{{redirect|Tarkovsky|the Russian poet and father of Andrei Tarkovsky|Arseny Tarkovsky}}
{{Infobox Actor
| bgcolour = silver
| name = Andrei Tarkovsky
| image = Tarkovsky v kresle.jpg
| birthname = Andrei Arsenyevich Tarkovsky
| birthdate = {{birth date|1932|4|4|mf=y}}
| birthplace = Zavrazhye, [[Soviet Union]]
| deathdate = {{Death date and age|1986|12|29|1932|4|4}}
| deathplace = [[Paris]], [[France]]
| restingplace = [[Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois Russian Cemetery|Cimetière de Liers]], [[Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, Essonne|Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois]], [[France]]
| occupation = [[Film director]]
| yearsactive = 1958-1986
| spouse = [[Irma Raush]] (1957-1970)<br/>Larissa Kizilova (1970-1986)
| children = Arseny Tarkovsky (1962) <br/> Andrei Tarkovsky Jr. (1970)
| parents = [[Arseny Tarkovsky]]<br/>Maria Vishnyakova
| baftaawards = '''[[BAFTA Award for Best Film|Best Foreign Film]]''' <br> 1988 ''[[Offret]]''
}}
'''Andrei Arsenyevich Tarkovsky''' ({{lang-ru|Андре́й Арсе́ньевич Тарко́вский}}) ([[April 4]], [[1932]] - [[December 29]], [[1986]]) was a [[Russians|Russian]] [[film director]], writer and opera director. Although Tarkovksy directed only seven feature films during his twenty-year active career, he is widely regarded as the most important and influential Russian filmmaker of the late 20th century. He attained critical acclaim for directing such films as ''[[Andrei Rublev (film)|Andrei Rublev]]'', ''[[Solaris (1972 film)|Solaris]]'' and ''[[Stalker (film)|Stalker]]''.

Tarkovsky has also worked extensively as a screenwriter, film editor, [[film theory|film theorist]] and [[theater director]]. He directed most of his films in the [[Cinema of the Soviet Union|Soviet Union]], with the exception of his last two films which were produced in [[Cinema of Italy|Italy]] and [[Cinema of Sweden|Sweden]]. His films are characterized by [[Christian]] and [[metaphysics|metaphysical]] themes, extremely long takes, lack of conventional dramatic structure and plot, and memorable images of exceptional beauty.

==Biography==
===Childhood and early life===
Tarkovsky was born in the village of Zavrazhye in [[Kostroma Oblast|Kostroma Province]] as the child of the poet and translator [[Arseny Alexandrovich Tarkovsky]] and Maria Ivanova Vishnyakova, a graduate of the [[Maxim Gorky Literature Institute]]. In 1934 his sister Marina was born. He spent his childhood in [[Yuryevets, Ivanovo Oblast|Yuryevets]] in the [[Ivanovo Oblast|Ivanovo Province]].<ref>{{cite news
| first= Marina
| last= Sipatova
| title = Тайна рода Тарковских
| publisher = [[Moskovskiy Komsomolets]]
| date= 2007
| url = http://www.mk.ru/blogs/MK/2007/02/20/culture/92002
| accessdate = 2007-11-25 }}</ref> In 1937 the father left the family, and subsequently volunteered for the army in 1941. Tarkovsky stayed with his mother, and moved with her and his sister to [[Moscow]], where she worked as a proofreader in a printing press. In 1939 Tarkovsky enrolled at the Moscow School № 554. During the war Tarkovsky, his mother and his sister Marina evacuated to [[Yuryevets, Ivanovo Oblast|Yuryevets]] and lived with Marias mother. In 1943 the family returned to Moscow. Tarkovsky continued his studies at his old school, where the poet [[Andrey Voznesensky]] was one of his classmates. He also learned the piano at a music school and attended classes at an art school. The family lived on the Shshipok Street in the [[Zamoskvorechye District]] in Moscow. Many themes of his childhood - the evacuation, his mother and her two children, the withdrawn father - feature prominently in his film [[The Mirror (1975 film)|The Mirror]].

