uk>
- SpousesLarisa Tarkovskaya(1970 - December 29, 1986) (his death, 1 child)Irma Tarkovskaya(April 1957 - June 1970) (divorced, 1 child)
- ChildrenAleksandr TarkovskyArseniy Tarkovskiy Jr.
- Parents
- RelativesAlexandr Tarkovsky(Grandparent)Maria Rachkovskaya(Grandparent)Marina Tarkovskaya(Sibling)Mikhail Tarkovsky(Niece or Nephew)
- Long takes
- Dripping water
- Wind
- Lack of conventional dramatic structure
- Spirituality and metaphysical themes
- He said that children understood his films better than adults.
- He was an admirer of the films of Akira Kurosawa and Ingmar Bergman. Both older filmmakers later praised Tarkovsky's own films.
- Ingmar Bergman hailed him as "the most important director of all time".
- Tarkovsky, his wife Larisa Tarkovskaya and his long time collaborator Anatoliy Solonitsyn all died from the very same type of lung cancer, which they likely got from working in an area polluted by a nearby chemical plant in Estonia while filming of Stalker (1979).
- Wrote the Book 'Sculpting in Time'. In it he explains and discusses his views on cinema, cinema as an art, his own films and the use of poetry in his films.
- My purpose is to make films that will help people to live, even if they sometimes cause unhappiness.
- Always with huge gratitude and pleasure I remember the films of Sergei Parajanov which I love very much. His way of thinking, his paradoxical, poetical . . . ability to love the beauty and the ability to be absolutely free within his own vision.
- An artist never works under ideal conditions. If they existed, his work wouldn't exist, for the artist doesn't live in a vacuum. Some sort of pressure must exist. The artist exists because the world is not perfect. Art would be useless if the world were perfect, as man wouldn't look for harmony but would simply live in it. Art is born out of an ill-designed world. This is the issue in Andrei Rublev (1966).
- [on directing] No "mise en scène" has the right to be repeated, just as no two personalities are ever the same. As soon as a "mise en scène" turns into a sign, a cliché, a concept (however original it may be), then the whole thing - characters, situation, psychology - become schematic and false.
- The only condition of fighting for the right to create is faith in your own vocation, readiness to serve, and refusal to compromise.
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