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| One Day In The Life Of Andrei Arsenevich |
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  (7/10)
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Runtime: 55 m |
| Public Rating: 8.50 (2 votes) |
Director: Chris Marker |
MPAA Rating:  |
| Genre: Documentary |
Year: 2000 |
| Writer(s): Chris Marker |
| Reviewed by: Vadim Rizov |
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To start with, I haven't seen any of Andrei Tarkovsky's real films. Doesn't it hurt to confess that? Sure does, especially since I'm about to review a film that pays tribute to Tarkovsky. A film, incidentally, by Chris Marker, from whom I have yet to see anything else except his famous La Jetee, so I couldn't possibly tell you how this compares to other Marker documentaries, such as his film about Kurosawa, A.K. So really, I'm totally unqualified to be writing all this stuff. On the other hand, it's a tough job which someone has to do, so it might as well be me.
Mr. Tarkovsky once stated that no truly important film should be enjoyable. Despite whatever image that may bring up in your head, the man himself was a totally normal, warm human being. The film begins with the arrival of Tarkovsky's only child in Sweden to catch up with dad before he dies from cancer (at the age of 53, as it happens, in 1986). Tarkovsky had just finished work on his final film, The Sacrifice, and perhaps a third of Marker's film is devoted to footage of Tarkovsky working on that film, includingly one headache-inducing shot that required incredible patience on his part.
The rest of the film features, mostly, Tarkovsky's work with Marker's commentary, edited so that what Marker feels matches up in the films thematically and elementally is emphasized (the narration is in English, since Marker has been producing English and French versions of all his films for a while now). Of particular note are Marker's comments about the four elements in his Tarkovsky's films, and how Tarkovsky felt the cinema fit in with the other arts.
That's about all I can say about the film (except for the fact that the English narration seemed hokey at times; it probably sounded better in French). Someday, when I've looked over Tarkovsky's career as I ought to, I'll appreciate this film much more, probably, as Jonathan Rosenbaum does (he gives it a masterpiece rating). In the meantime, though, try to check this movie out on TCM; it'll give you a strange urge to check out Tarkovsky's work.
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