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Stalker
Have to admit i was a bit disheartened when this was the only Tarkovsky, purely because i've already seen it though. I would bump this up quite a bit on rewatch but not quite into all-time favourite territory, just outside (no pun). Thing is it does bore me at times and i think that's the case for even some who love it, i've heard it referred to as the "best boring film" before, similar to 2001. It's not constant or i'd hate the film, there's just some parts i struggle to care during. I honestly think it could be sort of intentional, it's a long arduous journey making the viewer struggle along makes sense. Anyway, just like the first time i was glad i saw it by the end, it's extremely well done.
My favourite scene is easily when they first enter The Zone, it feels like a magic trick. How for a bit it's one of the most beautiful things i've ever seen (even on rewatch when i was expecting it) before my eyes/mind adjusts and i realize it's not that special, it's just that i'm seeing bright colours and wildlife for the first time, i feel like a blind man regaining his sight before the initial wonder is over and i realize "oh yeah, the world is sht"
The most impressive thing about it is how he created such a hellish dystopian world outside the zone far beyond what i normally imagine when reading dystopian literature that anything would be like paradise in comparison, feel like that world is what my mind wants to imagine but i'm just not depressed enough to conjure up those types of images. The reactions to and characteristics of the two are deliberately wrong and jarring too which is so unsettling. Outside the zone is intensely ugly/grim in appearance and exiting it is the one time they are definitely in danger of dying (not including The Professor, i more mean by things/people outside the group), while they obviously aren't calm this is the easy part of the journey. The Zone is mostly normal looking (in comparison and on the outside of course) and the danger is only possibly there yet it's where they start truly cracking. Even if you don't consider what it's about those contradictions are distressing. Maybe others don't feel the same. Was thinking about it for ages the first time i thought about it, what it reminds me of was when i was very young and first got introduced to the concept of stranger danger. Like, being told if i'm lost or something to not just go with any adult and trust them completely as they could be bad people. That shook me to my core at that age, up to that point adults were automatically good, wise people who were concerned for my safety obviously because the only adults i knew were family, family friends and teachers. Sorta think it's a similar feeling i get with the zone where it initially looks like a much more desirable location then suddenly it isn't at all. And it's not just a stylistic thing it of course goes with the story/themes, and it works especially well with the Wizard of Oz comparisons i've heard before. Just like Dorothy after the initial wonder of the Colourful world of Oz fades all she wants is to return to B&W Kansas, these dudes never go all the way and actually enter The Room instead returning to Morbidsville where they belong. The end, various conversation scenes and the whole action scene dash to get into The Zone at the beginning are awesome too, but i think this works much more as a whole, the thoughts and weird feelings it leaves me with are absolutely its strength.Anyway, not going to go into anything i think about the film, if some discussion starts and i'll happily join in. I do think this film is complex (simple if you think about it, but a lot of ways to read it) and i weirdly think that's a detriment, because it is sorta overdiscussed. Doubt much we talk about here will be new to me, not the films fault it's just an interesting film to talk about so it gets talked about a lot.
and there's no subs. They must have been soft coded. So I grab a .srt file and combine them and play the movie but the dialogue and subs were way off by a couple seconds. It was so goofy that way. But I did find a web site that allows one to tweak the timing of a sub text file, so I'll give that a go and then I'll have one nom under my belt.
I just assumed you were talking about the wife, definitely know what you are talking about with the friend and agree, although i'd say it worked well that we didn't see her much (at all?) after the affair was revealed as it piled outside disgust onto the families misery.