Margarita Terekhova in the film “Mirror”.
For many people, the autobiographical film “Mirror” seems incomprehensible, abstruse and boring. Not everyone manages to get through the complex associative series built from images, memories of Andrei Tarkovsky’s childhood, philosophical metaphors and symbols. You have to make an effort.
But for those who understand and love Tarkovsky, this film has a fascinating effect. Like good music, painting, literature… Many call “Mirror” the most truthful and realistic film about human life with all its confusion, complexity and splendor.
“Mirror” is an autobiographical film. Tarkovsky wanted to talk about his emotional experience in relations with his parents, wife and son: “about eternal pity for them and an irreparable sense of duty and guilt.” The script for “Mirror” has a lot in common with the director’s own life story. “Childhood impressions are the most important for me throughout the entire subsequent stage of maturity, when I became an adult… It is absolutely obvious that I have a certain complex in relation to my parents,” Tarkovsky admitted.
When he was 5 years old, his father, the poet Arseny Tarkovsky, abandoned the family, leaving his wife with two small children. As an adult, Andrei Tarkovsky repeated this experience and broke up with his first wife, Irma Rausch, leaving her and their son Arseny.
THE GREAT SMOKTUNOVSKY STAYED BEHIND THE SCENES
Andrei Tarkovsky and playwright Alexander Misharin began writing the script (the original title was “White, White Day” based on a verse from a poem by Arseny Tarkovsky) in 1968. Immediately after the filming of Andrei Rublev. The non-linear plot, where events of the past are intertwined with those of the present, was born from Tarkovsky’s memories, from stories told by someone, etc. Only after accumulating a lot of ideas and images, the authors systematized them into episodes (there were 28 of them), so that the narrative had a complete meaning. 14 episodes were written by Misharin, 14 by Tarkovsky. There were almost no disagreements between them. Initially, the script was based on a dialogue with Tarkovsky’s mother (it was supposed to be filmed with a hidden camera), Maria Ivanovna Vishnyakova, about her life.
However, the script was not approved by the chairman of the USSR State Committee for Cinematography, Alexey Romanov, and Tarkovsky immediately began filming his next film, Solaris.
But a few years later, in 1972, the leadership of Goskino changed: Philip Ermash, who highly valued Tarkovsky, was appointed president. The script for the film “White, White Day” was taken off the shelf, approved and signed for production.
The filming of the movie cost 622,000 rubles (which was a lot at that time) and 7,500 meters of rare Kodak film.
The film takes place in different eras: before, during and after the war. The main character is the poet Alexey, who is shown in different periods of his life: as a child, as a teenager… In adulthood, only his voice is heard (belonging to Innokenty Smoktunovsky), he does not appear in the frame. The entire film is images imprinted in his memory. Memories are intertwined with documentary chronicles: the civil war in Spain, the launch of the first Soviet stratospheric balloons, the Great Patriotic War… The narration is accompanied by a voice-over reading of poems by Arseny Tarkovsky.
Andrei Tarkovsky changed a lot in the original script and continued to make changes during the filming process. Thus, the group never knew which scene would be filmed tomorrow. He and Alexander Misharin came to the set in the morning with sheets of paper on which a new version and new episodes were recorded. Instead of an interview with the mother, the role of the mother played by Margarita Terekhova (the father was played by Oleg Yankovsky) was significantly expanded. She played the mother and the wife of the main character as a single female character in different time periods.
TEREKHOVA’S NEGATIVE CHARM CONQUERED
For the leading female role, Tarkovsky was looking for an actress similar to his mother. There were several contenders: Alla Demidova (he invited her to return to Andrei Rublev for the role of the little fool, but Demidova later refused) and the favorite actress of Swedish director Ingmar Bergman, Bibi Andersson (Tarkovsky was going to film her in the role of Hari in Solaris). But in the end he settled on Margarita Terekhova, who had a unique negative charm. He would later call her “a brilliant, ordinary actress.” And she will meet with Tarkovsky – the best school in her profession.
By the way, Tarkovsky chose Alla Demidova for The Mirror, but in a small role as a printing clerk. Tarkovsky called Anatoly Solonitsyn, whom he chose for all his films after Andrei Rublev (as well as Nikolai Grinko), and Margarita Terekhova ideal actors. They believed that the director “liked children.” Terekhova only once refused to complete the task assigned to her, when in one of the scenes her heroine had to cut off the head of a rooster. The actress flatly refused to do this and left the set, saying in her heart: “In general, I think that after “Andrei Rublev” there was no need to film anything.” And Tarkovsky replied to her: “Let you know that I am making my best film!”
The director’s sister, Marina Arsenyevna Tarkovskaya, who recently passed away, said that on the set of “Mirror” a spark flew between her brother and Margarita Terekhova. And he himself admitted: “It’s good that I fell in love with Rita at the end of the filming. Otherwise there would be no picture.” It is unlikely that his words can be taken literally: the film was starred by his wife Larisa Tarkovskaya. Margarita Terekhova was rather a muse, a source of inspiration. True, witnesses claim that Larisa Tarkovskaya and Terekhova could not stand each other. And they did not hide this during the filming.
MUSIC OF RAIN AND WIND
The incredible beauty of the film’s image is the result of Georgy Rerberg’s perfect camera handling and the work of production designer Alexander Dvigubsky. Rerberg works with light like an artist with paints and canvases.
At first, Tarkovsky wanted to limit himself to a selection of music by Bach, Handel and Albinoni. But then he decided that original music was needed and invited composer Eduard Artemyev, who created the sound space of the frame from the sounds of the stream, wind and rain. For the passage with the child, Tarkovsky asked Artemyev to write “Children’s Fears.” And he himself suggested a solution to express this: a child’s flute should sound.
There were several options for the title of the film. Tarkovsky rejected the original “Confession” – it seemed too pretentious. “Martyrology” was better, but too abstruse and incomprehensible. “Atonement” is flat and vulgar. At the end of filming, he abandoned the title taken from his father’s poem – “White, white day”. And replaced it with “Mirror”. It is in the mirror that a person sees himself, and the events of the film are a reflection of the consciousness of the main character.
The premiere of the film was closed and took place in a narrow circle of the Soviet scientific and creative elite. Dmitry Shostakovich, Pyotr Kapitsa, Viktor Shklovsky, Chengiz Aitmanov were invited… They all liked the film very much. However, the film was not widely released; it was shown on the second or third screen. The film authorities were afraid to send the film to the Cannes Film Festival, although Tarkovsky was promised this. The film did not even enter the competition at the Moscow Film Festival. But foreign rental companies bought and showed “Zerkalo” in many countries of the world. In Italy, the film received the David di Donatello award for the best foreign film.
According to polls of film critics from around the world, “Mirror” is considered the pinnacle of Tarkovsky’s work and one of the best films “of all time.”