Directly after high school graduation, from 1951 to 1952, Tarkovsky studied [[Arabic language|Arabic]] at the Oriental Institute in Moscow, a branch of the [[Academy of Sciences of the USSR]]. He did not finished his studies and dropped out to work for the Academy of Science Institute for Non-Ferrous Metals and Gold as a prospector. He participated in a year-long research expedition to the river Kureikye near [[Turukhansk]] in the [[Krasnoyarsk Krai|Krasnoyarsk Province]]. During this time in the [[Taiga]] Tarkovsky decided to study film.

===Film school student===
Upon return from the research expedition in 1954 Tarkovsky applied at the [[All-Union State Institute of Cinematography|State Institute of Cinematography]] (VGIK) and was admitted to the film-directing-program. He was in the same class as [[Irma Raush]], whom he married in April 1957.<ref>{{cite news
| first= Anastasia
| last= Pleshakova
| title = Тарковский был «разрешенным контрреволюционером»
| publisher = [[Komsomolskaya Pravda]]
| date= [[April 4]], [[2007]]
| url = http://www.kp.ru/daily/23881/65502/
| accessdate = 2007-11-27 }}</ref>

[[Image:The killers Tarkovsky.jpg|thumb|left|250px|[[Andrei Tarkovsky]] in ''[[The Killers (1956 film)|The Killers]]''.]]
The early [[Nikita Khrushchev|Khrushchev]] era offered unique opportunities for young film directors. Before 1953 annual film production was low and most films were directed by veteran directors. After 1953 more and more films were produced, many of them by young directors. The [[Khrushchev Thaw]] opened Soviet society and allowed, to some degree, Western literature, films and music. This allowed Tarkovksy to see films of the [[Italian neorealism|Italian neorealists]] and the [[French New Wave]], and of directors such as [[Akira Kurosawa|Kurosawa]], [[Luis Buñuel|Buñuel]], [[Ingmar Bergman|Bergman]], [[Robert Bresson|Bresson]] and [[Kenji Mizoguchi|Mizoguchi]]. Tarkovsky absorbed the idea of the [[auteur theory|auteur]] as a necessary condition for creativity.

Tarkovsky’s teacher and mentor was [[Mikhail Romm]], who taught many film students who would later become famous and influential film directors. In 1956 Tarkovsky directed his first student short film, ''[[The Killers (1956 film)|The Killers]]'' after a short story of [[Ernest Hemingway]]. The short film ''[[There Will Be No Leave Today]]'' and the screenplay ''[[Concentrate (screenplay)|Concentrate]]'' followed in 1958 and 1959.

During his third year at the VGIK Tarkovsky met [[Andrei Konchalovsky]]. They found that they had much in common as they liked the same film directors and shared the same ideas on cinema and films. In 1959 they wrote the script ''Antarctica - Distant Country'', which was later published in the [[Moskovskiy Komsomolets]]. Tarkovsky submitted the script to [[Lenfilm]], but was rejected. They were more successful with the script ''[[The Steamroller and the Violin]],'' which they sold to [[Mosfilm]]. This film became Tarkovsky’s diploma film, earning him his diploma in 1960 and winning him the first prize at the New York Student Film Festival in 1961.

===Film career in the Soviet Union===
Tarkovsky's first feature film was ''[[Ivan's Childhood]]'' in 1962. He had inherited the film from director Eduard Abalov, who had to abort the project. The film earned Tarkovksy international acclaim and won him the [[Golden Lion]] award at the [[Venice Film Festival]] in 1962. In the same year, on September 30, his first son Arseny (called Senka in Tarkovsky's diaries) Tarkovsky was born.

From 1965 to 1965 he directed the film ''[[Andrei Rublev (film)|Andrei Rublev]]'' about the life of [[Andrei Rublev]], the great 15th century Russian [[iconography|icon painter]]. ''Andrei Rublev'' was not immediately released after completion due to problems with Soviet authorities. Tarkovsky had to cut the film several times, resulting in several different versions of varying lengths. A version of the film was presented at the [[Cannes Film Festival]] in 1969 and won the [[FIPRESCI|FIPRESCI prize]]. The film was officially released in the Soviet Union in a cut version in 1971.

