Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by gware (A) on February 08, 2002 at 17:55:50

In Reply to: Reopenning old wounds posted by Victor Khomenko on February 08, 2002 at 04:33:38:

I think I know why "Stalker" doesn't work for you; you are too familiar with the landscapes and the characters, the dialog and the attitudes. "Stalker" only works if you've never experienced Eastern Europe, or Scandanavia in any depth. It's the lack of familiarity with all the above that draws a Western audience into the film. "Stalker" starts out in an environment so alien to an American viewer it might as well be the dark side of the moon. By the end of the film, they have become familiarised with the environment Tarkovsky creates; that's part of his style with most of his films, but you'd never notice this if you actually know the places. I have exactly the same problem with Japanese films now, I was really ho-hum and so what about the Greenaway's "Pillow Book"; friends in the UK and Australasia raved about it. After a decade living in Japan it did nothing for me, for the same reason; it's a landscape that's become too everyday and familiar.
By the way, the "driving" sequence in Solaris through a city and tunnels at night is a stretch of road in Tokyo through Shinjuku to the Rainbow Bridge; I drive this maybe once a week.
Eric
Tokyo*