Finished Reading

Andrej Tarkovskij: Martyrologion. Dagböcker 1970-1986. – This is a massive volume, 900 pages with the diary of Tarkovskij, from 1970 to a few days before his death in 1986. For someone who has lived and consumed culture during the same period, like myself, there will be lots of connections. Andrej Rubljov was my first meeting with the director, I saw it twice right away; Solaris I caught in Köpenhamn with a simultanous translation into Danish, the opera Boris Godunov I happened to attend at Covent Garden while at the London Film Festival. The diary not only brings me back to these points in my life, but my memories are enriched by reading about them from Tarkovskij’s perspective.

Also, to have lived through the time span of the diary is to have experienced the political change in the Soviet Union and the way it has affected Soviet participation in film festivals, many of which I attended at the time. From the diary you learn how un-appreciated Tarkovsky was with the powers in Moscow and how they made life difficult when it came to participation at festivals and international co-productions. Gradually you realize that he wants to leave the country. While working in Italy a lot of effort goes into getting his wife and youngest son out. Several governments and institutions around the world tried to help him.

There are some surprising sides. He is never good with money. There are several lists, on how much he ows others, how much to spend on the rebuilding of the summer house outside Moscow, later he repeats the procedure when he wants to convert a palace on the Italian country side, what to buy on trips and bring back home (some is going to be converted into cash).

He doesn’t like very many people and films. The films of Angeloupolos he finds long and boring. There are many similar surprising things, so it is never boring to read the 900 pages. He can’t have been very easy to live with, unless he got what he wanted. If I had known this when I started reading the book, I would have made a plus or minus in front of every name in the index, except that I have to return the book to the library.

 

The Weekly Film Meeting  (January 27)

HITCH 1932
Rich and Strange /Öster om Shanghai
http://www.hitchcockwiki.com/wiki/Rich_and_Strange_%281931%29

DRINK AND TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT
Buy Your Own Cherries! – Eng 1904 – prod: Robert W Paul
Dustman’s Darling – Eng 1894 – prod: Bamforth

JAN SVANKMAJER 1983
Do pivnice  /Down to the Cellar
http://akas.imdb.com/title/tt0085448/combined

POPEYE 4/4 1941
Flies ain’t human