"Debut feature: A startling war film. Ivan is a child-scout, this is a good film of childhood and terror. Clear-eyed and full of shots - birch trees, flooded woodland - which hint at where T will go."
"Iconic! (Ho, ho) An episodic film, and flawless. Horses, violence, speech + silence, art + barbarity. Favourite scenes: snow in a cathedral, a pagan festival of lights, casting a bell."
"A puzzle, an autobiographical hall of mirrors, memory, Russian history. Tarkovsky in search of lost time. I have a feeling this could be thought about endlessly, like a life."
"based on Stanislaw Lem's novella and far better than the recent remake. Memory keeps resurrecting a lost love in orbit around the strange planet of Solaris, and its sea of immortality."
"My personal favourite. Stalker, Professor and Writer journey to 'the zone' in search of their heart's desire. Every shot is tense and beautiful. The end makes my heart either break or turn to stone"
"A film about exile, and faith, about Europe and Russia. Most memorably a bravura shot of a candle being carried through steam, and the flooded ruins of a cathedral."
"His last film, and the first that I saw. Redemption and fire: dazzling opening, a ten minute shot of child and man planting a tree and walking up a hill. I was hooked from then on in..."
"The best book about his films. Discussion of all the films, guides, background, overviews, insights and information. Go for this and avoid the mistake-ridden Mark Le Fanu book."
"Tarkovsky's diaries, full of lists, autobiographical fragments, acerbic comments on the films of others, moving annotations on his loves and final loss of health."