MOSFILM
Fourth Artists' Association
What is your first name, your last name?
My name is Yuri Zhary.
Where did you come from?
I came from Kharkov.
What school do you go to?
I go to a technical school.
Now we're going to have a s�ance.
You just look at me.
Look me in the eye.
Look in front of you.
Turn around, with your back to me.
Concentrate on my hand.
My hand is drawing you back.
Spread your hands.
Concentrate. All your tension is centered in your hands.
Your hands are strained!
Concentrate all of your will power,
your big desire to win, on your hands.
Your hands are getting more and more tense.
They're very tense. Still more tense.
Look at your fingers. Your fingers are tense.
From here the tension passes on to your fingers.
Look at your hands. Yura, concentrate!
On my count of three your hands will become immobile.
One, two, three! Your hands don't move.
You can't move them.
You're trying to move your hands, but they're fixed.
It's very hard for you to make a slightest movement.
Now I'm going to lift this transfixion,
and you'll be able to speak freely, easily and articulately.
From now on you will speak loudly and clearly.
Look at me.
I'm lifting the tension from your hands and your speech.
One, two, three!
Go ahead, say loudly and clearly: I can speak!
MIRROR
Margarita TEREKHOVA as Mother and Natalya
Written by Alexander MISHARIN and Andrei TARKOVSKY
Directed by Andrei TARKOVSKY
Director of Photography Georgy RERBERG
Production Designer Nikolai DVIGUBSKY
Music by Eduard ARTEMYEV
Sound by Semyon LITVINOV
English Subtitles by Tatiana KAMENEVA
Also starring
I. DANILTSEV L. TARKOVSKAYA, A. DEMIDOVA
A. SOLONITSYN N. GRINKO
T. OGORODNIKOVA Yu. NAZAROV, O. YANKOVSKY
F. YANKOVSKY Yu. SVENTIKOV, T. RESHETNIKOVA
Author's text narrated by I. SMOKTUNOVSKY
Verses by Arseny TARKOVSKY recited by the author
Playing in the film music by J.S. Bach, Pergolesi, Purcell
MIRROR
The road from the station passed through Ignatievo,
then swerved near the farm
we had lived on each summer before the war,
and through a dense oak forest went on as far as Tomshino.
Usually we spotted our people
as soon as they appeared from behind a bush in the mid-field.
If he turned from the bush towards our house, then it's father.
If not, it meant it was not father
and that father would never come.
Am I going the right way to Tomshino?
You shouldn't have taken a turn at the bush.
- And this... What's this? - What?
Why are you sitting here?
- I live here. - Where? On the fence?
Are you interested in the way to Tomshino or where I live?
I brought all the instruments, but forgot the key.
Do you happen to have a nail or a screw-driver?
I don't have any nails.
Why are you so nervous?
Give me your hand. I'm a doctor.
You're bothering me.
Do you want me to call my husband?
You haven't got any husband. There's no ring.
Though people don't wear rings nowadays. Maybe only old people.
May I have a cigarette?
Why do you look so sad?
And why do you look so happy?
It's a pleasure to fall down with an attractive woman.
You know, I fell and found strange things here - roots, bushes...
Has it ever occurred to you
that plants can feel, know, even comprehend...
The trees, this hazel-nut bush...
- This is the alder-tree. - It doesn't matter.
They don't run about.
Like us who are rushing, fussing, uttering banalities.
That's because we don't trust nature that is inside us.
Always this suspiciousness, haste,
and no time to stop and think.
Look, you seem to be a bit...
It's no problem for me. I'm a doctor.
And what about "Ward Number Six"?
Oh, Chekhov had made it all up!
Come to Tomshino sometime. We often have a good time there.
You've got blood!
- Where? - Behind your ear.
Each moment of our dates, not many,
We celebrated as an Epiphany.
Alone in the whole world.
More daring and lighter than a bird
Down the stairs, like a dizzy apparition,
You came to take me on your road, Through rain-soaked lilacs,
To your own possession, To the looking glass world.
As night descended
I was blessed with grace,
The altar gate opened up,
And in the darkness shining
And slowly reclining Was your body naked.
On waking up I said: God bless you!
Although I knew how daring and undue
My blessing was: You were fast asleep,
Your closed eyelids with the universal blue
The lilac on the table so strained to sweep.
Touched by the blue, your lids
Were quite serene, your hand was warm.
And rivers pulsed in crystal slits,
Mountains smoked, and oceans swarmed.
