Tarkovsky's Watchlist
The films which Tarkovsky deemed necessary to watch and obliged his students to do so
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- DirectorLuis BuñuelStarsPierre BatcheffSimone MareuilLuis BuñuelLuis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí present 16 minutes of bizarre, surreal imagery.Clearly, a cinematography experimenting with two outstanding artist on board. It tries to talk with concepts, not the story - and shock.
IMHO: didn't recieve much from it; I think it lacks just a shadow of a structure may be
After three years, only can add that artists started to talk more with the form rather than with contents - that's what this film - whose creators were born almost exactly when the cinema was - is trying to do. - DirectorLuis BuñuelStarsGaston ModotLya LysCaridad de LaberdesqueA surrealist tale of a man and a woman who are passionately in love with each other, but their attempts to consummate that passion are constantly thwarted by their families, the Church, and bourgeois society.
- DirectorLuis BuñuelStarsAlfonso MejíaRoberto CoboEstela IndaA group of juvenile delinquents live a violent and crime-filled life in the festering slums of Mexico City, as the morals of young Pedro are gradually corrupted and destroyed by the others.A wholesome story about times of turmoil meaning to evoke compassion and produce a kind of understanding. But don't look at it like something outlandish - that would be the greatest mistake.
- DirectorLuis BuñuelStarsSilvia PinalFrancisco RabalFernando ReyViridiana, a young nun about to take her final vows, pays a visit to her widowed uncle at the request of her Mother Superior.
- DirectorLuis BuñuelStarsSilvia PinalJacqueline AndereEnrique RambalThe guests at an upper-class dinner party find themselves unable to leave.
- DirectorLuis BuñuelStarsCatherine DeneuveJean SorelMichel PiccoliA frigid young housewife decides to spend her midweek afternoons as a prostitute.
- DirectorLuis BuñuelStarsAbel JacquinAlexandre O'NeillA surrealist film, a pseudo-documentary portrait of Las Hurdes, a remote region of Spain where civilisation has barely developed, showing how the local peasants try to survive without even the most basic utilities and skills.
- DirectorLuis BuñuelStarsJeanne MoreauGeorges GéretMichel PiccoliA sophisticated and self-assured woman from Paris joins a middle-class rural estate as a maid and causes quite a stir among the variously uptight, perverse and violent inhabitants.
- DirectorRobert BressonStarsClaude LayduNicole LadmiralJean RiveyreA young priest taking over the parish at Ambricourt tries to fulfill his duties even as he fights a mysterious stomach ailment.A somewhat pinacle of Bresson's and those time's French one man drama
- DirectorRobert BressonStarsMartin LaSalleMarika GreenJean PélégriMichel passes the time by picking pockets, careful to never be caught despite being watched by the police. His friend Jacques may suspect, while both men may have their eyes on Jeanne, the pretty neighbor of Michel's ailing mother.A story of possession, of instincts and unconsciousness, about motives and reasons sometimes unneeded.
- DirectorRobert BressonStarsFrançois LeterrierCharles Le ClaincheMaurice BeerblockA captured French Resistance fighter during World War II engineers a daunting escape from a German prison in France.The man is free, even if for sometime or even only in his mind. Where lies the true freedom?
- DirectorRobert BressonStarsFlorence DelayJean-Claude FourneauRoger HonoratA Joan of Arc's trial reconstruction concerning her imprisonment, interrogation and final execution at the hands of the English. Filmed in a spare, low-key fashion.
- DirectorRobert BressonStarsAnne WiazemskyWalter GreenFrançois LafargeThe story of a mistreated donkey and the people around him. A study on saintliness and a sister piece to Bresson's Mouchette.
- DirectorRobert BressonStarsNadine NortierJean-Claude GuilbertMarie CardinalA young girl living in the French countryside suffers constant indignities at the hand of alcoholism and her fellow man.
- DirectorRobert BressonStarsDominique SandaGuy FranginJeanne LobreA young woman kills herself, leaving no explanation to her grief-stricken pawnbroker husband. We learn in flashback about how they met, married, and how she failed to adapt her lifestyle to his. Disgusted with his attempts to dominate her, she considered murdering him, but found herself unable to do it.
- DirectorRobert BressonStarsAntoine MonnierTina IrissariHenri de MaublancCharles drifts through politics, religion and psychoanalysis, rejecting them all. Once he realises the depth of his disgust with the moral and physical decline of the society he lives in, he decides that suicide is the only option...