He divorced from his wife [[Irma Raush]] in 1970. In the same year he married Larissa Kizilova (née Egorkina), who had been a production assistant for the film ''Andrei Rublev''. Their son Andrei Tarkovsky Jr. was born in the same year on August 7.

In 1971 he completed his film ''[[Solaris (1972 film)|Solaris]]'', an adaption of the novel ''[[Solaris (novel)|Solaris]]'' by [[Stanisław Lem]]. He had worked on this project together with the screenwriter Fridrikh Gorenshtein as early as 1968. The film was presented at the [[Cannes Film Festival]] and won the [[Grand Prix (Cannes Film Festival)|Grand Prix Spécial du Jury]] and the [[FIPRESCI|FIPRESCI prize]] and was nominated for the [[Palme d'Or]]. From 1973 to 1974 he shot the film ''[[The Mirror (1975 film)|The Mirror]]'', a highly autobiographical film drawing on his childhood experience and incorporating some of his father's poems. From the beginning the film was not well received by Soviet authorities due to its content and its perceived elitist nature. Presumably these difficulties made Tarkovsky toy with the idea of going abroad and producing a film outside the Soviet film industry.<ref>{{cite book
| last = Tarkovsky
| first = Andrei
| authorlink =
| coauthors = translated by Kitty Hunter-Blair
| title = [[Time Within Time: The Diaries 1970-1986]]
| publisher = Seagull Books
| date = 1991
| birthplace = [[Calcutta]]
| location = [[Calcutta]]
| url =
| doi =
| id =
| isbn = 81-7046-083-2}}</ref>

During 1975 Tarkovsky also worked on the screenplay ''Hoffmanniana'', about the German writer and poet [[E. T. A. Hoffmann]]. In December 1976 he arranged, in ''[[Hamlet]]'', his first and only stage play, at the [[Lenkom Theatre]] in [[Moscow]]. The main role was played by [[Anatoly Solonitsyn]] who also acted in several of Tarkovsky's films. At the end of 1978 he also wrote the screenplay ''Sardor'' together with the writer Aleksandr Misharin.

The last film Tarkovsky directed in the Soviet Union was ''[[Stalker (film)|Stalker]]'', inspired by the novel ''[[Roadside Picnic]]'' by [[Arkady and Boris Strugatsky]]. Work on this film began in 1976. The production was mired in troubles. Improper development of the negatives had ruined all the exterior shots. Tarkovsky's relationship with the cinematographer [[Georgy Rerberg]] deteriorated to the point where Tarkovsky hired [[Alexander Knyazhinsky]] as a new first cinematographer. Furthermore, Tarkovsky suffered a heart attack in April 1978, resulting in further delay. The film was completed in 1979 and won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the [[Cannes Film Festival]].

===Film career outside the Soviet Union===
During the summer of 1979 Tarkovsky traveled to Italy, where he shot the documentary [[Voyage in Time]] together with his longtime friend [[Tonino Guerra]]. Tarkovksy returned to Italy in 1980 for an extended trip during which he and Tonino Guerra completed the script for the film ''[[Nostalghia]]''. During 1981 he traveled to the United Kingdom and Sweden. During his trip to Sweden he had considered defecting the Soviet Union, but ultimately decided to return because his wife and his son.

Tarkovsky returned to Italy in 1982 to start shooting ''[[Nostalghia]]''. He never went back to his home country. As [[Mosfilm]] withdrew from the project, he had to complete the film with financial support provided by the Italian [[RAI]]. Tarkovsky completed the film in 1983. ''[[Nostalghia]]'' was presented at the [[Cannes Film Festival]] and won the [[Grand Prix (Cannes Film Festival)|Grand Prix Spécial du Jury]], the [[FIPRESCI|FIPRESCI prize]] and the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury. Soviet authorities prevented the film to win the [[Palme d'Or]], a fact that hardened Tarkovsky's resvolve to never work in the Soviet Union again. In the same year he also arranged the opera ''[[Boris Godunov]]'' at the [[Royal Opera House]] in [[London]] under the musical direction of [[Claudio Abbado]].

