Saturday, March 2, 2013

Tarkovsky films - free online


Andrei Tarkovsky - Stalker, 1979

OPEN CULTURE positions itself as the best free cultural and educational media on the web. And it looks like this might be true. Apart from anything else they offer around 500 movies free - classics, indies, noir... and that's got to be good. If you're a Tarkovsky fan, even better.

Andrei Tarkovsky (1932-1986) firmly positioned himself as the finest Soviet director of the post-War period. But his influence extended well beyond the Soviet Union.  The Cahiers du cinéma consistently ranked his films on their top ten annual lists. Ingmar Bergman went so far as to say, “Tarkovsky for me is the greatest [director], the one who invented a new language, true to the nature of film, as it captures life as a reflection, life as a dream.” And Akira Kurosawa acknowledged his influence too, adding, “I love all of Tarkovsky’s films. I love his personality and all his works. Every cut from his films is a marvelous image in itself.”
Shot between 1962 and 1986, Tarkovsky’s seven feature films often grapple with metaphysical and spiritual themes, using a distinctive cinematic style. Long takes, slow pacing and metaphorical imagery – they all figure into the archetypical Tarkovsky film.
Each of Tarkovsky's films is listed in Open Culture's collection of Free Online Movies.
Well worth a look!

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