- DirectorIngmar BergmanStarsHarriet AnderssonLars EkborgDagmar EbbesenA pair of teenagers meet one summer day, start a reckless affair and abandon their families to be with one another.
- DirectorIngmar BergmanStarsÅke GrönbergHarriet AnderssonHasse EkmanThe complicated relationships between a circus ringmaster, his estranged wife and his lover.
- DirectorIngmar BergmanStarsMax von SydowGunnar BjörnstrandBengt EkerotA knight returning to Sweden after the Crusades seeks answers about life, death, and the existence of God as he plays chess against the Grim Reaper during the Black Plague.A horrible reflection of our present existence in a form of a long forgotten story. This is Dante's Inferno or Faust (to each his own) of Bergman
- DirectorIngmar BergmanStarsVictor SjöströmBibi AnderssonIngrid ThulinAfter living a life marked by coldness, an aging professor is forced to confront the emptiness of his existence.A story of a man's life from a present to the past as it was just yesterday.
IMHO: my first experience with Bergman and it was unexpectedly good. Film uses great script and visual effects to engulf you in a story and make it seep into you - DirectorIngmar BergmanStarsMax von SydowBirgitta ValbergGunnel LindblomIn 14th-century Sweden, an innocent yet pampered teenage girl and her family's pregnant and jealous servant set out from their farm to deliver candles to church, but only one returns from events that transpire in the woods along the way.
- DirectorIngmar BergmanStarsJarl KulleBibi AnderssonStig JärrelDon Juan is sent from Hell to Earth with a mission - to seduce a virgin in order to spoil her pure wedding. The mission becomes crazy when Don Juan falls in love for the first time in centuries.
- DirectorIngmar BergmanStarsLiv UllmannErland JosephsonAino TaubeTwo psychiatrists have their marriage tested when one suffers a mental breakdown.
- DirectorIngmar BergmanStarsIngrid ThulinGunnar BjörnstrandGunnel LindblomA small-town priest struggles with his faith.
- DirectorIngmar BergmanStarsIngrid ThulinGunnel LindblomBirger MalmstenTwo estranged sisters, Ester and Anna, and Anna's 10-year-old son travel to the Central European country on the verge of war. Ester becomes seriously ill and the three of them move into a hotel in a small town called Timoka.
- DirectorIngmar BergmanStarsBibi AnderssonLiv UllmannMargaretha KrookA nurse is put in charge of a mute actress and finds that their personae are melding together.(Deep) psychological phenomena. I found it essential to look inside of you rather than "understanding' the film to make something usefull of it. Like many of great works, this is a mere instrument of exploration.
- DirectorIngmar BergmanStarsLiv UllmannMax von SydowSigge FürstIn the midst of a civil war, former violinists Jan and Eva Rosenberg, who have a tempestuous marriage, run a farm on a rural island. In spite of their best efforts to escape their homeland, the war impinges on every aspect of their lives.
- DirectorIngmar BergmanStarsLiv UllmannBibi AnderssonMax von SydowA recently divorced man meets an emotionally devastated widow and they begin a love affair.
- DirectorIngmar BergmanStarsHarriet AnderssonLiv UllmannKari SylwanWhen a woman dying of cancer in early twentieth-century Sweden is visited by her two sisters, long-repressed feelings between the siblings rise to the surface.Bergman does love women or rather see and show them suffering in their own way - something I could never fully experience. I guess, it's just a useful glimpse for me.
- DirectorIngmar BergmanStarsMax von SydowLiv UllmannGertrud FridhWhile vacationing on a remote German island with his younger pregnant wife, an artist has an emotional breakdown while confronting his repressed desires.
- StarsLiv UllmannErland JosephsonBibi AnderssonTen years within the marriage of Marianne and Johan.
- DirectorIngmar BergmanStarsLiv UllmannDavid CarradineGert FröbeBerlin, 1923. Following the suicide of his brother, American circus acrobat Abel Rosenberg attempts to survive while facing unemployment, depression, alcoholism and the social decay of Germany during the Weimar Republic.
- DirectorPier Paolo PasoliniStarsFranco CittiFranca PasutSilvana CorsiniA pimp with no other means to provide for himself finds his life spiraling out of control when his prostitute is sent to prison.
