Sight & Sound #14 Stalker (LOST IN THE MOVIES podcast #60)

For the last entry in my my Sight & Sound podcast miniseries, chance - and the directors who placed this film much higher than the critics - delivered me the perfect conclusion. Stalker (1979) has been something I've wanted to discuss for years but never found the opportunity...until now. Andrei Tarkovsky's mesmerizing, maddening high art sci-fi philosophical meditation provides plenty of material to consider, but I was most fascinated by those very tensions within its approach. Conveying emotional experiences via visionary sound/image montages at times, and tearing into blunt, direct intellectual debates at others (and sometimes fusing the two), Stalker is enriched by its awareness of what the form is capable of and what it should dance around. Among the subjects I explore: Tarkovsky's frustrations with his environment, the shifting relationships of the three main characters, the concept of the Zone in popular culture, and the significance of the daughter who bookends the movie. This concludes a series which also included Jeanne Dielman, Beau Travail, Close-Up, and Sunrise and I'm also wrapping up this podcast feed and my public film writing/podcasting between with this episode and an essay going up at the same time - although Patreon and Twin Peaks work (and possibly some non-Peaks videos) will continue. I hope you enjoyed the show!

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LINKS

Sight & Sound Critics' Top 250 (Stalker at #43)

& Directors' Top 100 (Stalker at #14)

Stalker, while never covered in-depth on my site, was selected as Best Feature and Best Score for 1979 in my Alternate Oscars (which also features Tarkovsky films Ivan's Childhood, Andrei Rublev, Solaris, The Mirror, and The Sacrifice)

Other Tarkovsky coverage on my site: My Favorites entry on The Mirror (featured on my 100 Favorites list & read aloud for Opening the Archive podcast section) / My review of The Sacrifice / Andrei Rublev, Solaris, and The Mirror are featured in my Cinepoem video (screenshots featured here) / Screenshots from Ivan's Childhood featured here & here / Ashley Brandt discusses his work in our Twin Peaks Conversations episode / 32 Days of Movies clip series features Solaris & The Mirror (in teaser & screenshots as well) / Several of his screenshots on Allan Fish's countdown round-up (w/ links to Allan's own entries)

MY RECENT WORK

New on the site

my final public written review: 63 Up

The Unseen: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)

& The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)

+ announcement: Reaching the Finish Line for Public Film Writing/Podcasts

New on YouTube

A very quick update on Journey Through Twin Peaks

& Conversation w/ Sam Juliano of Wonders in the Dark

These links will be available at a later date...

New on Patreon

($5/month)

2 stray episodes: Star Trek - "The Man Trap" & The Clone Wars - "Ambush"

($1/month)

FINAL Episode 100 - Concluding the 10s & Reaching the 20s w/ 12 Films in Focus: The Tree of Life as Twin Peaks Cinema, The Lighthouse w/ guest Riley MacDonald, The Fabelmans, Avatar: The Way of Water, Moonlight, The Master, The Act of Killing, Amour, The Florida Project, The Turin Horse, Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, Toni Erdmann