Nostalghia
Encyclopedia
Nostalghia is a 1983 Soviet
film, directed by Andrei Tarkovsky
and starring Oleg Yankovsky
, Domiziana Giordano
and Erland Josephson
.
The plot of the film centers around the meaning of the term nostalgia
, which describes a longing for the past, often in idealized form.
pushes in imperceptibly, but continuously from the beginning. On the soundtrack, possibly diegetic, a sole woman sings. Meanwhile, the film credits scroll up, superimposed over the scene. The family and dog, upon reaching the area in front of a hut, stop moving. Verdi's Messa da Requiem fades in, overlapping for a brief moment with the woman singing. Once the foreground tree fully disappears, the scene freezes
; the credits continue until the title appears, and the scene fades to black. The Requiem continues an audible transition to the second scene.
The Russian writer Andrei Gorchakov (Oleg Yankovsky
) travels to Italy
to research the life of 18th-century Russian composer Pavel Sosnovsky, who lived there and committed suicide after his return to Russia. He and his comely interpreter travel to a convent
in the middle of the Tuscan
countryside where they look at frescoes by Piero della Francesca
. Back at their hotel Andrei feels displaced and longs to go back to Russia, but unnamed circumstances seem to get in the way. The interpreter is smitten with Andrei and is offended that he will not sleep with her, claiming that she has a better boyfriend waiting for her.
Andrei meets and befriends a strange mad man, who is famous in the village for his insistence in trying to walk across a drained mineral spring
pool with a lit candle. He claims that when finally achieving it, he will save the world. They both share a feeling of alienation from their surroundings. The madman says, while playing Beethoven's 9th Symphony, that mathematics are wrong, that 1+1 does not equal 2 but a bigger 1, and illustrates it with two drops of olive oil
. Andrei later learns that this man used to live in a lunatic asylum until the post-fascist
state closed them and now lives in the street. He also learns that this man had a family and was obsessed in keeping them inside his house to save them from the end of times until they were freed by the police
.
During an abstract dream-like sequence, Andrei sees himself as the madman and has visions of his wife, the interpreter and the Madonna
as being all one and the same. Andrei seems to cut his research short and plans to leave for Russia, until he gets a call from his interpreter who wishes to say goodbye and tell him that she met the madman in Rome
by chance and that he wanted Andrei to walk across the pool himself. The interpreter is with her boyfriend, but he seems equally uninterested in her and appears to be involved in dubious business affairs. Andrei goes to the drained pool. His attempt to walk from one side of the pool to the other proves more difficult than he imagines. It remains unclear if the fumes, his poor heart condition or both impede him from achieving his task. Meanwhile, the madman is giving a speech in the city about the need of mankind of being true brothers and sisters and to stop polluting the water. He plays Beethoven's 9th Symphony and sets himself on fire. During this time Andrei has been unsuccessful in crossing over the pond. When he finally achieves it, he dies.
The closing sequence is a close up of Andrei sitting with his dog in the countryside of the opening scene. As the camera slowly pulls out, the hut and his family are shown to be inside the ruins of an Italian church.
's first film directed outside of the USSR. It was supposed to be filmed in Italy
with the support of Mosfilm
, with most of the dialogue in Italian
. When Mosfilm support was withdrawn, Tarkovsky used part of the budget provided by Italian State Television and French film company Gaumont
to complete the film in Italy and cut some Russian scenes from the screenplay, while recreating Russian locations for other scenes in Italy.
, the prize for best director and the FIPRESCI Prize
at the 1983 Cannes Film Festival
. Tarkovsky also shared a special prize called Grand Prix du cinéma de creation with Robert Bresson
. Soviet authorities prevented the film from winning the Palme d'Or
, a fact that hardened Tarkovsky's resolve to never work in the Soviet Union again.
, Richard Wagner
, Ludwig van Beethoven
, Giuseppe Verdi
as well as Russian folk songs. Beethoven's ninth symphony features most prominently.
Cinema of the Soviet Union
The cinema of the Soviet Union, not to be confused with "Cinema of Russia" despite Russian language films being predominant in both genres, includes several film contributions of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union reflecting elements of their pre-Soviet culture, language and history,...
film, directed by Andrei Tarkovsky
Andrei Tarkovsky
Andrei Arsenyevich Tarkovsky was a Soviet and Russian filmmaker, writer, film editor, film theorist, theatre and opera director, widely regarded as one of the finest filmmakers of the 20th century....
and starring Oleg Yankovsky
Oleg Yankovsky
Oleg Ivanovich Yankovsky was a Soviet/Russian actor who has excelled in psychologically sophisticated roles of modern intellectuals...
