Ivan's Childhood
1963 ‘Иваново детство’ Directed by Андрей Тарковский
Synopsis
Twelve-year-old Ivan, after his childhood was yanked away by German soldiers, commits himself to the Soviet cause, infiltrating enemy territory to gather strategic information. Stubborn and weary, he no longer bears any traits of the lively youth he once was.
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HOLY SHIT GUYS!
That has been my reaction to almost every Tarkovsky film I've seen so far but his work always manages to surprise me. This film especially astounded me to see how much of a master he had become so early in his career. I try to bring into words my feelings on this film and all that comes to mind is the word perfection. All I can say is that Andrei Tarkovsky's first film (in my humble and greatly biased opinion) surpasses masters of cinema such as Kubrick and Wells in the prime of their careers(I know).
First off I'd like to say that if anyone is looking for a good starting point to delve into Tarkovsky's filmography,…
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And so begins my first full filmography Tarkovsky watch in chronological order, when I am finished i will read Sculpting in Time which i have had on my shelf for all too long. Some will be rewatches, some will be first timers. This is a first timer.
Ivan's Childhood has to be among the finest directorial debuts out there. His cinematic prowess is evident from the very beginning of his career, the masterful artwork and cinematography that he and Vadim Yusov worked so closely to perfect is always apparent in this film. Yet another ''devastating but beautiful'' film (following from my first watch of Come and See) that won't allow you to look away even when you want to the most.
Made in 1962, it feels as fresh and beautiful as if it were made last Wednesday.
Next up: Andrei Rublev -
I did it! I finally did it! I popped my Tarkovsky cherry. One of the most hideous oversights in my film viewing, the lack of the Russian auteur's presence among the ranks of my watched movies is a problem I'm pleased to have finally corrected. His first feature is a disquietingly powerful war story wherein the titular young boy stands in for all mankind. We are Ivan, and he us as his innocence fades with every passing day, every new experience of the evil that men do. Tarkovsky's landscape is as barren as Ivan's future prospects, his existence in this ravaged world spelling nothing but doom and dreariness for everything to come. I've always had a thing for movies that…
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Ivan is a young Soviet spy in the final years of World War 2. His family has been murdered by the Nazi's and he is sworn on vengeance. From that small summary you may have the wrong idea about this film. After a few minutes however you'll realize this isn't your regular war film. This is the first Tarkovsky film I have seen and I must say I was blown away by the visuals. Every shot is gorgeous and could be used to advertise the film. The music really helps pile on tension and works very well with the eerie, post-apocalyptic style visuals/sets. The acting is probably the only thing that wasn't great, it wasn't bad but the performance from…
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Ivan's Childhood contrasts the beauty and innocence of childhood against the brutal, drab, and dreary landscape of World War 2. The film is powerful because it is true, and it doesn't pull any cheap punches. This stuff happened to millions of kids, even if they didn't all react like Ivan. What happens to Ivan is so sad, so terrible, and at the same time so true and so profound, and the child actor portraying Ivan plays this to great effect.
The cinematography is something of a spectacle, creating sharp and distinct objects in the foreground and background to create an entrapping sensation that is ominous and effective.
At the end, we are left with a haunting vision of war and what it does to children.
This was my first Tarkovsky and I look forward to venturing further into his filmography.
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It's so refreshing to watch an outright masterpiece after a steady diet of so much modern Hollywood dreck, and director Andrei Tarkovsky's films are even more special because they never fail at taking your breath away.
Ivan's Childhood is Tarkovsky's feature debut, his first film upon graduating film school, made back in the days when film school graduates didn't try to be the next Tarantino. And it's simply magnificent. Ivan's Childhood is a textbook example of a director actually using the camera and the formal elements of filmmaking to tell his story. From the perspective of a twelve-year-old boy, through his adventures in the Russian army during World War II, Tarkovsky uses black and white contrast, a roving camera, juxtaposition,…
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Ivan's Childhood presented me with a child character I don't think I've come across, at least not often: his innocence already lost, Ivan is prickly and mercurial in demeanor, hellbent on getting back at those who destroyed his family. It's not that he's older than his age because of precocity; rather, he's weary because he's already been through so much. What energy he has, he spends it on fighting back, and there's nothing cute about it. He does this by actively participating in reconnaissance missions even though he's too young to be in the military. He's not precious about his participation, you see, because he's got nothing to lose.
