Anniversary of the last film by Tarkovsky
On May 9, 1986, Andrei Tarkovsky's film "Offret (The Sacrifice)" was released in Swedish cinemas.
It is difficult to say whether it was planned in advance, but it turned out symbolically: on the anniversary of the end of the bloodiest war in Europe, a film was released on the screens of cinemas - a premonition of a new war. A nuclear war, and therefore even more bloody.
Three days (just!) after the film was released, it was presented at the Cannes International Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Palme d'Or. Cannes' main award "The Sacrifice" did not go to. The jury, chaired by American filmmaker Sidney Pollack, awarded the Palme d'Or to Roland Joffe's film "Mission". However, Andrei Tarkovsky was honored with three other awards from this festival, including the Jury Grand Prix for Directing. In addition, the award was given to Sven Nykvist for Best Cinematography.
Two years later, after the death of Andrei Tarkovsky, and he died of lung cancer 7 months after the premiere of "The Sacrifice", the British Film Academy caught on and awarded the film its BAFTA prize as the Best Film in a Foreign Language.
As for the reviews of the film from film critics, primarily domestic, it is striking that many of them actually quote information from the Russian Wikipedia, according to which "The idea of the film was taken from the film script "The Witch" by the Strugatsky brothers. The text was actually written by Arkady Strugatsky in 1981 at the request of Tarkovsky." At the same time, some film critics either express regret or condemn Tarkovsky for the fact that there is no mention of the Strugatskys in the film's credits.
Let's see if these reproaches and regrets are fair. Those who have read the film script "The Witch" by the Strugatsky brothers (it is published in the magazine "Art of Cinema", 2008, No. 2), will surely agree that it can be described as a half-obscene half-anecdote. The main character of this scenario, a pseudoscientist, learns that he has cancer. Immediately, someone who calls himself a Middleman tells him that to cure cancer, he just need to sleep with a certain Witch. After some hesitation, the pseudo-scientist comes to the specified address and finally inclines the woman to coitus. After a while, the signs of cancer in the hero disappear. Everyone is happy. Only it turns out that the woman is not a Witch, but a dressmaker. And this anecdote was announced by some Russian film critics and Wikipedia (I don't know who the original is, who the repeater is) as the "idea" of Tarkovsky's last film. The film - testament of the great Master.
In fairness, it should be noted that in the film there is an episode when the protagonist, in search of a means to save all living things, follows the advice of his friend and seeks the love of a woman named Maria. But this is just an episode. And, as Alexandra Shapoval rightly notes,
"the main idea (of the film - FG), verbalized in the title, is quite clear and specific. A person, being on the threshold of the end of the world, sacrifices everything that he has in order to "cancel" everything and save all living things from destruction."
There is nothing like this in the Strugatsky scenario. Therefore, any reproaches against Tarkovsky regarding the absence of the names of the Strugatskys in the film's credits are absolutely groundless.
The guru of American film criticism, Roger Ebert, who rated Tarkovsky's film with a maximum of 4 stars, described this picture as follows:
"The Sacrifice" is not the sort of movie most people will choose to see, but those with the imagination to risk it may find it rewarding. Everything depends on the ability to empathize with the man in the movie, and Tarkovsky refuses to reach out with narrative tricks in order to involve us. Some movies work their magic in the minds of the audience; this one stays resolutely on the screen, going about its urgent business and leaving us free to participate only if we want to."
And we can add to this quote: "and if we are ready for it intellectually and spiritually."
Among modern moviegoers, Andrei Tarkovsky's film "Sacrifice" received a very high rating. 71% of IMDB and Kinopoisk users around the world gave the film a rating of 8 to 10, and 26% of users rated the film at the maximum - "ten". Taking into account this indicator and the above, the rating of Andrei Tarkovsky's film "The Sacrifice" according to FilmGourmand was 8,066, which allowed it to take the 625th Rank in the Golden Thousand.
