Un poeta nel Cinema: Andreij Tarkovskij (1984)

Donatella Baglivo: Interviewer

Quotes 

• Interviewer : Do you love yourself? Would you like to be different?

  Andrei Tarkovsky : I don't love myself. We don't love ourselves enough. If we did, we could also love the others. He who doesn't know why he lives cannot feel love for people or for life itself. I don't love myself enough, so I don't love people enough... but I'd like to. One of my major defects is impatience; I try to get rid of it but I can't. I am not tolerant enough for my age. I suffer for this because I cannot approach people with sympathy. They annoy me.

• Interviewer : Andrei, what do you think about women? Are they only men's companions or something more?

  Andrei Tarkovsky : A woman, for me, must remain a woman. I don't understand her when she pretends to be anything different or special; no longer a woman, but almost a man. Women call this 'equality'. A woman's beauty, her being unique, lies in her essence; which is not different - but only opposed to that of man. To preserve this essence is her main task. No, a woman is not just man's companion, she is something more. I don't find a woman appealing when she is deprived of her prerogatives; including weakness and femininity - her being the incarnation of love in this world. I have great respect for women, whom I have known often to be stronger and better than men; so long as they remain women.

• Interviewer : Andrei, what is love?

  Andrei Tarkovsky : A catastrophe!

  Interviewer : Do you like being in love?

  Andrei Tarkovsky : No, I don't because it's like a disease. I am not happy when I love a woman. I feel rather... upset; which is quite a different emotion.

  Interviewer : Are you in love now?

  Andrei Tarkovsky : I am, probably.

  Interviewer : Are you happy?

  Andrei Tarkovsky : No.

• Interviewer : Andrei, what is art?

  Andrei Tarkovsky : Before defining art, or any concept, we must answer a far broader question: What's the meaning of man's life on Earth? Maybe we are here to enhance ourselves spiritually. If our life tends to this spiritual enrichment, then art is a means to get there. This, of course, is in accordance with my definition of life. Art should help man in this process. Some say that art helps man to know the world like any other intellectual activity. I don't believe in this possibility of knowing, I am almost an Agnostic. Knowledge distracts us from our main purpose in life. The more we know, the less we know: getting deeper, our horizon becomes narrower. Art enriches man's own spiritual capabilities and he can then rise above himself to use what we call 'free will'.

• Interviewer : Are you happy to have been born?

  Andrei Tarkovsky : Happy is not the right word. This world is not a place where we can be happy. It wasn't created for man's happiness; though many believe this is the reason of our existence. I think we are here to fight, so that Good and Evil can clash within us and good may prevail; thus enriching us spiritually. It's difficult to say whether we are happy or not - it doesn't depend on us. There are times when one regrets being born, but life also gives us surprising things, that alone are worth living. The issue of happiness doesn't exist for me. Happiness, as such, doesn't exist.

• Interviewer : 'What do you think of science, for better or worse?

  Andrei Tarkovsky : We can't access the results of scientific progress... but then science doesn't depend on man. It's hard to say whether science is good or bad. After a long historical process our civilization has arrived at a stage of conflict within man. Due to the huge gap between the scientific and the spiritual progress of man, and we go on widening this gap, This is the cause of our present dramatic situation: our civilization is on the brink of atomic destruction, because of the gap between these two spheres in man.

  Interviewer : What do you think of Galileo and Einstein?

  Andrei Tarkovsky : They were both wrong.

• Interviewer : Do you consider Solaris a science-fiction film?

  Andrei Tarkovsky : It is the worst of my films, I don't like it. Unlike Lemn, the author of the book, I wasn't very interested in the relationship between man and knowledge. Rather, in the human, psychological and inner aspects. Can man live in inhuman conditions and still remain human? The main character in the film interested me as he had to remain human in inhuman conditions. That's how I saw him and portrayed him in my film. I don't like it because I couldn't do away with all that science-fiction jazz: shining lamps, etc - that had nothing to do with my idea.

• Interviewer : What is your attitude to the world?

  Andrei Tarkovsky : I tend to approach the world at an emotional and contemplative level. I don't try to rationalize it. I perceive it as an animal or child can do - not as an adult who draws his own conclusions.

• Interviewer : What would you like to tell young people?

  Andrei Tarkovsky : Learn to love solitude... to be more alone with ourselves. The problem with young people is their carrying out noisy and aggressive action not to feel lonely; and this is a sad thing. The individual must learn to be own his own as a child, for this doesn't mean to be lonely: it means not to get bored with oneself - which is a very dangerous symptom... almost a disease.

• Interviewer : Do you like children and animals.

  Andrei Tarkovsky : Yes, very much.

  Interviewer : You become a child. You seem happy... and with people?

  Andrei Tarkovsky : Animals and children are innocent, animals even moreso; it's their nature. But man, who can choose between evil and good, learns how to lie, because he thinks he'll be happier and richer this way. He starts out with diplomacy, then moves on to real lies. Children and animals are closer to the truth, I like them. I believe all of us like children more than adults.

• Interviewer : Where would you like to live now?

  Andrei Tarkovsky : I don't know... I'd like to live close to nature; in the country where there are few people. Our caged city life is the outcome of a mistake. In the beginning men had to join forces to survive; to ensure their own existence. But now, instead of help and pleasure, we only hurt one another in large cities where huge masses of people live. We must return to nature, we must be more free and see as few people as possible. Though man is linked to the others, this type of life seems to be forced upon us. Maybe man made a mistake in the past, the world should have progressed differently.

• Interviewer : Are you conceited?

  Andrei Tarkovsky : I don't think so. I've always thought and felt that what I do is somebody else's decision; even as a child. Strange, but true. So, I can't be conceited about my work either.

• Interviewer : There is always water in your films. Why? What does it mean to you?

  Andrei Tarkovsky : I like water; brooks very much. It's a type of water that speaks to me. The sea is something alien to me; it's too vast for me. It doesn't scare me, it's just too monotonous. By nature, I like smaller things better: microcosms and not macrocosms. I prefer limited surfaces, that's why I love the Japanese people's attitude to nature; they concentrate in a confined space and they see the reflection of the infinite. I like confined space better. You'll see a lot of water in this film

  [referring to Nostalgia] 

  Andrei Tarkovsky : , more than you are used to seeing in Italy. I don't know why I like water so much. Water is a mysterious element due to it's molecular structure. And it's very cinegenic; it transmits movement, depth, changes. It's one of the most beautiful things in the world. Nothing is more beautiful than water. But since everything in life has a reflection in our subconscious, I wouldn't like my love for water to be seen from too narrow a viewpoint. Maybe it's in an ancient memory; my ancestors energizing to life from water, who knows? In any case that's why I couldn't make a film without water.

• Interviewer : Have you ever been in poverty?

  Andrei Tarkovsky : My childhood was very poor. I grew up during hard times and I know poverty all too well. I was hungry, really hungry. When there is no hope for a piece of bread the next day it's a terribly humiliating thing, but it teaches you compassion for the others. He who was really hungry, can never be greedy.

• Interviewer : And 'wealth'; what is it?

  Andrei Tarkovsky : To me it is nothing special; it can only guarantee the life one wants to live. I want a simple type of existence. I don't want to be rich. What is wealth? It's a relative thing. When man has money he changes inside, he gets greedy and diffident... he defends his wealth and becomes it's slave. This is the worst aspect of wealth; it creates slavery for man.

• Interviewer : Many consider Stalker a science-fiction film, to me it's a fairy tale for adults. And to you?

  Andrei Tarkovsky : One can classify my films as he pleases, but I rebel against the subdivision in genres. When people ask me what I think of Stalker, I'm puzzled. I have never thought that my films belong to a genre, to me it's a parable more than science-fiction. I never think of the audience's attitude. It's very difficult for me to be in their shoes. It is useless and unpleasant thing to do. Some people do so to predict the future success of the film; I am not one of these directors. The best route to the audience is to remain oneself, to use a personal language they'll surely understand. We must fight against commercial films; see how authors go about it! They don't try to be liked; they know the public will accept them. The authors who tried to please the audience were unsuccessful. Poets and authors don't know how to please. I've found a way out of this problem by moving, in my films, from the external to the internal world of man; the issue of loyalty to oneself - the relationship between personality and ideals. This is the problem of optimism. To me man is at a dead end because he has invented the material solution to his problems through the technological progress. But this is no solution at all; so long as man and society do not progress harmoniously or spiritually inside. They never find peace and their solution shall be tragic. The solution lies in balancing these two lines of development: the inner spiritual and the outer material. This is the message in Stalker and Solaris, and perhaps in all my films; this attempt to balance out spiritual and material needs.

• Interviewer : What do you fear the most in life?

  Andrei Tarkovsky : The defenseless nature of man, including myself; our weakness before the world, nature and - particularly - before a hostile human being. The worst thing is the clash with human violence; the evil man harbors inside himself.

• Interviewer : Are you afraid of getting old?

  Andrei Tarkovsky : No, I am not. I may be afraid of disease, physical pain, body aging... Sure, old age is dangerous because it's a sort of slow relentless death. But, old age has also nice things about it; patience, experience, understanding of the world - do not come in handy for young people. Old age has advantages that cannot be enjoyed by youth.

• Interviewer : Does death scare you?

  Andrei Tarkovsky : To me death does not exist. Their is a painful act, that portrays man as suffering. Man often mixes up the concepts of suffering and death; the later doesn't exist for me. Once I dreamt I was dead. It was very similar to reality. I experienced a feeling of freedom and lightness that convinced me I was actually dead; that I had severed all ties with this Earth. No, I don't believe in the existence of death, only pain and suffering - and man confuses the two. That's what I believe. I don't know... maybe when one day I look into death's eyes I'll be scared and I'll talk differently. It's hard to say.

  Interviewer : Do you think you are immortal?

  Andrei Tarkovsky : For sure.

• Interviewer : Have you ever been very happy?

  Andrei Tarkovsky : Only during my childhood, when I lived with my mother in that village on the river. I remember it as a very happy time. I was still a child; in contact with nature. We lived in a wood and I was very happy. I have never been as happy again.

• Interviewer : Andrei, when was the last time you cried?

  Andrei Tarkovsky : When my mother died I felt very lonely. I realized I had lost the person closest to me, though we were far. And the last time I cried was when she died; not so much for her death - she had been ill for some time and I was glad her suffering was over - I cried out of selfishness because I felt lonely. I had lost the person dearest to me. Those were selfish tears. In general, tears are always selfish. I'd say they are the real incarnation of egoism.