[[Image:Gravestone of Andrei Tarkovsky 2007.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Andrei and Larissa Tarkovsky's grave, [[Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois Russian Cemetery]] in France.]]
He spend most of 1984 preparing the film ''[[The Sacrifice]]''. On [[July 10]], [[1984]] he announced that he would never return to the Soviet Union and would remain in the West at a press conference in [[Milano]]. At this time his son Andrei Jr. was still in the Soviet Union and not allowed to leave the country.

During 1985 he shot the film ''[[The Sacrifice]]'' in Sweden. At the end of the year he was diagnosed with terminal [[lung cancer]]. In January 1986 he began treatment in [[Paris]] and is joined there by his wife and his son, who finally was allowed to leave the Soviet Union. ''[[The Sacrifice]]'' was presented at the [[Cannes Film Festival]] and received the [[Grand Prix (Cannes Film Festival)|Grand Prix Spécial du Jury]], the [[FIPRESCI|FIPRESCI prize]] and the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury. As Tarkovsky was unable to attend due to his illness, the prizes were collected by his son Andrei Jr.

Tarkovsky kept fairly regular [[Time Within Time: The Diaries 1970-1986|diaries]] from 1970 until shortly before his death. The last entry was on [[December 15]], [[1986]]. His last words are "But now I have no strength left - that is the problem". The diaries are sometimes also known as ''Martyrolog'' and have been published posthumously in 1989 and in English in 1991.

Tarkovsky died on [[December 29]], [[1986]] in Paris at age 54. He is buried on [[January 3]], [[1987]] on the [[Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois Russian Cemetery]] in [[Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, Essonne|Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois]] in [[France]]. The inscription on his grave stone, which was created by the Russian sculptor [[Ernst Neizvestny]], reads ''To the man who saw the Angel''.

==Work==

===Influences===

Tarkovsky became a film director during the mid and late 1950s, a period during which Soviet society opened to foreign films, literature and music. This allowed Tarkovksy to see films of European, American and Japanese directors, an experience which influenced his own film making. His teacher and mentor at the film school [[Mikhail Romm]] allowed his students considerable freedom and emphasized the independence of the film director.

Tarkovsky was, according to Shavka Abdusalmov, a fellow student at the film school, fascinated by Japanese films. He was amazed by how every character on the screen is exceptional and how everyday events such as a Samurai cutting bread with his sword are elevated to something special and put into the limelight.<ref>{{cite book
| last = Abdusalamov
| first = Shavkat
| authorlink =
| coauthors = translated by Sergei Sossinsky
| title = Feedback Effects, in About Andrei Tarkovsky, Memoirs and Biographies
| publisher = Progress Publishers
| date = 1990
| location = [[Moscow]]
| url = http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~tstronds/nostalghia.com/TheTopics/On_Japanese_Influences.html
| doi =
| id =
| isbn = 5-01-001973-6}}</ref>

In 1972 Tarkovsky told film historian Leonid Kozlov his ten favorite films. The list includes ''[[Diary of a country priest]]'' and ''[[Mouchette]]'' by [[Robert Bresson]], ''[[Winter Light]]'', ''[[Wild Strawberries (film)|Wild Strawberries]]'' and ''[[Persona (film)|Persona]]'' by [[Ingmar Bergman]], ''[[Nazarin]]'' by [[Luis Buñuel]], ''[[City Lights]]'' by [[Charlie Chaplin]], ''[[Ugetsu]]'' by [[Kenji Mizoguchi]], ''[[Seven Samurai]]'' by [[Akira Kurosawa]] and ''[[Woman in the Dunes]]'' by [[Hiroshi Teshigahara]]. Among his favorite directors are [[Luis Buñuel]], [[Kenji Mizoguchi]], [[Ingmar Bergman]], [[Robert Bresson]], [[Akira Kurosawa]], [[Michelangelo Antonioni]], [[Jean Vigo]] and [[Carl Theodor Dreyer]].<ref>{{cite journal
| last = Lasica
| first = Tom
| authorlink =
| coauthors =
| title = Tarkovsky's Choice
| journal = Sight and Sound
| volume = 3
| issue = 3
| pages =
| publisher =
| location =
| date = March 1993
| url = http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~tstronds/nostalghia.com/TheTopics/Tarkovsky-TopTen.html
| doi =
| id =
| accessdate = 2007-12-25 }}</ref>

