The over-looked masterpiece Stalker which was adapted from the novel Roadside Picnic by the Strugatsky brothers, which was recently restored by Curzon Artificial Eye as part of their Sculpting Time Retrospective and is now available on a Criterion collection Blu Ray. It gave many, such as myself, the opportunity to see it on the big screen for the first time in 38 years now in high-definition for the first time ever. Luckily, I was able to attend a screening of Stalker at my local independent cinema (Showroom Cinema, Sheffield) and see for myself why the Soviet auteur, Andrei Tarkovsky, earned the accolade of being the Sculptor of Time; which, to me, he most definitely deserves and have been a fan of his work ever since this screening of the film.
The film, which is set in a dystopian and locked down Russian, tells the story of three men: one a writer, one a professor and one only known as The Stalker. They have escaped from the locked-down borders of a fictional and rustic town to a place known as The Zone, where it is rumoured that there is a room that can grant wishes. As the synopsis (which was adapted from the novel Roadside Picnic) may suggest, the tone of the film is rather philosophical and mysterious not only in its storytelling but also in its direction.
The film has a unique and rather ethereal atmosphere about it that’s difficult to convey in written or spoken words. It immerses you into a kind of meditative state, questioning the spectator repetitively on the abstract and what is perceived as the reality of the world and what isn’t. The film opens with a man sat on the stool in an empty tavern. Its walls look damp and worn; glazed in a dark and dirt-like colour palette. You can almost smell the rust and filth of the room.
With Edward Artemyev’s peculiar electric score accompanying this, it reminded me a lot of the opening sequence of Stanley Kubrick’s classic A Clockwork Orange. And much like my first viewing of A Clockwork Orange, I was sucked into this estranged and isolated world from the outset- no escape until 163 minutes later. I’ll leave any further details of the story up to you to avoid it being spoiled.
The film’s story, while simple, is polysemic in its meaning and has many connections to the real-life Russia at the time such as the nuclear disaster in the Russian province of Chelyabinsk in 1957, only 20 years after the films theatrical release. Stalker is regarded by many as one of the best science-fiction films of all time and as one of those alleged films to watch before you die, which, as you can imagine, I wholeheartedly agree and would recommend this be watched by anyone who is wanting to get into world cinema or research into true auteurs.
While The Criterion Collection release of the film is available to purchase on DVD or Blu-Ray (if you wish to buy the hard-copy), I would alternatively recommend an even better restored and English-subtitled version available to watch for free on YouTube thanks to Russian film studio Mosfilm, who helped distribute Stalker.It can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGRDYpCmMcM
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