Andrei Tarkovsky's Visual Poetry Trademarks on The Sacrifice (1986)

Andrei Arsenyevich Tarkovsky, born April 4th 1932, is widely known as a Russian film director and screenwriter. Although he only made a few feature film throughout his career, his contribution for the film industry was greatly influential. Filmmakers who then adopted Tarkovsky's artistic style is called Tarkovskian.

Andrei Tarkovsky managed to make seven feature film before he passed away. However, all of his films shows such distinctive methodology. His visual language was very consistent, as many recurring elements in his films were frequent. He is also known for his poetic imagery, mostly due to his shot design. He often uses long unbroken meditative takes, creates layers within scenes, and also frames his shot with doorways. 

As you can see in The Sacrifice, Tarkovsky puts his subject in the middle of the frame, hinched between the door.

↑ Frame within a frame: framing with doorways.

↑ Layering the scenes with sheets and trees.

Tarkovsky's last masterpiece is a film called The Sacrifice (1986). Unlike his first 5 films which were produced in Soviet, The Sacrifice was produced in Sweden. The drama film was not only directed but also written by Tarkovsky himself. It tells the story of a middle-aged man, portrayed by Erland Josephson, who attempts to negotiate with God in order to stop a nuclear attack.

In all of his films, Tarkovsky successfully captures the beauty of nature in such poetic way, thus making visual poetry his distinctive style. His artworks were highly influenced by his father who is a well-known Soviet poet. His artistic style includes the use of long take, beautiful contemplative nature scenery, unconventional narrative structure, surreal imagery, as well as metaphysical-themed cinematography. Aside from that, most of his films are also somewhat personal.

↑ Surreal imagery: Alexander and Maria floating in the air while embracing each other.

Composition is most likely one of Tarkovsky's admirable trademark, possibly because of his background as a photographer. Another interesting one from Tarkovsky is how he uses texture to project reality as natural as possible. Texture creates it's own visual appeal in a scene which can be used to heighten emotions and turn a common shot into a more dynamic one. Tarkovsky also utilizes silence and isolated noise to build anticipation. He combined the two by isolating one source of sound and then increasing it's intensity.

↑ Blocking and composition: grouped and separated.

↑ Texture and isolated sound used to portray reality and heighten emotions.

Instead of relying on logical foundation, Tarkovsky's editing focuses on a poetic one. He sewed scene by scene not literally, but with metaphor, making it a poetic harmony. Slow tracking shot invites audience into the narrative as if to tag along and listen to the conversation, or simply admiring the surroundings. Although having it accomplished with long takes, it does not draw people away because he knows too well how to cleverly exploit them to show audience the passing of time. The duration in each shot individually emphasizes the fleeting nature of time, thus making the audience feel and experience the importance of every moment passed. With enough duration for a shot, meaning will form by itself. For instance, the burning house in the end of The Sacrifice was designed to burn for exactly 8 minutes and 20 seconds.

↑ Slow tracking shot during two-way conversations.

↑ Slow tracking shot during three-way conversations.

↑ Exact duration of the burning house in the final scene of The Sacrifice (1986).

Theoretically speaking, Andrei Tarkovsky can be categorized as an auteur. He has a rather distinctive individual style as an “author”, due to complete control on all creative aspect in his film productions. That massive distinction comes from a certain significance that only Tarkovsky himself could achieve through his mind and personality. Therefore, it associated the films with some form of unique branding in which the audience can easily recognize.

"It requires sacrificing of yourself. You should belong to it, it shouldn’t belong to you. Cinema uses your life, not vice versa.” – Andrei Tarkovsky.