VEDERE LA SCIENZA 2006

Torino   3/3/2006 - 7/3/2006

Cinema Centrale - Via Carlo Alberto 27 - Torino

foto

Stalker



  1. Director: Andrej Tarkovskij
  2. Photography: Aleksandr Knjazinskij
  3. Music: Eduard Artemyev
  4. Starring:
    Aleksandr Kajdovskij,
    Anatolij Solonitsyn,
    Alisa Frejndliki
  5. Production: Mosfilm
  6. Russia
  7. 155 min.
  8. 1979

What are the origins of The Zone? Was it formed by the arrival of extraterrestrials or perhaps a shower of meteorites? The authorities have evacuated all inhabitants and sealed off the area with barbed wire, allowing only researchers to enter The Zone. Yet the curious, spurred by a taste for adventure or a thirst for knowledge, seek to enter the area. They thus rely on the assistance of Stalkers, who, in exchange for cash, risk their lives to act as guides into The Zone. One of these Stalkers, a married man and the father of a girl who has lost the use of her legs, meets two clients at a bar. The two men, an alcoholic writer without inspiration and a scientist who believes in the power of reason, want to enter The Zone to find The Room where dreams come true. After many misadventures and much arguing, the trio finally approaches the entry to The Room. The scientist attempts to destroy it while the writer refuses to enter, claiming that men’s wishes are almost always vile. It seems the men are afraid to cross the fateful boundary. Hence the trio returns to the city and separates. Back home, the Stalker confesses to his wife that he is pained by man’s loss of faith and falls asleep. His daughter, upon reading a poem, stares at some objects on a table and the objects move as though by telekinesis. Like Solaris, Stalker is based on a science fiction novel, “A Picnic by The Road” by Arkadij and Boris Matanovic Sturgackij (1972), though little remains of the original text. In the movie, the director is not bound to the hindrances imposed by the machinery of sci-fi. In fact, the only true fantastical situation is the opening, which serves to better define and evidence the plot’s moral issues, which are central to the film.

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VEDERE LA SCIENZA 2006
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