The modern world is full of reflections. They compete with each other and build long, mirrored labyrinths between us and reality, blending waking life and sleep, dreams of happiness with anguish. Along these lines, Andrei Tarkovsky’s “The Mirror,” which became an instant classic of world cinema, can once more be perceived as a relevant statement. We have compiled several stills from this masterpiece in an attempt to take hold of some of its ineffable secrets, its reflections of love and loss, the determinations of human life from first gaze to final gasp.
Andrei Tarkovsky: ”For many years, I was followed by the same dream. I returned to the house where I was born, crossing its threshold over and over, countless times. I always understood that this was only a dream, but there was an uncanny sensation of lucidity about it. It was a rather difficult feeling. You are pulled backwards, into the past, leaving nothing ahead of you. If only I could get a grasp on this strange im- age, I thought, I could be free from my feelings. Shooting this film did serve to release me from some of them, but, all the same, I felt that I had lost a little piece of myself.”
”With «The Mirror», the editing process proved a great challenge — we had over twenty versions to work with. It just wouldn’t come together. It didn’t want to stand on its feet, and it just fell apart. But then, one memorable day, when we had the chance to make one final desperate rearrangement, the picture materialised. It all came to life, and the various parts of the film started to inter- twine in each other, as if united by a common bloodline. For a long time, I couldn’t believe that such a miracle had come to pass, that the movie had finally come together.”