Andrei Tarkovsky: the SACRIFICE/OFFRET (1986), 149 Min
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November 22, 2016 (XXXIII: 13) Andrei Tarkovsky: THE SACRIFICE/OFFRET (1986), 149 min. (The online version of this handout has color images and hot url links.) Cannes Film Festival, 1986 Won Best Artistic Contribution Sven Nykvist For the cinematography. Won FIPRESCI Prize: Andrei Tarkovsky Won Grand Prize of the Jury: Andrei Tarkovsky Won Prize of the Ecumenical Jury: Andrei Tarkovsky Nominated Palme d'Or :Andrei Tarkovsky Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky Written by Andrei Tarkovsky Produced by Anna-Lena Wibom & Svenska Filminstitutet Cinematography Sven Nykvist Film Editing Michal Leszczylowski & Andrei Tarkovsky authorities to save face. Solaris (1972), had an easier ride, being Cast acclaimed by many in Europe and North America as the Soviet Erland Josephson…Alexander answer to Kubrick's '2001' (though Tarkovsky himself was Susan Fleetwood…Adelaide never too fond of it), but he ran into official trouble again with Allan Edwall…Otto The Mirror (1975), a dense, personal web of autobiographical Guðrún Gísladóttir…Maria memories with a radically innovative plot structure. Stalker Sven Wollter…Victor (1979) had to be completely reshot on a dramatically reduced Valérie Mairesse….Julia budget after an accident in the laboratory destroyed the first Filippa Franzén…Marta version, and after Nostalgia (1983), shot in Italy (with official Tommy Kjellqvist…Gossen approval), Tarkovsky defected to Europe. His last film, Sacrifice Per Källman…Ambulansförare (1986) was shot in Sweden with many of Ingmar Bergman's Tommy Nordahl…Ambulansförare regular collaborators, and won an almost unprecedented four prizes at the Cannes Film Festival. He died of lung cancer at the Andrei Tarkovsky (b. April 4, 1932 in Zavrazhe, Yurevetskiy end of the year. His output was small, but powerful. He wrote rayon, Ivanovskaya Promyshlennaya oblast, RSFSR, USSR for nearly all the films he directed, wearing dual hats on Offret [now Ivanovskaya oblast, Russia]—d. December 29, 1986, age (Sacrifice, 1986, scenario), Voyage in Time (1983, TV Movie 54, in Paris, France) is perhaps the most famous Soviet documentary), Nostalgia (1983), The First Day (1979), Stalker filmmaker since Sergei M. Eisenstein. Tarkovsky, son of poet (1979, screenplay), The Mirror (1975), Solaris (1972, Arseniy Tarkovsky, studied music and Arabic in Moscow screenplay), Andrei Rublev (1966), Ivan's Childhood (1962, before enrolling in the Soviet film school V.G.I.K. He shot to [uncredited as writer]), The Steamroller and the Violin (1961), international attention with his first feature, Ivan's Childhood There Will Be No Leave Today (1951), The Killers (1956, Short, (1962), which won the top prize at the Venice Film Festival. screenplay). This resulted in high expectations for his second feature Andrei Rublyov (1969), which was banned by the Soviet authorities Sven Nykvist (b. December 3, 1922 in Moheda, Kronobergs until 1971. However, tt was shown at the 1969 Cannes Film län, Sweden—d. September 20, 2006, age 83, in Stockholm, Festival at four o'clock in the morning on the last day—in order Stockholms län, Sweden) as considered by many in the industry to prevent it from winning a prize—but it won one nonetheless, to be one of the world's greatest cinematographers. Nykvist and was eventually distributed abroad partly to enable the prideed himself on the simplicity and naturalness of his lighting Tarkovky—THE SACRIFICE—2 schemes. He used light to create mood and, more significantly, Old (1946) and I mörkaste Småland (1943). He also has 5 to bring out the natural flesh tones in the human face so that the directorial credits: Oxen (1991), One and One (1978), The Vine emotion of the scene could be played out on the face without the Bridge (1965), Gorilla Safari (1956) and Under södra korset light becoming intrusive. Nykvist entered the Swedish film (1952). industry when he was 19 and worked his way up to becoming a director of photography. He first worked with the legendary Swedish director Ingmar Bergman on the film Sawdust and Tinsel (1953), but his collaboration with Bergman began in earnest with The Virgin Spring (1960). From that point on, Nykvist replaced the great Gunnar Fischer as Bergman's cameraman, and the two men started a collaboration that would last for a quarter of a century. The switch from Fischer to Nykvist created a marked difference in the look of Bergman's films. Fischer's lighting was a study in light and darkness, while Nykvist preferred a more naturalistic, more subtle approach that in many ways relied on the northern light compositions of the many great Scandinavian painters. Nykvist created a markedly different look for each installment of Bergman's Faith Trilogy. Through a Glass Darkly (1961) had an almost suffocating quality to it, and The Silence (1963) hearkened back to the days of German Expressionism. Winter Light (1963), the middle part Erland Josephson (b. June 15, 1923 in Stockholm, Stockholms of the trilogy, may very well be the most perfect work of län, Sweden–d.February 25, 2012, age 88, in Stockholm, Nykvist's repertoire. Having studied the light in a real provincial Stockholms län, Sweden) is a distinguished Swedish actor best church carefully, he then recreated the subtle changes in the known for his work with Ingmar Bergman. Josephson's light as the day went on on a Stockholm sound stage. Indeed, it's relationship with Bergman, a long-time friend, began in the late hard to believe that the film was shot on a stage and not in a real 1930s when they first worked together in the theater. Although church in Northern Sweden. For Persona (1966), Nykvist relied he was in several motion pictures in the late 1940s and early heavily on Sweden's famous Midnight Sun. In The Passion of '50s, including a bit part in Bergman's The Man With an Anna (1969), Nykvist was able to capture the chilly, soggy, and Umbrella (1946), Josephson confined himself to the stage melancholy look of Faro, one of Nykvist's first color films Both during the first part of his career. After appearing in Bergman's Nykvist and Bergman were both very reluctant to film in color. The Magician (1958) in support of Max von Sydow, Josephson He created a fascinating study of white and red in Cries & did not make another movie until the late '60s, when he was cast Whispers (1972), for which Nykvist won an Oscar. He won an in Bergman's Hour of the Wolf (1968). However, during this Oscar again for the last feature-length theatrical film that time he did collaborate on two screenplays with Bergman (using Bergman made, Fanny and Alexander (1982). Though well- the joint pseudonym of Buntel Eriksson), Alf Kjellin's The known for his distinctive black-and-white cinematography in Pleasure Garden (1961) and Bergman's own Now About These many of Ingmar Bergman. his two Oscars victories, Fanny and Women (1964). In 1966, Josepheson succeeded Bergman as Alexander (1982) and Cries & Whispers (1972), and creative director of the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm, a nomination, The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988), all post he held until 1975. He also succeeded Max Von Sydow as came from colored films. He has been the cinematographer or Bergman's favorite male lead in the 1970s, which brought him dop on 127 films, some of which are It All Came True (1998), global fame. After co-starring with Von Sydow and Liv Celebrity (1998), What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993), Sleepless Ullmann in The Passion of Anna (1969), he had major roles in in Seattle (1993), Chaplin (1992), Buster's Bedroom (1991), The Touch (1971), Cries &Whispers (1972), Scenes From a Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989), New York Stories (1989, Marriage (a television mini-series edited into a film in 1973), segment "Oedipus Wrecks"), Another Woman (1988), Sacrifice and Face to Face (1976). François Truffaut, in his guise as a (1986), Agnes of God (1985), Swann in Love (1984), Star 80 film critic, wrote in 1958: "Bergman's preeminent strength is the (1983), Cannery Row (1982), The Postman Always Rings Twice direction he gives his actors. He entrusts the principal roles in (1981), Willie & Phil (1980), From the Life of the Marionettes his films to the five or six actors he loves best, never type- (1980, TV Movie), King of the Gypsies (1978), Autumn Sonata casting them. They are completely different from one film to the (1978), Pretty Baby (1978), One and One (1978). The Serpent's next, often playing diametrically opposite roles." In Bergman's Egg (1977), The Tenant (1976), Face to Face (1976), Black films of the 1970s, Erland Josephson engendered the neurotic, Moon (1975), The Magic Flute (1975, TV Movie), The Dove post-war 20th century man: aloof, introspective, and self- (1974), The Terrorists (1974), Scenes from a Marriage (1973, centered. Josephson did not appear in a non-Swedish film until TV Mini-Series, 6 episodes), Cries & Whispers (1972), A Free 1977, when he starred as Friedrich Nietzsche in Italian director Woman (1972), The Touch (1971), The Last Run (1971), One Liliana Cavani's Beyond Good and Evil. He continued to work Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (1970), First Love (1970), in international cinema in the 1980s and '90s, appearing in Shame (1968), Loving Couples (1964), The Dress (1964), The Franco Brusati's To Forget Venice (1980), Dusan Makavejev's Silence (1963), Liebe will gelernt sein (1963), Winter Light Montenegro (1981), Philip Kaufman's The Unbearable (1963), Gorilla Safari (1956), Storm över Tjurö (1954), Lightness of Being (1988), István Szabó's Hanussen (1988), and Barabbas (1953), Lazy Lena and Blue Eyed Per (1947), Gay Peter Greenaway's Prospero's Books (1991). His most Tarkovky—THE SACRIFICE—3 memorable non-Bergman roles were in the films of Andrei were both communists.