, Domiziana Giordano
Domiziana Giordano
Domiziana Giordano is an artist, actress photographer and video artist. Domiziana has played the lead role in films directed by Nicholas Roeg, Jean Luc Godard, Andrei Tarkovsky, Mauro Bolognini, Neil Jordan, Ken McMullen and many others.She grew up in a family of artists and architects and...
and Erland Josephson
Erland Josephson
Erland Josephson is a Swedish actor and author. He is best known to international audiences for his work in films directed by Ingmar Bergman, Andrei Tarkovsky, and Theodoros Angelopoulos.-Biography:...
.
The plot of the film centers around the meaning of the term nostalgia
Nostalgia
The term nostalgia describes a yearning for the past, often in idealized form.The word is a learned formation of a Greek compound, consisting of , meaning "returning home", a Homeric word, and , meaning "pain, ache"...
, which describes a longing for the past, often in idealized form.
Plot
The opening scene is a single shot showing a family and their dog descending a hill, a large tree in the foreground, the distant countryside vanishing into the rolling fog. The cameraMovie camera
The movie camera is a type of photographic camera which takes a rapid sequence of photographs on strips of film which was very popular for private use in the last century until its successor, the video camera, replaced it...
pushes in imperceptibly, but continuously from the beginning. On the soundtrack, possibly diegetic, a sole woman sings. Meanwhile, the film credits scroll up, superimposed over the scene. The family and dog, upon reaching the area in front of a hut, stop moving. Verdi's Messa da Requiem fades in, overlapping for a brief moment with the woman singing. Once the foreground tree fully disappears, the scene freezes
Freeze frame shot
A freeze frame shot is used when one shot is printed in a single frame several times, in order to make an interesting illusion of a still photograph....
; the credits continue until the title appears, and the scene fades to black. The Requiem continues an audible transition to the second scene.
The Russian writer Andrei Gorchakov (Oleg Yankovsky
Oleg Yankovsky
Oleg Ivanovich Yankovsky was a Soviet/Russian actor who has excelled in psychologically sophisticated roles of modern intellectuals...
) travels to Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
to research the life of 18th-century Russian composer Pavel Sosnovsky, who lived there and committed suicide after his return to Russia. He and his comely interpreter travel to a convent
Convent
A convent is either a community of priests, religious brothers, religious sisters, or nuns, or the building used by the community, particularly in the Roman Catholic Church and in the Anglican Communion...
in the middle of the Tuscan
Tuscany
Tuscany is a region in Italy. It has an area of about 23,000 square kilometres and a population of about 3.75 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence ....
countryside where they look at frescoes by Piero della Francesca
Piero della Francesca
Piero della Francesca was a painter of the Early Renaissance. As testified by Giorgio Vasari in his Lives of the Artists, to contemporaries he was also known as a mathematician and geometer. Nowadays Piero della Francesca is chiefly appreciated for his art. His painting was characterized by its...
. Back at their hotel Andrei feels displaced and longs to go back to Russia, but unnamed circumstances seem to get in the way. The interpreter is smitten with Andrei and is offended that he will not sleep with her, claiming that she has a better boyfriend waiting for her.
Andrei meets and befriends a strange mad man, who is famous in the village for his insistence in trying to walk across a drained mineral spring
Mineral spring
Mineral springs are naturally occurring springs that produce water containing minerals, or other dissolved substances, that alter its taste or give it a purported therapeutic value...
pool with a lit candle. He claims that when finally achieving it, he will save the world. They both share a feeling of alienation from their surroundings. The madman says, while playing Beethoven's 9th Symphony, that mathematics are wrong, that 1+1 does not equal 2 but a bigger 1, and illustrates it with two drops of olive oil
Olive oil
Olive oil is an oil obtained from the olive , a traditional tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin. It is commonly used in cooking, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and soaps and as a fuel for traditional oil lamps...
. Andrei later learns that this man used to live in a lunatic asylum until the post-fascist
Italian Fascism
Italian Fascism also known as Fascism with a capital "F" refers to the original fascist ideology in Italy. This ideology is associated with the National Fascist Party which under Benito Mussolini ruled the Kingdom of Italy from 1922 until 1943, the Republican Fascist Party which ruled the Italian...
state closed them and now lives in the street. He also learns that this man had a family and was obsessed in keeping them inside his house to save them from the end of times until they were freed by the police
Police
The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...
.
