Stalker

This film is almost impenetrable on just a single viewing but I can’t not give it 5 stars. Solaris is the only other work of Tarkovsky’s that I’ve seen and when I saw that I thought it was one of the best films I’ve ever seen - Stalker, however, is in a league beyond even that. A film that is uniquely cinematic, in that it could not be conveyed through any other medium and that the filmic qualities of the work are intrinsic to both its message and how that message is portrayed. It is able to tackle grandiose themes of faith and the nature of man whilst also engaging with the minutiae of the human condition. It is a film of hypocrisies, dualities and contradictions - it is epic in scale yet deeply introspective. I imagine after many more viewings it’ll warrant a review that actually does justice to what I just watched rather than some pretentious rambling as I gather my thoughts... but in the meantime just wow