With the exception of ''City Lights'' the list does not contain any films or directors of the early silent era. The reason is that Tarkovsky saw film as an art as only a relatively recent phenomena, with the early film-making forming only a prelude. The list has also no films or directors from Tarkovsky's native Russia, although he rated Soviet directors such as [[Boris Barnet]] and [[Alexander Dovzhenko]] highly.

===Cinematic Style===
[[Image:Tarkovsky work.jpg|thumb|right|Andrei Tarkovsky at work]]
Tarkovsky's films are characterised by Christian and [[metaphysics|metaphysical]] themes, extremely [[long take]]s, and memorable images of exceptional beauty. Recurring motifs in his films are dreams, memory, childhood, running water accompanied by fire, rain indoors, reflections, levitation, and characters re-appearing in the foreground of long panning movements of the camera.

Tarkovsky developed a theory of cinema that he called "sculpting in time". By this he meant that the unique characteristic of cinema as a medium was to take our experience of time and alter it. Unedited movie footage transcribes time in [[Real-time (media)|real time]]. By using long takes and few cuts in his films, he aimed to give the viewers a sense of time passing, time lost, and the relationship of one moment in time to another.

Up to and including his film ''[[The Mirror (1975 film)|Mirror]]'', Tarkovsky focused his cinematic works on exploring this theory. After Mirror, he announced that he would focus his work on exploring the [[dramatic unities]] proposed by [[Aristotle]]: a concentrated action, happening in one place, within the span of a single day.

==Awards, honors and recognitions==
Numerous awards were bestowed on Tarkovsky throughout his lifetime. At the [[Venice Film Festival]] he was awarded the ''[[Golden Lion]]''. At the [[Cannes Film Festival]] he won several times the ''[[FIPRESCI|FIPRESCI prize]]'', the ''Prize of the Ecumenical Jury'' and the ''[[Grand Prix (Cannes Film Festival)|Grand Prix Spécial du Jury]]''. He was also nominated for the ''[[Palme d'Or]]'' two times. The [[British Academy of Film and Television Arts]] awarded the ''BAFTA Award for Best Film'' for his film ''[[The Sacrifice]]''.

Under the influence of [[Glasnost]] and [[Perestroika]] Tarkovsky was finally recognized in the Soviet Union in the fall of 1986, shortly before his death, by a retrospective of his films in Moscow. After his death an entire issue of the film magazine ''Iskusstvo Kino'' was devoted to Tarkovsky. In their obituaries the film committee of the [[Government of the Soviet Union|Council of Ministers of the USSR]] and the Union of Soviet Film Makers expressed their sorrow that Tarkovsky had to spend the last years of his life in exile.<ref>{{cite news
| first=
| last=
| title = Obituary
| publisher = [[Literaturnaya Gazeta]]
| date= 1987-01-07
| url =
| accessdate = }}</ref>

Posthumously he was awarded the ''[[USSR State Prize]]'' in 1989 and the ''[[Lenin Prize]]'' in 1990, the two highest state honors in the Soviet Union. In 1989 the ''Andrei Tarkovsky Memorial Prize'' was established, with its first recipient being the Russian animator [[Yuriy Norshteyn]]. Since 1993 the [[Moscow International Film Festival]] awards the annual ''Andrei Tarkovsky Award''. In 1996 the Andrei Tarkovsky Museum opened in [[Yuryevets, Ivanovo Oblast|Yuryevets]], his childhood town.<ref>{{cite web
| last =
| first =
| title = МУЗЕЙ А.ТАРКОВСКОГО
| url = http://www.museum.ru/tarkovsky
| accessdate = 2007-11-30 }}</ref>

{{See|Awards conferred on Andrei Tarkovsky}}

==See also==
*[[Works of Andrei Tarkovsky]]

