Ivan's Childhood (1962)
(Ivanovo Detstvo)
Country: USSR
Technical: bw 95m
Director: Andrei Tarkovsky
Cast: Kolya Burlyaev, Valentin Zubkov, Yevgeni Zharikov
Synopsis:
Russia, 1944: a war-orphaned boy with revenge in his heart works as scout for a unit in the Soviet army which is preparing to launch an offensive across a river.
Review:
Breathtakingly filmed in often compromised lighting conditions, Tarkovsky's first feature is a lament for a lost childhood, the action punctuated by reveries and fantasies drawn from an idyllic earlier life. Much of the film takes place in the underground unit headquarters with the steady drip of water audible (water and, to a lesser extent, fire figure prominently in the imagery, as they would throughout the director's work). The film contains some incredibly precise blocking and framing with the camera through sustained takes; in one fantasy sequence a cart loses its load of apples onto a beach and two horses move in to nibble them from right and left at complementary distances from the camera. The boy is remarkable for the intensity of his performance, but the film also belongs to his companions, the callow lieutenant (Zharikov) and flirtatious captain (Zubkov).
(Ivanovo Detstvo)
Country: USSR
Technical: bw 95m
Director: Andrei Tarkovsky
Cast: Kolya Burlyaev, Valentin Zubkov, Yevgeni Zharikov
Synopsis:
Russia, 1944: a war-orphaned boy with revenge in his heart works as scout for a unit in the Soviet army which is preparing to launch an offensive across a river.
Review:
Breathtakingly filmed in often compromised lighting conditions, Tarkovsky's first feature is a lament for a lost childhood, the action punctuated by reveries and fantasies drawn from an idyllic earlier life. Much of the film takes place in the underground unit headquarters with the steady drip of water audible (water and, to a lesser extent, fire figure prominently in the imagery, as they would throughout the director's work). The film contains some incredibly precise blocking and framing with the camera through sustained takes; in one fantasy sequence a cart loses its load of apples onto a beach and two horses move in to nibble them from right and left at complementary distances from the camera. The boy is remarkable for the intensity of his performance, but the film also belongs to his companions, the callow lieutenant (Zharikov) and flirtatious captain (Zubkov).
(Ivanovo Detstvo)
Country: USSR
Technical: bw 95m
Director: Andrei Tarkovsky
Cast: Kolya Burlyaev, Valentin Zubkov, Yevgeni Zharikov
Synopsis:
Russia, 1944: a war-orphaned boy with revenge in his heart works as scout for a unit in the Soviet army which is preparing to launch an offensive across a river.
Review:
Breathtakingly filmed in often compromised lighting conditions, Tarkovsky's first feature is a lament for a lost childhood, the action punctuated by reveries and fantasies drawn from an idyllic earlier life. Much of the film takes place in the underground unit headquarters with the steady drip of water audible (water and, to a lesser extent, fire figure prominently in the imagery, as they would throughout the director's work). The film contains some incredibly precise blocking and framing with the camera through sustained takes; in one fantasy sequence a cart loses its load of apples onto a beach and two horses move in to nibble them from right and left at complementary distances from the camera. The boy is remarkable for the intensity of his performance, but the film also belongs to his companions, the callow lieutenant (Zharikov) and flirtatious captain (Zubkov).