I thought I'd post this to a new thread rather than the comments in the Stalker thread. DrX describes the direction of Tarkovsky in Stalker as Kubrick-esque, and he is absolutely spot on. Both love the long, drawn out, beautiful shot, reminiscent of a painting, rather than a movie. The thing is, they were really of the same generation, and seemingly developed that style independently, which tells me they must had similar influences.
Now, thinking back, what other filmmakers have had that style that both Tarkovsky and Kubrick could have been imitating? Sergio Leone had a tendency of long lingering shots of both the landscape and of close-up faces, but he, too, is of that same generation. It's interesting to think about. Who could have been the influences for these three great directors to develop a style so similar to each other. I'm not too sure. I have some guesses, but what do you guys think? Can you find any interviews or quotes from these guys where they describe their influences?
3 comments:
Only thing I could find in a quick search (from an interview with his biographer):
What films and directors did Stanley Kubrick admire? There were many. He loved Woody Allen, Steven Spielberg, Ingmar Bergman, Carlos Saura, Edgar Reitz, Felini. Yeah, lots. Edgar Reitz, he did a film called Heimat. Amazing scenes there. The best thing that came out of Germany after the war. Mind you, very little came out of Germany after the war, but I mean Reitz is great. He loved Carlos Saura, a Spanish director who did a film called Cría Cuervos. Wonderful film. Also Blood Wedding by Saura. Hhe loved Woody Allen and he liked Steven Spielberg films. Oh he liked lots of films. He was very knowledgeable and in fact he saw everything. I also know there were a lot of films he would give up after ten minutes. We had stacks of prints in our projection room and many times he would only see reel one because if reel one somehow leaves you totally cold, the risk is too great to go on and waste another hour and a half. He was an ardent film lover.
Here's and interview with Tarkovsky, where he talks about his favorite directors. He meantions Dovzhenko, Bresson, Antonioni, Fellini, Vigo and Paradzhanov. So, the only similarity there is Fellini.
Sorry, just realized I didn't put in a link in my last comment: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iw1XbE2f304
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