The film doesn't focus on him completely. There are some prolonged…
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My first Tarkovsky film. This was a good movie but the pacing is poor and the plot is disjointed and cold. No emotions are felt by the end of the film and it just left me with questions I didn't really want any answers to. However, the film holds an excellent leading performance by Nikolai Burlyayev and the cinematography is beautiful and transcendent. Ivan's Childhood is a fine debut film but it has its flaws keeping me from ever seeing it again.
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HOLY SHIT GUYS!
That has been my reaction to almost every Tarkovsky film I've seen so far but his work always manages to surprise me. This film especially astounded me to see how much of a master he had become so early in his career. I try to bring into words my feelings on this film and all that comes to mind is the word perfection. All I can say is that Andrei Tarkovsky's first film (in my humble and greatly biased opinion) surpasses masters of cinema such as Kubrick and Wells in the prime of their careers(I know).
First off I'd like to say that if anyone is looking for a good starting point to delve into Tarkovsky's filmography,…
-
It's so refreshing to watch an outright masterpiece after a steady diet of so much modern Hollywood dreck, and director Andrei Tarkovsky's films are even more special because they never fail at taking your breath away.
Ivan's Childhood is Tarkovsky's feature debut, his first film upon graduating film school, made back in the days when film school graduates didn't try to be the next Tarantino. And it's simply magnificent. Ivan's Childhood is a textbook example of a director actually using the camera and the formal elements of filmmaking to tell his story. From the perspective of a twelve-year-old boy, through his adventures in the Russian army during World War II, Tarkovsky uses black and white contrast, a roving camera, juxtaposition,…
-
Ivan's Childhood contrasts the beauty and innocence of childhood against the brutal, drab, and dreary landscape of World War 2. The film is powerful because it is true, and it doesn't pull any cheap punches. This stuff happened to millions of kids, even if they didn't all react like Ivan. What happens to Ivan is so sad, so terrible, and at the same time so true and so profound, and the child actor portraying Ivan plays this to great effect.
The cinematography is something of a spectacle, creating sharp and distinct objects in the foreground and background to create an entrapping sensation that is ominous and effective.
At the end, we are left with a haunting vision of war and what it does to children.
This was my first Tarkovsky and I look forward to venturing further into his filmography.
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This is a beautiful film. It has awaken strong emotions in me. The beauty of a war-desolated landscape is made surreal in it's melancholy. Meaninglessness of war, sadness of a broken childhood. Death.
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Watched my second Tarkovsky movie, which was the first he directed, Ivan's Childhood. I was honestly a little bored towards the beginning, although the cinematography was pretty great as expected, the scenes were just moving so slow(although that may have been purposeful).
By the end however, my opinion of it increased quite a bit. The last 15-20 minutes got really intense, and somehow the melancholy feeling I had had towards Ivan transformed and I was able to connect with the character, which made what came next hit me pretty hard.
Curious to note that although this was the first film he directed, he did not write it. Now I'm curious if there are other films of his he didn't write, or if this is a one off in that sense.
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A poetically stark debut that unifies nature and the destruction of war as one desolate mass of landscape. Tarkovsky uses the idyllic happier times of Ivan as spatial dream sequences to inform the whole of the narrative. He could have depicted these memories as simply memories, but smartly filtering them through the subconscious makes the journey between the two fluid and makes the linkage further bonded. It also sets the stage for Tarkovsky’s future output, where his penchant for both linking images and exploring and sustaining a metaphysical dreamlike state becomes fundamental. The cinematography is hauntingly carved-out with Yusov’s use of shadow and soft beams of light within angled architecture and his outdoor ruins (and who will ever forget those…
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It was an OK movie. The ending definitely made the biggest impact on me. It was pretty slow at times, and at others hard to follow with all his flashbacks.