Mirror

I must admit, I'm not much of a fan of Tarkovsky's works. While his films are riddled with philosophical elements and are rich in poetry, I find that most of them just aren't really my thing, but there is one film of his that I find myself returning to every now and then, and that film is his 1975 film Mirror. This is a film that seems heavily reflective, one that gives the perspective of someone that has an incredibly observant, emotional perspective on life. It's one that looks at a lifetime of change within a nation, as a man reaches his final days, laying on his deathbed with nothing left but the memories he holds. And in such a state, the mind roams. An exploration of a lifetime, what it all meant, the beauty and fragility of this odd thing we call life. While this isn't anything really out of the ordinary for a film from Tarkovsky, it is one that I feel manages to really get the message across in this instance. Void of the usual problems a Tarkovsky film tends to face upon the majority demographics: films a little too long, a little too slow and confusing. Don't get me wrong, this is still a film that certainly won't land with all that stumble across it. It's the sort of film that leaves you with questions, and if you got it right, those are questions about yourself. Your own mortality, your own experiences and little moments in life that you hold so dearly to your heart. It has the question of what would you see if you laid there on your deathbed? Which images would return to you? The moments of wind passing through tall grass. The slow, rainy days in which you linger throughout the house. The little objects of your childhood that hold influence to this day.

With the narrative Mirror holds, it is a film that really feels like a fever dream. A combination of memories and moments of life that are thrown together. It's a film that is beautifully shot with a variety of formats that heighten the experience and what Tarkovsky wants to say. Films like these are a bit of a rarity, with stories that don't really feel like stories, void of the typical filmmaking narrative structure that holds a beginning and an end. I think this is what makes it so appealing to me, we dive into a story that just remains in constant motion, albeit in a more dreamlike state that has us roaming through time and witnessing moments of life go by. Even catching glimpses of moments of historical importance for the nation. The development and changes of society that are matched with the stillness of how life often feels. That odd feeling of growth as the chaos of a lifetime sees such changes, from war to scientific pursuit, to the little days of regular village life. And this is a Tarkovsky film that isn't too long, but also doesn't feel like it's draining the life from your body with every passing second, something I feel happens more often with his other films, tending to, let's be honest, be a bit more boring. Anyway, that's enough for a bit of an introduction on Mirror. I don't want to do the writing side of Tarkovsky's usual style and send you all to sleep before things have even actually started!

Tarkovsky is known for using a wide range of formats when it comes to directing his films. He'll primarily use colour film for the duration of his stories, but make interesting decisions to switch to sepia or black and white in parts. This mixture of film stocks is quite a unique trait to his name, and I can't say I really have seen a lot of films from different countries that have pursued a similar artistic direction. Perhaps very few of the Hong Kong New Wave era of Asian cinema, the Wong Kar-wai films that would rarely switch to black and white from colour. But not to the same degree that Tarkovsky relies on something as gloomy and nightmarish as sepia. A stock that removes so much of the life from the scene and replaces it with a rustic, miserable aesthetic. You can see why so few would choose to shoot sepia, after all it doesn't exactly offer a comfortable atmosphere. But there's something to be said about that, isn't there? The idea that sepia making things look old and decayed (particularly with the intense film grain of 8mm and 16mm film, even 35mm) can reflect a person's mental image. Their inability to be nostalgic over a certain period or environment. To emphasise the idea of sadness of poverty, for example. This is something I enjoy about Tarkovsky, and this addition has you thinking as these changes take place within the narratives. Black and white holding a similar feeling, a sense of nostalgia, a more dated era in the past, a time long gone. Colour being the most vibrant and memorable of events. Those periods that are always easy to remember and enjoy.

Mirror is a bit of all of this. A mumbled grouping of memories from a protagonist we never see. A man that lays on his deathbed, his life over. And in such final moments all he can do is reminisce. To look back at the good, and the bad. To try to make sense of it al. Was there a meaning to any of these moments? Was his life something good? Did it serve a purpose? Does any life serve a purpose in the grand scale of things? Existentialism is a common theme in Tarkovsy's works, and it comes as no surprise during an era rich in scientific pursuits juxtaposed with the Soviet Union's universal agenda for its Socialist Republics. The elimination of culture and identity with the intent to promote one ideology. In an era where religion is limited, and philosophy high, there is plenty of room for individuals to try to comprehend and think of what it all means. Mirror uses stock footage of the Soviet Union throughout, moments of its achievements and its hardships. Times where people came together regardless of that identity, and how soon after those questions simply arose again. World War 2 being a pivotal era for the Soviets, their intense struggle to maintain their power, the development of the sciences to create stronger weapons while the men came together as one. That narration that plays over it, speaking of the lack of mortality in battle. The idea that if you survive war, you cannot be killed spiritually. That you could transcend from it and escape the mind and its torment.

And narration is everything in Mirror, as well as many of Tarkovsky's works. The reading of literature, poetry in particular is a common theme. Almost to bypass the Soviet Unions censors and speak to us in a cryptic, specific tone that only those who really pay attention can understand. That it takes exploring those aspects of literature to really read between the lines. Almost as if he's telling us to stop, go and find those works, to really know how he feels and what he thinks. This works alongside those slow camera movements, a traversing through environments of different times. Old villages with low lighting, the rainy, muddy streets of old towns. The simple tasks one performs with a simple life, just to get by. Those philosophical ideas that work so well with just scenes of the most regular activities that we can all relate to. This is what pulls me back to Mirror time after time. The beauty of life itself. And the inevitable result of death. A sadness in the misery of what life can be, but also a bitterweet reaction to that in that sadness of life is beauty. The same argument for death. To reach that point in our lives where we realise all must end. To look through life, and even after it. We all search for something, and those questions we hold may never be answered. Again, that's where the beauty of it all remains.

That is Mirror. And with no intended pun, it remains a reflection of time.