Placement On Sight & Sound Top 50 Movies List: #19
When you create a piece of art, it's difficult to not have a piece of you be imprinted on the project (Though Lord knows there's plenty of instances of films or shows or other forms of art being taken away from the creators by higher-ups), like your Voldemort and the Horcrux you're putting your soul into is some kind of movie or book or what have you. With Andrei Tarkovsky, the two other movies of his that I've seen (Andrei Rublev and Stalker) have recurring filmmaking traits and storytelling elements that already seem to ooze with Tarkovsky's personal quirks and fascinations, but now here comes Mirror, a movie that serves as a deep dive into the man's psyche to a startling and fascinating degree.
Here's the part of the review where I'd do some kind of brief recap of the plot of the movie I'm reviewing but because of the unorthodox narrative presented in Mirror, that'll be a slightly more tricky task to accomplish than usual. Basically, Mirror chronicles various sequences intended to depict events in the past and present of a man named Alexei (played by various actors of varying ages throughout the movie). The visual elements in these sequence ranges wildly, with certain scenes being depicted in black-and-white, others in color while others still play in tandem with archival footage of post-war celebrations. Recurring motifs include a grassy field, burning things as a dangerous emotional outlet and sequences shot in a style that places the viewer in the point-of-view of Alexei himself
There's no telling what might come next in Mirror giving the entire movie an unpredictable feel to it that makes watching the movie akin to viewing fractured jumbled memories or thoughts in Alexei's own mind. Within his own psyche, there is no need to adhere to a structure or conventional ideas of what it means to even be a movie and it's quite exciting to see that sort of cutting-edge gusto unfold right before your very eyes, not to mention that the inherently unpredictable nature of the entire enterprise keeps Mirror moving at a solid clip that ensures no individual sequence gets too overly long.
The main takeaway I have from watching the various bits and pieces of Mirror unfold is that Alexei carries resentment and fear over his own past. Remembering himself being trained as a soldier at much too young of an age is one such moment where you can see horrors from his past still lingering in his mind, especially when they're juxtaposed against archival footage depicting celebrations over the war being over. While those fireworks go off and people far away from the combat celebrate it being over, Alexei is just coming to terms with the psychological implications of being a soldier in this war at such a young age, making such celebrations come off as more like mockery rather than celebration.
A common link between the various glimpses into the lead character's mind is the presence of actor Margarita Terekhova, who plays both the character's wife and mother. Instead of creating some kind of incestuous subtext to the movie (though the film is so open to interpretation in some respects that I could see someone making a valid case for such subtext actually existing in Mirror), she creates the sole bit of visual unity between the segments, this lighthouse amidst the storm of Andrei's past that both the viewer can look to for some semblance of continuity whilst they're experiencing the incredibly uncertain nature of the entire movie. She also manages to visually manifest the sort of dreary circumstances Andrei finds himself in in the modern day segments, as his mom in the past, even when buildings are on fire, seems to have an aura of comfort to her presence while in the present day sequences Andrei and his wife can barely look at one another.
Perhaps I'm wrong in my interpretation of what Margarita Terekhova's recurring presence in the movie is supposed to indicate, but then again, I'm not sure there's a wrong way to interpret the movie per se (unless you use the film as a basis for one of those YouTube videos that puts forth a ridiculous theory like "Mirror And The Hunger Games Exist In The Same Universe!!"). It feels like the movies been made to be as open to personal interpretation in order to ensure the viewer can imprint on it and make it a personal journey for themselves just as this was obviously a personal creative exercise for Andrei Tarkovsky. It all comes from such a personal place, in fact, that I couldn't help but wonder if this movie was helping Tarkovsky work out his own personal grievances, making it some kind of cinematic equivalent to a therapist. Whatever his reason for making Mirror, the result is something utterly unique, avant-garde and thoroughly captivating.
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