Mirror

First off, I don't believe this is film poetics. The imagery is powerful, but images don't connect together or double up to create ideas or implant symbolism within the viewer. This film is closer to a painting. Tarkovsky creates a distorted memory of World War II. The film goes from scene to scene with no literal connection but a similar meditative feel. The film is short so each viewing becomes a different impression of an abstract piece. The fact that the film, on third and fourth viewings, still resonates with the deep pains of Tarkovsky's memory, makes it successful. This film has always alluded me by way of description. Even essays I've read have done the film little justice. But I've grown with this film through Bill Jensen's paintings. He's a painter who took European art films and created abstract texture works based on them. He dabbled with different Bergman films. I don't think Bergman was the right filmmaker for this remodeling, but Tarkovsky perfectly fits it with Mirror. The texture displays feeling instead of ideas. Tarkovsky is very philosophical in other works, but pure emotion here.