Mirror

It has almost been three years since I first watched Andrei Tarkovsky's Mirror and despite those few extra years of life experience I am no closer to grasping all the nuances this film contains. This is not a strange, considering it's the work of a man who was twice my age when he made it and who possessed a wisdom way beyond his age of 43. I understand it a lot more than three years ago, the double roles are definitely a lot less confusing upon a rewatch, but I think it will take me many years before I'll truly 'get' this. What I found most striking on this rewatch was the central performance of Margarita Terekhova as Maria (the narrator Aleksei's mother) and Natalia (Aleksei's ex-wife). She brings an extraordinary amount of subtlety and nuance that feels very true to life.