Nostalghia

Rating:
Summary: It's for everyone
Review: I have noticed that everyone that really loves this and Tarkovksy's other movies heavily concentrates on cinematography, art, direction and all the other sfuff that people don't care about. This movie is usually recommended for art lovers and delicate fans of true cinema. It shouldn't be that way. Nostalghia is for all of us. At least for those who have souls and just a little bit human. Our lives after childhood is one big nostalgia. Nostalgia for love, for warmth and for people who are gone. I always cry at the last shot of the film; I don't know why; maybe you should cry, too.

Rating:
Summary: Guido's lost film
Review: I recently saw NOSTALGHIA for the first time. I have seen all of Tarkovsky's films except THE SACRIFICE and am convinced that Tarkovsky is one of the top world film giants. NOSTALGHIA is simply just as superb as all the rest of his films. It is cinematically less poetic than THE MIRROR but more poetic in a meditation type of way, similar to THE STALKER. I think that the best way to describe it would be to say that if you've ever seen 81/2 by Federico Fellini and were curious as to what one of Guido's films would be like I'm quite sure it would be exactly like NOSTALGHIA. The film's Italian language and atmospere add to my belief (Tarkovsky fans who have not seen NOSTALGHIA should realize that it is in Italian and thus has a different feel at first but if you wait you'll see that its still Tarkovsky). It is also filled with subtle symbolism and stark human psychoanalism and is purely subjective in its scope, filled with connections to Tarkovsky and his past, much similar to Guido's hopes for his film. Tarkovsky was, however, behind the camera and surely made a great film. Worth buying for anyone who loves either poetic cinema or simply world cinema.

Rating:
Summary: Overwhelming
Review: I saw this beautiful film a month ago, and it still haunts me. I recommend it to anyone who understands cinema is art -- especially those who appreciate Campion, Greenaway, Jarman, Kubrick, Lynch, and Potter (reminiscent in its careful photography and leisurely pace).

Rating:
Summary: Words Do No Justice, but . . .
Review: I'm delighted to see that so many reviewers feel this is Tarkovsky's best work. Not because it necessarily is his best (they are all amazing), but because I cannot describe the sensations this film evokes. It is my favorite for no other reason. I wrote my Master's thesis on Tarkovsky and this one haunts me the most and causes giddiness even as I type. To be felt and not understood is the double plight - for the film's characters and for us.

Rating:
Summary: Great Movie, but not for TV
Review: It's a great movie. Everytime they screen this in Japan, I go and watch it. The water, the fire, it's beautifully moving film. One of the best films of my life.

However... it's not exactly for TV. The subtle lights do not show very well on the TV screen. Beautiful and subtle shades of darkness that Tarkovski excells at, is often lost. Very often, the screen becomes completely black and we have no idea what's going on. It's much better than the VHS tape that I used to have, but if possible, if you ever have the chance, see it in a movie theater.

That's the only reason that I give it only 4 stars.

Rating:
Summary: first impressions
Review: It's a very slow film. Very pretty. When watching it, some of the time I felt like i was riding in a car across countryside, just staring at the screen absentmindly, absorbing it, but not paying particular attention. It wasn't tedious or boring, but hard to focus. ( i even fell asleep at one point, and had to rewind). I liked the images (esp the burning book, and the leaking building with all the rain). A lot of reminiscence. Everything in the movie was slow, except for the burning of the guy. That scene was very striking. The broken record, the harshness of it, like wailing, and the guy setting himself on fire. It really made me shudder, esp. amid the mellowness of the rest. It was piercing. I like the slowness -- I know a lot of people would find it boring seeing someone walk with a burning candle for 10 minutes. I recommend watching this movie alone - it's less impatience that way, and less expectation. I like the final shot, how he is sitting in his village surrounded by the roman ruins, and the snow starts to fall. It wasn't interesting though, in a normal sense of the word, not entertaining. But it made an impact. A- (? - i feel compelled to give it a minus, but i am not sure for what. i guess for not appealing to popular taste, too artistic). From retrospect, this movie barely has a plot - i suppose it just tried to portray a state more than anything else.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliantly Beautiful
Review: Let me first say that Tarkovsky movies are definitely not for everyone, and that if your attention span has been shaped by MTV and pop culture in general, you may not have the patience for this film. If, however, you aren't allergic to poetry, long, contemplative takes or the purposely evasive use of imagery, this could be the film for you.

Don't listen to anyone trying to convey the plot of the film, because there really isn't one. Not really. If you let go of the surface information that usually contains some manner of decipherable plot, you may take away something greater and much more personal, which I believe was the intention of the filmmaker.

Certainly, this is one of the most beautifully shot films ever made. Each frame is a carefully crafted piece of art that I would be proud to have hanging on my wall.

Get comfy (but not so comfy that you want to go to sleep), set yourself up with all the necessities so that you don't have to pause the DVD, and experience Nostalghia.

Rating:
Summary: Our Van Gogh?
Review: My view is that Andrei Tarkovsky was for the late 20th Century what Vincent Van Gogh was for the late 19th: the most significant visionary artist of the Western world. "Dreaming With Your Eyes Wide Open," as the reviewer fron NM says below, is a very apt way of putting it. I'd add: Dreaming also with full complicity, cooperation of your conscious mind, intellect, reason, rationality, analytical skill ... This is Dreaming in the tradition of Plato at his most theoreticial. The final image of the landscape with house, people, dog, etc. inside the ruined cathedral while snow falls is for me one of the most unforgettable, insightful, beautiful images of How It Is For Us Now, of who we are, where we are: it is one of our best theorias: the closest we can get to seeing a god's eye view of ourselves. The nostalgia is for having had such a view even as it is already fading away, even if it was a half-crazy sight of ruin and desolation, as what we are left with afterward, what we are now waking down into, this petty dream of mere consumer paradise, feels so much less ...

Rating:
Summary: A poetic and spiritual work of art
Review: Nostalghia is a beautiful film. Its slow, contemplative rhythm allows the viewer to take in the stunning images that often work like paintings rather than plot devices. It is a film for viewers looking for a dream-like experience. Ordinary objects and events are given a mystical quality with seemingly no effort; a new perspective of the world is subtly created. It is best approached as a work of art rather than with the usual lowered expectations of recent cinema. I would say it's one of Tarkovsky's best films, but really all of them are great. The DVD version looks really good and is thankfully letterboxed.

Rating:
Summary: strange and powerful
Review: Tarkovsky once said that watching one of his films is like watching something from nature, like a sunset. Some sunsets are slow, some are very slow, but they are never alike. You can see a Tarkovsky film 10 times and it's different with every viewing. Usually the first time is boring. I've learnt not to rent Tarkovsky. Jump in and buy it. Live with it...it will reward you. Nostalghia is extraordinary and probably one of the slowest and oddest of his works, and incredibly moving. The beauty of this film is sublime. Beauty is God/God is Love/Love is Beauty...a circle that is truth.