Stalker [DVD]

Stalker is my favourite film of my favourite director, thus, my favourite of all films!I first saw it in the old Scala cinema at King's Cross, with the Thameslink trains rumbling away underneath, which seemed entirely appropriate to the opening and closing scenes. Seeing it several times since, and now on DVD, has confirmed its status for me; it's one of those films where you notice a little bit more every time.It's hypnotic visual quality has been much commented upon, and requires no more comment by me. But visual quality is not enough by itself, otherwise I would rate Blade Runner as the greatest. Stalker is an utterly challenging film which gets right to the root of the human condition, asking what is our greatest desire. The Writer and Scientist in the film cannot confront this challenge, because they dare not enter the Room. We should ask ourselves what our greatest desire is, and see if we dare answer it. That is the challenge Tarkovsky presents us with.The most hypnotic scene, for me, is when the 3 men are sitting in an outward-facing circle, outside the Room, and the rain-shower starts. Magical!The DVD (2 discs, so unfortunately the film is split halfway) includes interesting interviews with the director of photography and the production designer, as well as an extract from Tarkovsky's diploma film The Steamroller and the Violin. All very enlightening.Stalker, which had to be shot twice because of faulty film stock, was filmed in Estonia and many of those involved fell ill and died during the ensuing years, including Tarkovsky and Solinitsin (playing the Writer), because of the unhealthy environment. The film was also a chilling precursor of Chernobyl, which resulted in landscape which could have come straight from Stalker.I attended a Tarkovsky symposium at Tate Modern in 2008, and it was no surprise that Stalker was a major focus of the papers presented. One of the contributors, the novelist Toby Litt, wrote a most excellent article in the New Statesman about it at that time.So, if you can see only one film in your life, please make it Stalker!

This is a typically challenging film from Tarkovsky: ponderous and bleak; demanding without being impenetrable; guilty of omphaloskepsis, certainly, but too intriguing and unsettling to be switched off. Plus it's split neatly into two bite-sized parts, so no excuses.This is true art cinema, insofar as it has the look of a dream-like video installation, whilst seeking some kind of truth about the human condition. It is also, in its own, understated way, extreme cinema: as the Stalker, the Writer and the Professor explore the mysterious "Zone", they are really exploring the outermost notions of the innermost mind.What is the Zone? Everything. Nothing. Maybe paradise. (When the trio find themselves back in the bar, one wonders whether it was all just one boozy conversation too many.) With its mist-shrouded crumbling monuments, the Zone could represent some netherworld between terra firma and enlightenment - and our nameless protagonists are struggling to bridge the gap. The tourists are deconstructing a place that already looks literally deconstructed.Through catacombs, we follow these protagonists, sharing their fears. Does one really want to discover what he truly desires? The film seems to suggest that to access to heaven is granted only to those willing to surrender a part of their humility, and dare to become as god is.Perhaps the film is about the limitations of the human mind. The Writer and the Professor constantly argue, fight and discuss, as if trying to pluck a revelation from the earth by its roots - but they never manage to feel, while the Stalker (the Preacher?) is destined to break down, crippled by awe. Ultimately, the Stalker fears the death of faith. It may be that the (writers) Strugatskys and (director) Tarkovsky are proposing the necessity of faith to fill the gaps in our minds that cannot be filled with terrestrial philosophy.Finally, fans of Half-Life 2 may find some interesting comparisons in Stalker's grim communistic dystopian cityscape, and subsequent escape to the eerie hills, with their dilapidated barns, full of muddy puddles and the plastic corpses of consumerism. Don't expect the gunplay of Gordon Freeman's adventure; do expect to see stark parallels in landscape and ambiance.