und ich hab ja gesagt ja ich will Ja

Stalker

This is exactly what I imagine science-fiction to be like. Amazingly suspenseful despite its slow pace, and with a dialogue that goes beyond just being pretentious, it actually makes you think. There is something that reminds me of Janacek’s Glagolitic Mass, because of how they evoke this notion of God, or more like this feeling of God, without primarily being about religion.

Indeed, “Stalker” makes me think of the human condition, and ask questions such as “What are we afraid of? What do we want? What is life? What does the world really look like? Is there a God? Why is Tarkovsky capable of making such incredibly beautiful movies?”
I am not sure what I should think about the dialogue in this film. On the one hand, it does feel pretentious to me; on the other hand, there is a beautiful simplicity to them that I forgive Tarkovsky for making his characters contemplate metaphysical questions throughout the whole film.

So what is my innermost wish? I don’t know, and to be honest, I totally expect it to be something scary as well.

The wife’s Monologe… it’s so Ilke “Ulysses”. und ich hab ihm zuerst die Arme um den Hals gelegt und ihn zu mir niedergezogen dass er meine Brüste fühlen konnte wie sie dufteten und das Herz ging ihm wie verrückt und ich hab ja gesagt ja ich will Ja.

“Stalker” is a road trip, except on a very, very weird road, and a large portion of this film’s merit is indeed its impressive cinematography. A science-fiction film shot in the middle of nowhere, among ugly ruins and without any special effects whatsoever cannot possibly look so stylish, beautiful and atmospheric – or so I thought before I saw this film.

In fact, the film piqued my interest in the science-fiction genre again, much more than “Blade Runner” ever did. I think that the premise of the Zone is very intriguing; it combines adventure and action (how to get the items and out!) with a supernatural world in which everybody has their own motives for wanting to get into the Zone. This kind of background setting has the potential to become something like Kino no Tabi or Mushishi: An episodic series where the different items would be like the multitude of mushi to the people who get them – or try to get them.
Even if the book is short, I totally want to read “Roadside Picnic” now.

Finally, I am so glad that – after having ignored Tarkovsky for years and years – “Stalker” is the first film I have seen. Somebody should have told me that this is dystopian science fiction! And that Tarkovsky loves Teshigahara’s “Woman in the Dunes”. There is so much I am interested in: His short film “The Killers”, “Ivan’s Childhood”, “Andrei Rublev”, and especially “Solaris” and “Mirror”.