Daily Movie Rec 12/10/23
Ivan's Childhood (1962)
"If a well is really deep, you can see a star down there even in the middle of a sunny day."
Directed by: Andrei Tarkovsky
Cinematography by: Vadim Yusov
Country: Soviet Union
Plot:
After his entire family is killed during WWII, a pugnacious young boy named Ivan, with a vendetta against the German army, becomes a scout for a Soviet battalion. Based on Vladimir Bogomolov's 1957 short story "Ivan."
Reasons to watch:
Ivan's Childhood was the feature debut from Andrei Tarkovsky, the daddy of all arthouse filmmakers. His impressive first film, an antiwar poem dipped in dreamy, experimental flashbacks, won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and sharply displays the Soviet savant's technical proficiency, insightful avant-garde storytelling, and profound artistry and understanding of the image. Here, his powers are focused on the effects of war on children, where atrocities create a generation fueled by fear and vengeance, distrust and rage, a pervasive need for power and control in a world with no need for the powerless after untold violence has shredded any perceived notion of safety and childhood innocence. For these traumatized youngsters - their malleable minds incubated in blood - it's not just evening the score; it's payback with interest. And at the end of the film, sneaking through wintry bogs as flares rain down like falling stars, like fallen angels, it's as if heaven itself is burning, fiery tears streaking down the skies, holy debris scorching the horizon, as all innocence is lost.
Where to watch:
The Criterion Channel
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