Tarkovsky’s last film, from 1986, rereleased for the 75th anniversary of his birth, is brilliant and audacious
Andrei Tarkovsky’s final film from 1986, re-released for the 75th anniversary of his birth, looks to me quite different twenty years on. It is brilliant and audacious, with one of the most extraordinary final sequences in modern cinema, and all in a manner which Hollywood in the succeeding decade would learn to call “high concept”. But it is more complex and ambiguous than it appeared at the time: its tragic meaning has darkened and clotted with time.
The setting is a Bergmanesque summer house in Sweden, in which Bergman’s own repertory player Erland Josephson plays Alexander, a retired actor and author of great distinction, who is about to celebrate a sombre and faintly melancholy birthday in the company of his beautiful English-born wife Adelaide, played by Susan Fleetwood, along with children, servants, friends and locals. A radio announcement warns of an imminent nuclear apocalypse, and that night Alexander begs God to spare the world and in return he will destroy his family and everything he holds dear. The next morning everything has returned to normal, and it is apparently now up to Alexander to fulfil his side of the bargain with God.
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Tarkovsky’s last film, from 1986, rereleased for the 75th anniversary of his birth, is brilliant and audaciousAndrei Tarkovsky’s final film from 1986, re-released for the 75th anniversary of his birth, looks to me qui...
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