Yesterday was Igor’s birthday, and we went together to watch One Day in the Life of Andrei Arsenevich, Chris Marker’s documentary about the last days of Andrei Tarkovsky, whose full retrospective ran through September at the Siskel Center.
I really-really liked it. I find it difficult to say “I enjoyed it,” because it shows the last days of a terminally ill person, but it is really remarkable how positive Tarkovsky looks and sounds even when he can hardly lift his head off the pillows. The documentary included footage of him filming his last picture, The Sacrifice, and this scene alone told me more about him as an artist and as a person than I ever knew.
The documentary cites Pasternak, who apparently told Tarkovsky early in his career that he would make seven films. “Only seven?” asked Tarkovsky. “Yes, but the good ones!” replied Pasternak. And that’s exactly how many films he made, not counting his school works. Also, it mentions Tarkovsky’s fascination with Leonardo Da Vinci (which I share), and I thought that that’s something they had in common: Leonardo produced very few paintings during his long life, but each is a masterpiece. Isn’t it true about Tarkovsky’s films?!