- DirectorPier Paolo PasoliniStarsEnrique IrazoquiMargherita CarusoSusanna PasoliniThe life of Jesus Christ according to the Gospel of Matthew. Pasolini shows Christ as a Marxist avant-la-lettre and therefore uses half of the text of Matthew.
- DirectorFederico FelliniStarsAnthony QuinnGiulietta MasinaRichard BasehartA care-free girl is sold to a traveling entertainer, consequently enduring physical and emotional pain along the way.
- DirectorFederico FelliniStarsMarcello MastroianniAnouk AiméeClaudia CardinaleA harried movie director retreats into his memories and fantasies.The title is a number of movies that Fellini had already shot to that day. And the film itself is a journey into routines and mind of a movie director who was up to make a film but, unfortunately, forgot what it was about (or did he?)
IMHO: Yes, YES!!! - DirectorFederico FelliniStarsMartin PotterHiram KellerMax BornA series of disjointed mythical tales set in first-century Rome.
- DirectorFederico FelliniStarsMagali NoëlBruno ZaninPupella MaggioA series of comedic and nostalgic vignettes set in a 1930s Italian coastal town.
- DirectorFederico FelliniStarsRiccardo BilliGigi RederTino ScottiA ragout of real memories and mockumentary, as Fellini explores a childhood obsession: circus clowns.Though you might be struggling to watch it for sometime, this movie really puts a layer upon layer of meaning making a clowns of professional clowns, of film crew present and finally of audience. It's going from documentary on clowns to a feature film about documentary on clowns and back again to a documentary film on the very nature of our emotions.
IMHO: I was familiar enough with Fillini's to catch on that he had put a lot of his soul in films which do noy seem to have such importance as we might guess. - DirectorFederico FelliniStarsGiulietta MasinaSandra MiloMario PisuVisions, memories, and mysticism all help a 40-something woman to find the strength to leave her cheating husband.
- DirectorFederico FelliniStarsDonald SutherlandTina AumontCicely BrowneGiacomo Casanova uses his sexuality to find his place in life amid eccentric and strange characters.Consider by the director as a masterpiece, but it failed critically and financially.
IMHO: some very good decisions were taken in the process of filming, but I didn't really get what was the problem of the movie that led to (total) failure and oblivion - DirectorAlain ResnaisStarsEmmanuelle RivaEiji OkadaStella DassasA French actress filming an anti-war film in Hiroshima has an affair with a married Japanese architect as they share their differing perspectives on war.A very thoughtful movie for an audience that have something to think about. I understand that it should provoke you to an inner monologue rather than to follow a story. A great movie to watch a second time when you are already familiar with it's pace.
- DirectorAlain ResnaisStarsClaude RichOlga Georges-PicotAnouk FerjacAfter attempting suicide, Claude is recruited for a time travel experiment, but, when the machine goes haywire, he may be trapped hurtling through his memories.
- DirectorKenji MizoguchiStarsMasayuki MoriMachiko KyôKinuyo TanakaA tale of ambition, family, love, and war set in the midst of the Japanese Civil Wars of the sixteenth century.The great and old tale of Japanese culture. It's augmented with some other plotlines but only feels denser in a good way.
IMHO: Never expected something like this from such a country in such a period of time. Truly a gigantic genius work. - DirectorKenji MizoguchiStarsKinuyo TanakaYoshiaki HanayagiKyôko KagawaIn medieval Japan, a compassionate governor is sent into exile. His wife and children try to join him, but are separated, and the children grow up amid suffering and oppression.
- DirectorHiroshi TeshigaharaStarsEiji OkadaKyôko KishidaKôji MitsuiAn entomologist on vacation is trapped by local villagers into living with a woman whose life task is shoveling sand for them.The film is basically a high concept movie right of the bat. But some movies do not just rely on premise without exploring in depth and width.
IMHO: the theme of water as the most precious substance I think is leit-motiv of Tarkovsky's cinema and this movie has some kind of conflict at exactly that theme - DirectorJean RenoirStarsJean GabinDita ParloPierre FresnayDuring WWI, two French soldiers are captured and imprisoned in a German P.O.W. camp. Several escape attempts follow until they are eventually sent to a seemingly inescapable fortress.
