As a film student, I, like many before me, found myself caught under the mesmerizing spell of Russian auteur Andrei Tarkovsky soon after I watched the opening shot of his seminal Stalker in class. I rushed to find a copy and, sitting on my dorm room bed — laptop open, headphones blasting — I watched, mouth agape, as the sheer poeticism and beauty of his work washed over me. For some, Russian slow cinema is a sleep-inducing slog better left on the dusty shelves of film history. For others (myself included), it proves a rapturous experience through its challenges and subsequent rewards. Steeped in philosophy, dread, and beauty, Tarkovsky’s picture is a staple and lasting example of the medium’s particular powers. With each revisit, Stalker continually unfolds new layers to the attentive viewer: though it was released in 1979, essayists and scholars (not to mention teachers and students) are still having a field day.
So, in 2012, famous editor Walter Murch joined a collection of film writers and scholars — led by Geoff Dyer, who’d recently published a Stalker-centered text entitled Zona — at the New York Institute for the Humanities to watch and, every 20 minutes, pause and dissect Tarkovsky’s masterpiece in front of a live audience. Thankfully, the evening (called “Tarkovsky Interruptus”) was filmed, and has been made available through their YouTube page. Having now watched it multiple times, I must say my favorite moments come when, after the panel has watched a section, one exclaims that, despite all the comments about Tarkovsky’s work that it is slow and “without action,” the film is actually full of tension, movement, and gun fire. That is the perfect summary of Stalker‘s power: throughout the 164-minute run time, it is so full of life and power, and takes viewers on such an immense journey, that, by the climax, it leaves one rendered inconsiderate of its beginnings — until the next viewing.
See the full panel below, also including Phillip Lopate, Francine Prose, Michael Benson, Dana Stevens, and Lawrence Weschler.
Stalker is currently streaming on FilmStruck and is rumored to be arriving on The Criterion Collection this year.