Category: Film

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Roi Vaara’s performance for film Artist’s Dilemma (1997) obviously deals with the alleged sharp distinction between art and life. It is not clear, whether the man is not able or simply unwilling to decide, he just keeps walking back and forth on the frozen sea and basically ends up being both: not quite art and not quite life.
Interestingly, he is out there, on his own, with no land and no people in sight — is it an inner conflict he is facing? To be honest, yes, I like to think of the artist as someone who now and then has to step away from the center (of life) to be able to see things clearer. And depending on what art form he chooses, the process of creating can involve a temporary social withdrawal as well. But then again, when or where does life end and art begin? Isn’t it actually only a blurring of boundaries?  (more…)

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The Hole (1994) is a German twelve-minute absurdist short film starring actor Otto Sander. Somewhere out there, after making his way through the woods, a man finds a mysterious black hole in the ground. It is not surprising that he gets the urge to investigate thoroughly by throwing various objects into it…who wouldn’t have done the same thing?
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Nostalghia (1983) is one of the late films by Soviet writer and director Andrei Tarkovsky starring Oleg Yankovsky, Domiziana Giordano and Erland Josephson.

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Its production differs quite a lot from Tarkovsky’s earlier works, not only because it is his first film directed outside the Soviet Union, but also because he could additionally draw on financial reserves provided by Italian State Television and a French film company near completion. Most of the scenes were shot in Italy using picturesque locations in northern Lazio and Tuscany with the latter also being the main place of setting within the storyline.

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The plot revolves around the Russian writer Andrei Gorchakov and his travel to Italy. He aims to research the life of Russian composer Pavel Sosnovsky, who used to live in a villa in the Tuscan countryside and committed suicide shortly after his return to Russia. Accompanying him on this journey is Eugenia, his Italian interpreter, who makes no secret of being attracted to Gorchakov, but gets rejected. (more…)