- DirectorJean RenoirStarsMarcel DalioNora GregorPaulette DubostA bourgeois life in France at the onset of World War II, as the rich and their poor servants meet up at a French chateau.
- DirectorJean-Luc GodardStarsJean-Paul BelmondoJean SebergVan DoudeA small-time crook, hunted by the authorities for a car theft and the murder a police officer, attempts to persuade a hip American journalism student to run away with him to Italy.
- DirectorJean-Luc GodardStarsAnna KarinaMichel SuborHenri-Jacques HuetDuring the Algerian War, a man and woman from opposing sides fall in love with one another.
- DirectorCarl Theodor DreyerStarsMaria FalconettiEugene SilvainAndré BerleyIn 1431, Jeanne d'Arc is placed on trial on charges of heresy. The ecclesiastical jurists attempt to force Jeanne to recant her claims of holy visions.
- DirectorCarl Theodor DreyerStarsJulian WestMaurice SchutzRena MandelA drifter obsessed with the supernatural stumbles upon an inn where a severely ill adolescent girl is slowly becoming a vampire.There is not a soul that doesn't know this genre. Lovecraftian is lashing out of every frame of this film and it's surely is a good translation of Howard P. works on to a screen. Very delicate work. Please remember not to see it as something typical.
- DirectorMichelangelo AntonioniStarsGabriele FerzettiMonica VittiLea MassariA woman disappears during a Mediterranean boating trip. During the search, her lover and her best friend become attracted to each other.
- DirectorMichelangelo AntonioniStarsJeanne MoreauMarcello MastroianniMonica VittiA day in the life of an unfaithful married couple and their steadily deteriorating relationship.
- DirectorMichelangelo AntonioniStarsMonica VittiAlain DelonFrancisco RabalA young woman meets a vital young man, but their love affair is doomed because of the man's materialistic nature.
- DirectorMichelangelo AntonioniStarsGiuseppe RinaldiA documentary on China, concentrating mainly on the faces of the people, filmed in the areas they were allowed to visit. The 220-minute version consists of three parts. The first part, taken around Beijing, includes a cotton factory, older sections of the city, and a clinic where a Caesarean operation is performed using acupuncture. The middle part visits the Red Flag canal and a collective farm in Henan, as well as the old city of Suzhou. The final part shows the port and industries of Shanghai and ends with a stage presentation by Chinese acrobats.I have my guesses why this movie is in soviet director's list but it's not something trivial anyway. A very long look divided into three parts on the ways of life in China. More than just a documentary in my opinion. It just built different.
- DirectorAkira KurosawaStarsToshirô MifuneMachiko KyôMasayuki MoriThe rape of a bride and the murder of her samurai husband are recalled from the perspectives of a bandit, the bride, the samurai's ghost and a woodcutter.Never there was a way for me to try and describe Kurosawa's movie in a short sentence. The only thing I could do is to recommend. Watch every Kurosawa's film that you can put your hands on
- DirectorAkira KurosawaStarsToshirô MifuneTakashi ShimuraKeiko TsushimaFarmers from a village exploited by bandits hire a veteran samurai for protection, who gathers six other samurai to join him.Gigantic work of praised director. This movie put him where he is. I could say that it's got more attention than it's needed but I couldn't agree more with that this film is groundbreaking. In a sense, it didn't create anything new but it used so many utilities exclusive to movie storytelling that in only this aspect it's already a legend.
IMHO: Ran (1985) I liked better. - DirectorAkira KurosawaStarsTakashi ShimuraNobuo KanekoShin'ichi HimoriA bureaucrat tries to find meaning in his life after he discovers he has terminal cancer.We never stop to think and dream of death and love, of what we leave behind.
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsAnthony PerkinsJanet LeighVera MilesA Phoenix secretary embezzles $40,000 from her employer's client, goes on the run and checks into a remote motel run by a young man under the domination of his mother.
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsRod TaylorTippi HedrenJessica TandyA wealthy San Francisco socialite pursues a potential boyfriend to a small Northern California town that slowly takes a turn for the bizarre when birds of all kinds suddenly begin to attack people.We don't need a reason to be afraid of something. It's just more scary when it's something mundane and it wants to kill you.
- DirectorAleksandr DovzhenkoStarsStepan ShkuratSemyon SvashenkoYuliya SolntsevaIn the peaceful countryside, Vassily opposes the rich kulaks over the coming of collective farming.A soviet movie that was destined to be not forgotten and we see it and hear about it everytime we touch a topics on "Old cinema" or "Soviet cinema".