You held a sphere in your palm,
Of crystal; on your throne you were sleeping calm.
And, oh my God! - Belonging only to me,
You woke and at once transformed
The language humans speak and think.
Speech rushed up sonorously formed,
With the word "you" so much reformed
As to evolve a new sense meaning king.
And suddenly all changed, like in a trance,
Even trivial things, so often used and tried,
When standing 'tween us, guarding us,
Was water, solid, stratified.
It carried us I don't know where.
Retreating before us, like some mirage,
Were cities, miraculously fair.
Under our feet the mint grass spread,
The birds were following our tread,
The fishes came to a river bend,
And to our eyes the sky was open.
Behind us our fate was groping,
Like an insane man with a razor in his hand.
Oh, good heavens! Dounya!
What is it, Pasha?!
A fire! But be quiet.
He'll get it coming to him!
And what if Vitya is in there? What if he's burned?
Where's Klanya?
What?
Dad!
- Alexei? - Hello, ma!
What's wrong with your voice?
Nothing serious. I guess it's just a sore throat.
I haven't spoken to anyone for three days.
I even liked it. I think it's good to keep silent for a while.
Words can't express everything
a person feels. Words are flaccid.
I just dreamed of you in my sleep.
As though I were still a child...
By the way, what year was it when dad left us?
1935. Why?
And the fire? Remember the hay-loft that burned down at the farm?
That was in '35 too.
All right, stop pulling the wool over my eyes.
You know... Lisa died.
The one I worked in the printing house with.
- Oh God... When? - This morning, at 7.
And what time is it now? What is now?
- Almost six. - In the morning?
What's the matter with you? In the evening.
Mom, why do we have to fight all the time?
I'm sorry if I did anything wrong.
Printing-house. Next stop: Serpukhovskaya.
What's the rush?
Hello.
Where're the proofs I've been reading?
I don't know. Just a minute.
Yelizaveta Pavlovna is here.
Marousia, what's wrong?
Something in yesterday's proofs?
In the Goslit edition? Don't be so nervous!
We should look in the typesetting case.
Nothing terrible has happened.
It's such an important edition!
Although misprints have no place in any edition.
Shut up, you idiot.
- What happened? - Nothing serious.
I just want to check something. I may be wrong...
Let's start from the beginning.
I'd rather do it myself.
Everybody's rushing, no one's got any time!
You think I'm afraid?
No, let other people be afraid.
Some people should work, and others should be afraid.
Well, nothing awful has happened.
If it happened, it happened. We've been printing all night...
I waited for you since yesterday's morning.
That you won't come they probably guessed.
Remember what a beautiful weather it was?
A holiday weather! And I walked coatless.
Today you're here, and they have arranged
An utterly gloomy and cloudy day,
It rains, and it's getting unusually late,
The rain drops run down the cold terrain,
Unsoothable by word, unwipable by hand...
You see, it wasn't there, was it? Everything is all right.
It wasn't... That would've been a horrid mistake.
Why are you crying then?
I even saw that word typeset.
What word?
Great!
This is pure alcohol. Not much, but it might help.
You've got all drenched up. You look like a scarecrow!
Really, I'm all wet.
I guess I'll go and take a shower. Where's my comb?
You know who you resemble now?
- Who? - Maria Timofeyevna.
What Maria Timofeyevna?
Here. You've been looking for your comb, haven't you?
Tell me, who's Maria Timofeyevna?
There was such a woman, Captain Lebyadkin's sister.
You're the spitting image of Lebyadkina.
In what way do I resemble her?
Yes, Fyodor Mikhailovich was... Whatever you may say...
What?
Lebyadkin, bring some water!
The difference is her brother would not bring her water, but beat her.
Explain it. I don't understand.
All your life is just that "bring some water!"
Just an appearance of independence.
If something doesn't suit you,
you pretend it doesn't exist.
What nonsense you're talking!
I'm amazed at the patience of your ex-husband.
He should have run away much sooner.
What do you want from me?
Have you ever admitted you were wrong? Never!
You just made up this whole situation!
As long as you haven't succeeded in elevating your dear husband
to this nonsensical emancipated condition of yours,
then you can be sure he has been saved just in time.
As for your children, you will definitely make them miserable.
Stop this idiocy!
Come on now, Masha!
Leave me alone!
My earthly life traversed but by a half,
I found myself lost in a twilight forest...
I always said that you resemble my mother.
Apparently, that's the reason we divorced.
