Andrei Tarkovsky’s final film is headed to cinemas yet again.
We here at FSR love Andrei Tarkovsky‘s The Sacrifice. Not only does the film come highly recommended as essential post-Blade Runner 2049 viewing, we’ve actually extensively reviewed a Blu-ray release of The Sacrifice a few years ago. Many will know Tarkovsky as the director of Solaris, but it is his very last feature that’s returning to theaters in a new restoration. Courtesy of The Playlist, we have a brand new trailer to go along with this fantastic news.
https://www.facebook.com/theplaylist/videos/10155074042115745/
It barely gets any artier than Tarkovsky — who sadly only made seven feature films before his untimely death — working with Ingmar Bergman’s cinematographer, Sven Nykvist. The new trailer for The Sacrifice, wordless but evocative in its soundtrack and imagery, highlights the key components in Tarkovsky’s filmic signature — his penchant for deeply emotional if languid shots of the real and that which is not-quite.
The Sacrifice combines a hypothetical World War III with sweeping theological and metaphysical questions. In general, Tarkovsky’s films are carefully crafted to emphasize environment, making his work experiential, first and foremost. According to FSR’s Landon Palmer, “the beauty of his filmmaking deserves to be seen in the most detail possible,” making a theatrical re-release the perfect medium through which to provide a crucial filmic education of one of Russia’s pioneer filmmakers.
The Sacrifice will screen at the New York Film Festival on October 14 before opening at Film Society Lincoln Center on October 20. It is then set to play at The Quad on October 27, with more cities to follow.
Official synopsis:
As a wealthy Swedish family celebrates the birthday of their patriarch Alexander, news of the outbreak of World War III reaches their remote Baltic island — and the happy mood turns to horror. The family descends into a state of psychological devastation, brilliantly evoked by Tarkovsky’s arresting palette of luminous greys washing over the bleak landscape around their home.
For Alexander, a philosopher troubled about man’s lack of spirituality, the prospect of certain extinction compels the ultimate sacrifice, and he enters into a Faustian bargain with God to save his loved ones from the fear which grips them. The director’s last film, made as he was dying of cancer, The Sacrifice is Tarkovsky’s personal statement, a profoundly moving, redemptive tragedy steeped in unforgettable imagery and heart-wrenching emotion.
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