IMHO: As a Russian myself I always feel proudness when I comprehend how big of an impact films of my fellow countrymen had done to a world cinema. But personally I find this film less appealing then (some) works of Eisenstein or later directors - DirectorSergei ParajanovStarsSofiko ChiaureliMelkon AlekyanVilen GalstyanThe life of the Armenian poet Sayat-Nova, from childhood to death: his spiritual journey, artistic endeavors, and inner conflicts within the cultural and historical context of Armenia. Hailed as revolutionary by Mikhail Vartanov.
- DirectorFridrikh ErmlerStarsPyotr AleynikovMariya Blyumental-TamarinaNikolay BogolyubovThe struggle of farmers against the "kulaks" on collective farms. The ruthlessness of capitalism is central, in a world where cruelty wins over solidarity. Communitarianism might be the answer to all these abuses.
- DirectorOtar IosselianiStarsNana IoselianiTamar GabarashviliMikhail NaneishviliMembers of a music band spending summer in the countryside watch the petty dramas play out among the local folks and among themselves.A touching work.
- DirectorJean VigoStarsDita ParloJean DastéGilles MargaritisNewly married couple Juliette and a ship captain Jean struggle through marriage as they travel on the L'atalante along with the captain's first mate Le père Jules and a cabin boy.A glimpse into Jean Vigo's special vision. Not to be indiscrete to other contemporary artists but this movie is always looks like it belongs somewhere 20-30 years later.
- DirectorJean VigoStarsJean DastéRobert le FlonLouis LefebvreIn a repressive boarding school with rigid rules of behavior, four boys decide to rebel against the direction on a celebration day.
- DirectorJacques BeckerStarsAndré BervilJean KeraudyMichel ConstantinDistrust and uncertainty arise when four long-term inmates cautiously induct a new prisoner into their elaborate prison-break scheme.No comments.
I would say that it is a great emotional rollercoaster was it not a dead horse beaten. - DirectorMikhail KalatozovStory of distant mountainous region in Georgia that depicts folklore, lifestyle and daily routines of Svani people, focuses on the scarcity of salt in Svaneti region. Rich with documentary value, the movie also served for Soviet propaganda.Sometimes I think that we understand early soviet directors differently though it's not it: it's just now we cherish the authenticity of old secluded villages but back then people were trying to make it a gigantic conveyer of production.
The continuity as it is: Svanetia, people, explosions. - DirectorMannus FrankenJoris IvensRegen is an experimental documentary film directed by Joris Ivens in 1929. It can be defined as a cinematic-poem. In 2021 Breve Storia Del Cinema restored the film with a new score composed by Nikolas Labrinakos.
- DirectorJean CocteauStarsJean MaraisFrançois PérierMaría CasaresA poet in love with Death follows his unhappy wife into the underworld.A film of a ancient greek mythology plot of love and sadness. Not as boring as it sounds.
IMHO: Shows how good we were at interpretations even when our hands touched cameras. Very interesting and well done effects that shows abnormality. It perfectly works even today. - DirectorJean CocteauStarsJean CocteauFrançoise ArnoulClaudine AugerThe Poet looks back over his life and work, recalling his inspirations and obsessions.
- DirectorJean CocteauStarsEnrique RiveroElizabeth Lee MillerPauline CartonTold in four episodes - an unnamed artist is transported through a mirror into another dimension, where he travels through various bizarre scenarios.
- DirectorJohn GriersonA silent documentary film by John Grierson telling the story of Britain's North Sea herring fishery.
- DirectorEdgar AnsteyJohn GriersonDocumentary about the fishing trawler, "Isabella Grieg". We follow her from her base in Granton Harbour, in Edinburgh, right up the east coast of Edinburgh, up to the fishing grounds between Shetland and Norway.
- DirectorRobert J. FlahertyStarsAllakariallakAlice NevalingaCunayouIn this silent predecessor to the modern documentary, film-maker Robert J. Flaherty spends one year following the lives of Nanook and his family, Inuits living in the Arctic Circle.The documantality of it is not really the point. And I strongly believe that it shouldn't be. If we are still so eager to prove every little fact about everything, leave this film alone in terms of authenticity and walk past.