The Mirror

By: Majd Hani

The Mirror is a 1975 Russian Art Film directed by Andrei

Tarkovsky. It is all about an autobiography filled with poems by
the father of Andrei. He was trying to create a new cinematic
language built on impressions and feeling rather than straight
laced narrative. It was a traditional prose blend with poetry.
This film had 3 periods of time unstructured , do not follow a
chronological way. It is a mix of past and present actions.

1. The "present" ones in Circa 1975.

 The "past" actions of post World War II.
 And "another past" of pre World War I

Tarkovsky wrote his memory and the one of the society. In

many scenes , he did not appear but showed us many actions
that exist in other countries like Spain
It is about a flow of time that was directly perceived by the
cut that occurred. In this scene , Tarkovsky moved from the
present to the past in a sequence shot . He used the mirror
like a transition between both time frames. This mirror
represents a crystal image .It forms a cornerstone of
Deleuze 's time image , it is a unity of a virtual and actual
image. It is a mix of present directions and past fallen ones.
Time is the main cause of this split like a crystal it reflects
each phase.
A confusion is enhanced by Tarkovsky’s decision to cast
the same actress, to play both his mother in the childhood
sequences and his wife in the scenes set in the present day.
Here , we can see the "double" .

In the other scene , we can see obviously notice the

changing of time .His mother became suddenly an old
women .The entire place has changed and her reflection
appeared in the mirror.
Another factor that is used by Tarkovsky was the sound
that played an important role for the timing . Like in this
scene, when he was a little boy sleeping , heard a sound
that remind him of his father and react to it by saying
"papa".

In the end , this film is a right example of the direct images.

He introduced a new way to the cinema directing.