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There are four ways to make a film as powerful and memorable as Stalker: 1) Minimal, but well-use, of dialogue and monologues, 2) The film should be clouded by an atmosphere of immense power and tranquility, 3) Explain nothing, but show everything and anything you possibly can. Let your thinking flow from your brain to the camera and 4) Have Andrei Tarkovsky on one's team. With the exception of the fourth, many directors can make a film like Stalker if they follow the first three rules.
Stalker belongs to the art film "genre", a genre I think of as A f**** awesome genre. No really, has there ever been a bad arthouse film? There could be, but I still haven't seen a bad one. Arthouse movies, alongside Cult movies, often attract small audiences as they are not for everyone, as opposed to a mainstream film which is for everyone, even if you're not part of that group. Stalker employs extensive use of long-shots, minimal dialogues, unexplained happenings and a heavy brown monochrome layer in some of its scenes. And, oh, it's a little more than 2-and-a-half hours. This repels most viewers as they cannot sit through the silence and/or listen to only clinking and clunking. They want action or two ladies dishing out on each-other and in this, miss out such great and innovative movies like Stalker or any of Andrei's work and Picnic at Hanging Rock, a film I strongly recommend, alongside this one.
You know what my expectations of this film were just by looking at the poster? A huge, imposing, silent man who stalks 12 year old's and often lurks around subways and/or deserted areas, checking them out, and smoking. What the film offered me was something much more better, much, much better. The word stalker here means a guide who takes (mostly) down-on-their-luck people to a room in The Zone, a place where normal laws of physics do not apply. The room is rumoured to fulfill one's most innermost desires. The Zone is a creation of a genius, an absolute genius. What The Zone shows is calm and peaceful, what it hides is monstrous and unpredicting. Beast behind the beauty. Over here Tarkovsky wastes no time to show us the place using long-shots and tension and fear among the principal characters, all done masterfully. If you think Mother Nature is cruel in our real world, then she is at her most-worst in The Zone. The way she manifests the past-story of The Professor by putting two skeletons in an intimate position makes me wanna think of The Zone as an early un-realized draft of Silent Hill. Also, it's a journey to the heart of darkness and the soul of mankind.
The cinematography is not only excellent but it truly defines the meaning of directing and show-casing a movie. I think they should invent a whole-new word just for this movie because I think it deserves it. Those who appreciate movies like these will concur while others would just crunch their nose.
OK, I'm no fan of remakes but should Hollywood do one, exactly like it is, then I'm there, or otherwise Hollywood is definitely burning down. Anyway, I would love to see a decent remake!
Now to the performances: From world-wide known actors, you know what to expect and when you don't get that, you casually push it aside, because they've done other better roles. But from vastly unknown ones, you just don't know how it will all turn up and such was the case with the three principal actors: Alexander Kaidanovsky as the titular character. Not was he only brilliant but his way of tackling his character is one of the best I've seen. Nikolai Grinko as The Professor. Although not that better than the other two, he bought a level of understanding to his character and his little dialogues here were up to the mark, but the best performance was by Anatoli Solonitsyn as The Writer. As soon as they land in The Zone, his performance takes a high toll. His twitches here and his rumblings and mumblings there really did the trick and made him the most human, realistic character in the film. All three were great in their respective characters. Even though she only appears for a short-time, I also enjoyed Alisa Freindlich as The Stalker's Wife. Her ending monologue is quite-impressive and I liked her hand movements.
In conclusion, Stalker is just about one of the most powerful movies I've seen and if you're expecting a tumbling mess, then you're in for a very rude awakening. Stalker is a must watch!
9.1/10
