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Too much of everything

From my favorite movies..

A lot of fun.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

this isn't his best one, but it's also his first. and since most of his tend to be around 160 minutes...you have to understand that within the 45 minutes of this thesis film project, there is a lot content. those images of a "brand new" building represent a building that was never realized: it was the image of Stalin's design to replace Christ the Savior of Russia (Church) with a Palace of Soviets. and don't worry, the Church was still destroyed. this movie is latent with such imagery...it is the bourgeois vs. the worker and the worker is glorified (images of the the destruction are magnificent, out of this world, and everyone stands around to see this holy act). it's interesting, because Tarkovsky is definitely a religious man; but in this movie, he seems to be saying that god is in the worker/work. this movie is also interesting to look at in comparison with his other pieces...instead of long shots to associate memory (and its imagination), Tarkovsky uses fragmented images and shots to show the immediate (as well as a more abstract memory- that of war, and still imagination)...and it still evokes the same feeling from the viewer: tension. he's really good at that.

A gentle tale of a boy-violinist who is taunted by his peers and misunderstood by the predominantly female figures in his life (mother, music teacher, little girl-violinist), but introduced to the world of "manliness" by a chance encounter with a member of the working class. Both boy and man are enriched by the interchange, which crosses lines of class and age.For fans of Tarkovsky, it is more revealing as a foretaste of visual images in the filmmaker's later work than of thematic development. But as a study of human psychology and an image of life in the former Soviet Union, it is a source of much to contemplate. Since the story line has certain gaps in it (the editing seems more image- than plot-oriented), however, it bears watching through twice (at 43 minutes, this is not a cumbersome task!)

Spoilers herein.I credit Tarkovsky with genius, PLUS he was able to use that genius to create a few of the world's most powerful films.This isn't one of them. This is obviously a film made not from his soul but to run through some jackbooted superior's checklist. It is cloyingly sentimental. It actually tells an unambiguous story rooted in reality. It has some competent framing and images, but they don't annotate the situation in the unique fashion that he would when in his stride.Tarkovsky's genius was in creating a netherworld halfway between non-film reality and Joycean dreamstate. He was further able to sustain visual meditations, often for a very long time, on elements of that world. Frequently, those elements would trigger lifealtering poetic constructions in one's mind, different in each viewer. There's none of that here. You may be disappointed unless you stay away.Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 4: Has some interesting elements.

STEAMROLLER AND VIOLIN represents the conclusion of my long search to see every one of Andrei Tarkovsky's accessible films of his sparse catalogue. Does the movie hold up to all the other films that Tarkovsky has done? Well, not quite. Nevertheless, the film does highlight the use of several techniques typical of Russian film: split screens, montage, and experimentation of sound. It's also a foretaste of things to come, highlighting Tarkovsky's unique style starting with his first, full-length movie, IVAN'S CHILDHOOD. Overall, an interesting achievement.