I notice with horror how much Ignat is becoming like you.
Why with horror?
We two could never talk like normal human beings.
When I recall my childhood and my mother,
somehow she always has your face.
I know why though.
I pity you both, you and her.
Why?
Ignat, put the glass down!
You won't be able to live a normal life with anyone.
Probably.
Don't feel offended. You seem to be convinced
that the very fact of your existence close by
will make everybody happy.
You only know how to demand.
That's because I was brought up by women.
If you don't want Ignat to become like that,
get married as soon as possible.
- Get married to whom? - This I don't know.
Or give Ignat to me.
Why didn't you make it up with your mother? It was your fault.
What fault?
She's convinced herself she knows better than I how I should live.
That she can make me happy.
As far as mother is concerned, I can feel it better than you.
What can you feel better?
That we're getting more and more distant,
and I can't do anything about it.
Natalya, try to distract him. He's talking of Spain again.
It will end up in a scandal.
I wanted to ask you for a favor... We're redecorating now.
Ignat wants to live with you for a week.
I will be very happy.
What does he say?
He's showing the great matador Palomo Linares.
Most of all he was excited by the farewell he was given.
The whole town came to see him off. People sang and danced.
His mother couldn't come, she was sick.
And his father stood aside, sad and silent.
He knew they were thinking the same thing:
that they probably will never see each other again.
Are you mocking at us or what?
We taught you and taught and it was no use.
Now it turns out you can!
He went to Spain and didn't understand anything.
Did you ever want to go back to Spain?
I can't go, I've got a Russian husband.
And Russian children.
I'll talk to her myself!
Ignat!
Come here. I'm leaving.
Always in a hurry...
Don't put it together, just give it to me like that.
- Oh, I felt an electric shock. - What shock?
As if it had already happened...
But I've never been here before.
Come on, give me the money and stop dreaming.
Clean up a bit, make the place tidy.
Don't touch anything here.
If Maria Nikolaevna comes tell her to wait for me.
Come in. How are you?
May we have another cup for the young man?
Take the notebook from the third shelf in the bookcase, will you?
Read from the page that is marked with a ribbon.
"To the question how sciences and arts affect
people's morals, Rousseau answered: Negatively'."
Read only what is underlined with the red pencil.
"Notwithstanding the..." Oh no!
"The division of churches separated us from Europe.
We remained excluded
from every great event that had shaken it.
However, we had our own, special destiny.
Russia, with her immense territory,
had swallowed up the Mongol invasion.
The Tartars didn't dare crossing our western borders.
They retreated to their wilderness
and Christian civilization had been saved.
To attain that goal we had to lead
a special kind of life which, while leaving us Christians,
had made us alien to the Christian world.
As for our historic insignificance,
I cannot agree with you on that.
Don't you find anything significant at all
in today's situation in Russia
that would strike a future historian?
Although I'm heartily attached to our sovereign,
I'm not at all delighted with everything I see around me.
As a man of letters, I'm being annoyed, insulted,
but I swear that for nothing in the world would have made me
change my home country or have any other history
than the history of our forbears,
such as it was given us by God."
From Pushkin's letter to Chaadayev. October 19, 1836.
Go, open up.
I'm afraid I've got the wrong address.
Ignat, how are you doing?
Did Maria Nikolaevna come?
No. Though some woman came, but she's got the wrong apartment.
Find something to do or invite somebody.
Do you know any girls?
You mean from my class? Oh no!
At your age I was already in love... During the war...
With a redhead... Her lips were always blistered.
Our military instructor was chasing after her, he was shell-shocked.
Are you listening to me?
What did you fire at? You think I didn't see it?
You were firing up!
What's wrong with that? There's no one there.
And what if somebody was there?
There're only trees there.
And what if somebody climbed a tree?
About face! I commanded "about face"!
Put down your rifle.
That's what I did.
Did you learn drill regulations?
About face in Russian means exactly what I did.
About face means a turn of 360 degrees.
What degrees? About face!
To the firing position forward march!
I'm going to send you for your parents.
What parents?
You'll know very soon what parents.
What is the firing position?
Down on the floor mat!
His parents died during the siege.
The firing position is... a firing position.
- Markov! - Yes, sir!
Name the basic elements of...
The rifle.
The butt.
- The muzzle. - It's you who's a muzzle.
What is the muzzle then?
Guys! A grenade!
It's a hand grenade!
Don't do it!
Down on the ground!
You'll be killed!
It's only a dummy grenade.