During an abstract dream-like sequence, Andrei sees himself as the madman and has visions of his wife, the interpreter and the Madonna
Mary (mother of Jesus)
Mary , commonly referred to as "Saint Mary", "Mother Mary", the "Virgin Mary", the "Blessed Virgin Mary", or "Mary, Mother of God", was a Jewish woman of Nazareth in Galilee...
as being all one and the same. Andrei seems to cut his research short and plans to leave for Russia, until he gets a call from his interpreter who wishes to say goodbye and tell him that she met the madman in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
by chance and that he wanted Andrei to walk across the pool himself. The interpreter is with her boyfriend, but he seems equally uninterested in her and appears to be involved in dubious business affairs. Andrei goes to the drained pool. His attempt to walk from one side of the pool to the other proves more difficult than he imagines. It remains unclear if the fumes, his poor heart condition or both impede him from achieving his task. Meanwhile, the madman is giving a speech in the city about the need of mankind of being true brothers and sisters and to stop polluting the water. He plays Beethoven's 9th Symphony and sets himself on fire. During this time Andrei has been unsuccessful in crossing over the pond. When he finally achieves it, he dies.
The closing sequence is a close up of Andrei sitting with his dog in the countryside of the opening scene. As the camera slowly pulls out, the hut and his family are shown to be inside the ruins of an Italian church.
Cast
- Oleg YankovskyOleg YankovskyOleg Ivanovich Yankovsky was a Soviet/Russian actor who has excelled in psychologically sophisticated roles of modern intellectuals...
as Andrei Gorchakov - Erland JosephsonErland JosephsonErland Josephson is a Swedish actor and author. He is best known to international audiences for his work in films directed by Ingmar Bergman, Andrei Tarkovsky, and Theodoros Angelopoulos.-Biography:...
as Domenico - Domiziana GiordanoDomiziana GiordanoDomiziana Giordano is an artist, actress photographer and video artist. Domiziana has played the lead role in films directed by Nicholas Roeg, Jean Luc Godard, Andrei Tarkovsky, Mauro Bolognini, Neil Jordan, Ken McMullen and many others.She grew up in a family of artists and architects and...
as Eugenia
Production
This was Andrei TarkovskyAndrei Tarkovsky
Andrei Arsenyevich Tarkovsky was a Soviet and Russian filmmaker, writer, film editor, film theorist, theatre and opera director, widely regarded as one of the finest filmmakers of the 20th century....
's first film directed outside of the USSR. It was supposed to be filmed in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
with the support of Mosfilm
Mosfilm
Mosfilm is a film studio, which is often described as the largest and oldest in Russia and in Europe. Its output includes most of the more widely-acclaimed Soviet films, ranging from works by Tarkovsky and Eisenstein , to Red Westerns, to the Akira Kurosawa co-production and the epic Война и Мир...
, with most of the dialogue in Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
. When Mosfilm support was withdrawn, Tarkovsky used part of the budget provided by Italian State Television and French film company Gaumont
Gaumont Film Company
Gaumont Film Company is a French film production company founded in 1895 by the engineer-turned-inventor, Léon Gaumont . Gaumont is the oldest continously operating film company in the world....
to complete the film in Italy and cut some Russian scenes from the screenplay, while recreating Russian locations for other scenes in Italy.
Reception
The film won the Prize of the Ecumenical JuryPrize of the Ecumenical Jury
The Prize of the Ecumenical Jury is an independent film award for feature films at the Cannes Film Festival since 1974. The Ecumenical Jury is one of three juries at the Cannes Film Festival, along with the official jury and the FIPRESCI jury. The award was created by Christian film makers, film...
, the prize for best director and the FIPRESCI Prize
FIPRESCI
The International Federation of Film Critics is an association of national organizations of professional film critics and film journalists from around the world for "the promotion and development of film culture and for the safeguarding of professional interests." It was founded in June 1930 in...
at the 1983 Cannes Film Festival
1983 Cannes Film Festival
- Jury :*William Styron *Henri Alekan *Yvonne Baby *Sergei Bondarchuk *Youssef Chahine *Souleymane Cissé *Gilbert de Goldschmidt *Mariangela Melato *Karel Reisz...
. Tarkovsky also shared a special prize called Grand Prix du cinéma de creation with Robert Bresson
Robert Bresson
-Life and career:Bresson was born at Bromont-Lamothe, Puy-de-Dôme, the son of Marie-Élisabeth and Léon Bresson. Little is known of his early life and the year of his birth, 1901 or 1907, varies depending on the source. He was educated at Lycée Lakanal in Sceaux, Hauts-de-Seine, close to Paris, and...
. Soviet authorities prevented the film from winning the Palme d'Or
Palme d'Or
The Palme d'Or is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival and is presented to the director of the best feature film of the official competition. It was introduced in 1955 by the organising committee. From 1939 to 1954, the highest prize was the Grand Prix du Festival International du...
, a fact that hardened Tarkovsky's resolve to never work in the Soviet Union again.
Music
The film features music by Claude DebussyClaude Debussy
Claude-Achille Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...
, Richard Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
, Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
, Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
as well as Russian folk songs. Beethoven's ninth symphony features most prominently.