Une Journée d'Andrei Arsenevitch (1999) Reviews

Master documentary filmmaker Chris Marker directs this loving tribute to the late great Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky, who made such classics of art cinema as Andrei Rublev (1966) and The Sacrifice (1986). The film opens with documentary footage of the tearful reunion between the director and his son, after the latter finally got an exit visa from Soviet officials. Though he was ailing from the cancer that would eventually kill him, Tarkovsky cheerfully talks with his family while drinking champagne. Relying on Marker's lyrical commentary, the film juxtaposes sequences of Tarkovsky on his deathbed, footage on the set of The Sacrifice, and material from his many films. Marker postulates that the director's use of fundamental elements such as earth and fire parallel that of another cinematic master -- Akira Kurosawa (who was the topic of Marker's 1985 film, AK). Une Journee D'Andrei Arsenevitch was screened at the 2000 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi