Stalker: A Film by Andrei Tarkovsky [2 Discs]

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky's Stalker, an allegorical science fiction film like his earlier Solaris, was adapted from the novel Picnic by the Roadside by brothers Boris Strugatsky and Arkady Strugatsky. The film follows three men -- the Scientist (Nikolai Grinko), the Writer (Anatoliy Solonitsyn), and the Stalker (Alexander Kaidanovsky) -- as they travel through a mysterious and forbidden territory in the Russian wilderness called the "Zone." In the Zone, nothing is what it seems. Objects change places, the landscape shifts and rearranges itself. It seems as if an unknown intelligence is actively thwarting any attempt to penetrate its borders. In the Zone, there is said to be a bunker, and in the bunker: a magical room which has the power to make wishes come true. The Stalker is the hired guide for the journey who has, through repeated visits to the Zone, become accustomed to its complex traps, pitfalls, and subtle distortions. Only by following his lead (which often involves taking the longest, most frustrating route) can the Writer and the Scientist make it alive to the bunker and the room. As the men travel farther into the Zone, they realize it may take something more than just determination to succeed: it may actually take faith. Increasingly unsure of their deepest desires, they confront the room wondering if they can, in the end, take responsibility for the fulfillment of their own wishes. ~ Anthony Reed, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Number of Discs: 2
• Audio: Dolby Digital Mono
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 (Pre-1954 Standard)
• Subtitle: Eng/Fre/Spa
• Features:
  • Video interviews: composer Eduard Artemyev, cameraman Aleksandr Knyazhinsky, set decorator Rashit Safiullin
  • Excerpt from "The Steamroller and the Violing" (1960 5 min.): Andrei Tarkovsky's diploma film at the Soviet film school VGIK
  • "Memory" (1997, 5 min., directed by Serghei Minenok): a short film about Tarkovsky's home
  • Cast & crew biographies/
  • filmographies
  • Photo album
  • Languages: spoken: original Russian, English dubbed, French dubbed
  • Optional subtitles: English, French and Spanish

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Cast:

  
       Alexander Kaidanovsky - Stalker
       Anatoli Solonitsin - Writer
       Nikolai Grinko - Scientist
       Alisa Freyndlikh - Stalker's Wife
       Natasha Abramova
       F. Yurma
       E. Kostin
       R. Rendi

• Director:

  Andrei Tarkovsky

• Producer:

  Alexandra Demidova

• Book Author:

  Arkady Strugatsky

• Screenwriter:

  Boris Strugatsky, Andrei Tarkovsky, Arkady Strugatsky

• Book Author:

  Boris Strugatsky

• Cinematographer:

  Alexander Knyazhinsky

• Composer (Music Score):

  Eduard Artemyev

• Production Designer:

  Andrei Tarkovsky

• First Assistant Director:

  Larisa Tarkovskaya

• Conductor:

  Emin Khachaturyan

REVIEW:

• Structured like a winding religious pilgrimage, Stalker moves cautiously and slowly through its paces as the three men move closer toward the metaphorical Holy Center at the heart of the Zone. Telephone poles jutting out of the ground like crosses, religious icons beneath muddy rivers strewn with bullet shells, a miraculous, artificial desert in an underground room -- Tarkovsky's powerful, orthodox images and grimy, industrial settings present a deeply felt religious sentiment stirring beneath a war-ravaged, hostile landscape. Stalker is all the more compelling for not relying on a single gimmick or special effect to create its atmosphere of another world bordering our own. ~ Anthony Reed, Rovi