Mirror

Mirror (1975) is made out of what a dying man remembers. There is no chronological story; a country house before the war, the years of evacuation, a printing house, a fire, archive footage and dreams follow one another. It is not about what happened but about how remembering works. The film comes directly from Tarkovsky's life. The evacuation from Moscow, his father's absence and later return, his mother working as a proofreader at a printing house are all real. His sister Marina explained why it carries this title: he had understood that he had followed in the footsteps of the father who divorced their mother. His father Arseny Tarkovsky was a well known poet and reads his own poems in his own voice on the soundtrack. The casting continues the same idea. Margarita Terekhova plays both the young mother and the narrator's ex-wife; the two women share a face. The elderly mother is played by Tarkovsky's actual mother, Maria Vishnyakova. The Soviet authorities accepted it reluctantly. Filipp Ermash, head of Goskino, rejected it in 1974 as incomprehensible; it was approved without changes later the same year. But many Soviet filmmakers declared it inadmissibly elitist and the release was held to a minimum: only 73 prints were distributed. It runs 107 minutes. Good for: Tarkovsky, cinema about memory, and poetry. Less good for: there is no plot and nobody is identified. No transition is made between archive footage and staged scenes. Following it on a first viewing is close to impossible, and that is deliberate.