Nostalghia (1983)

	Also Known As: Nostalgia
	Year of first release: 1983
	Director: Andrei Tarkowskiy
	Actors: Oleg Yankowskiy, Domiziana Giordano, Erland Josephson
	Country: SU, I
	Genre: Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 14.12.2014, DVD, English version with English subtitles
Synopsis: The Russian poet Andrei Gorchakov (Yankowskiy), accompanied by guide and translator Eugenia (Giordano), is traveling through Italy researching the life of an 18th-century Russian composer. In an ancient spa town, he meets the lunatic Domenico (Josephson), who years earlier had imprisoned his own family in his house for seven years to save them from the evils of the world. Andrei tries to learn more about Domenico. Nostalgic dreams and reality start to mix.
Review: The story is actually good. The dreams meaningfull about what has been lost by the Russian poet once he left his country. Andrei Tarkowskiy tried in 1981 to defect from UdSSR but did not bear it because of the left wife and son. In Nostalghia, the poet misses his wife. In 1982, Tarkowskiy definitely escaped UdSSR to stay in Paris while making movies in Italy and Sweden. Nostalghia is thus his first movie started as Soviet movie maker and finished as a refugee. This makes the story and its meaning even stronger. But the directing is very bad. The sound track is almost not used. Although the lights are used with subtlety and the last scene in the pool is nice, but everything is extremely slow and distant, letting the impression that the three characters did not understand each other during the takes and/or are not coordinated.  The original version is clearly not English and this Italian version could not be found in the DVD.
Rating: 2 /10