Ismail responded: Each and every frame; sculpture in time
Ismail Lagardien ........................................ If anybody gets the chance to see Andrei Rublyov, a 1969 film by Tarkovsky, don't miss it. You might say that it the story of a 15th century Russian painter, but that would be like saying "Moby Dick" is about a whale. It is one of the greatest movies ever made. The loss of the Russian film industry under the impact of capitalist "liberation" is a tremendous crime.
Louis Proyect ........................................ Yes to both affirmations.
As to Tarkovsky, his sci-fi films were superb, as Soviet sci-fi was superb too (there are strong social reasons for this). Even his _Stalker_, which many read as a criticism of the Soviet regime (and who knows, maybe Tarkovsky himself thought of it that way) is extraordinarily prescient (as any true artwork) of the future of the fSU.
What's more interesting yet, is that the original tale where _Stalker_ was inspired, was a prefiguration of --Mikhail Gorbachov! It ends with a plump, friendly, good-humored illuminated bureaucrat finally granting "freedom and welfare to all". These were the effects -in the tale, shit I cannot remember the name- of the object the Stalker was looking for.
So that Tarkovsky managed to outwit even the novelist he drew on!
Nestor ........................................ "Happiness for everybody! For free! All the happiness possible! Come everyone!"
'Piknik na obotchine' (Picnic by the road), from the Strugatski brothers (Arkadi and Boris).
João Paulo Monteiro *****
Here's a collection of beautiful stills from the Tarkovsky films: <http://www.skywalking.com/tarkovsky/pictures.html>. Recommended readings to go with the stills: Roland Barthes, "The Third Meaning: Research Notes on Some Eisenstein Stills," _Image - Music - Text_; and Barthes, _Camera Lucida_.
Yoshie