==Works about Tarkovsky==
===Books===
* ''Andrei Tarkovsky: Interviews (Conversations With Filmmakers Series)'', edited by John Gianvito, University Press of Mississippi, 2006, ISBN 1-57806-220-9
* ''The Cinema of Andrei Tarkovsky'', by Mark Le Fanu, British Film Institute, 1987, ISBN 0-85170-194-9
* ''The Films of Andrei Tarkovsky: A Visual Fugue'', by Vida T. Johnston and Graham Petrie, 1994, ISBN 0-253-20887-4
* ''Andrei Tarkovsky'', by Sean Martin, Pocket Essentials, 2006, ISBN 1-904048-49-8
* ''Andrei Rublev'', by Robert Bird, British Film Institute, 2005, ISBN 1-84457-038-X
* ''Through the Mirror: Reflections on the Films of Andrei Tarkovsky'', Cambridge Scholars Press, 2006, ISBN 1-904303-11-0

===Films===
* ''[[Moscow Elegy]]'' (1988) - Documentary film by [[Alexander Sokurov]], using mostly stock footage from Tarkovsky's films
* ''Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky'' (1988) - Documentary film by Michal Leszczylowski, an editor of the film ''[[The Sacrifice]]''

==References==
{{reflist}}

===General References===
{{refbegin}}
* {{Citation
| last = Sean
| first = Martin
| contribution = Live in the House – and the House Will Stand: The Role of Autobiography and Lived Experience in Tarkovsky’s Films and Aesthetic
| year = 2006
| title = Through the Mirror: Reflections on the Films of Andrei Tarkovs
| editor-last = Jónsson
| editor-first = Gunnlaugur A.
| editor2-last = Óttarsson
| editor2-first = Thorkell Á.
| volume =
| pages = 6-40
| place=
| publisher = Cambridge Scholars Press
| publisher = Cambridge Scholars Press
| id = }}
{{refend}}

==External links==
* {{imdb|0001789}}
* {{senses|id=directors/02/tarkovsky|name=Andrei Tarkovsky}}
* [http://www.nostalghia.com Webpage on Andrei Tarkovsky]

{{tarkovsky}}
{{CinemaofRussia}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tarkovsky, Andrei}}
[[Category:BAFTA winners (people)]]
[[Category:Russian actors]]
[[Category:Russian and Soviet film directors]]
[[Category:Opera directors]]
[[Category:Russian Orthodox Christians]]
[[Category:Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography alumni]]
[[Category:Lung cancer deaths]]
[[Category:1932 births]]
[[Category:1986 deaths]]

[[bg:Андрей Тарковски]]
[[ca:Andrei Tarkovski]]
[[cs:Andrej Tarkovskij]]
[[da:Andrej Tarkovskij]]
[[de:Andrei Arsenjewitsch Tarkowski]]
[[et:Andrei Tarkovski]]
[[el:Αντρέι Ταρκόφσκι]]
[[es:Andrei Tarkovski]]
[[fa:آندری تارکوفسکی]]
[[fr:Andreï Tarkovski]]
[[gl:Andrei Tarkovski]]
[[it:Andrej Arsen'evič Tarkovskij]]
[[he:אנדריי טרקובסקי]]
[[ka:ანდრეი ტარკოვსკი]]
[[lt:Andrejus Tarkovskis]]
[[hu:Andrej Arszenyevics Tarkovszkij]]
[[nl:Andrej Tarkovski]]
[[ja:アンドレイ・タルコフスキー]]
[[no:Andrej Tarkovskij]]
[[nn:Andrej Tarkovskij]]
[[pl:Andriej Tarkowski]]
[[pt:Andrei Tarkovski]]
[[ro:Andrei Tarkovsky]]
[[ru:Тарковский, Андрей Арсеньевич]]
[[sk:Andrej Tarkovskij]]
[[sr:Андреј Тарковски]]
[[fi:Andrei Tarkovski]]
[[sv:Andrej Tarkovskij]]
[[tg:Андрей Тарковский]]
[[tr:Andrey Tarkovski]]
[[uk:Тарковський Андрій Арсенович]]
[[zh:安德烈·塔科夫斯基]]