Ineffable.

In my opinion, it's one of those great words that sounds like its own meaning. You call something "ineffable," and I feel like English speakers, even if they don't know the word, have a sense of what you mean. What's even more impressive is that the word means beyond words in a way. It's a word that exists to tell us that some things exist that there are no words for. Not every picture is a thousand words. Some are only a sentence or two. Some are a couple pages. And some...well, they're ineffable.

There's very little that compares (for me) to the endorphins released into my brain, when I figure something out. I loved puzzles as a child,…

A devastating, poetic and heart-wrenching depiction of war and loss of innocence. There are no battle scenes, all we experience is the consequences of war: one moment Ivan is taking or making commands and works like a soldier, the next he's dreaming of his childhood with his mother. Its a very simple film, but there's such a strength and power underneath because of the direction, cinematography and its atmosphere. The shot of Ivan sleeping with the camera then sweeping away and looking up the well, where Ivan and his mother are standing, was one of the most beautiful dream transitions i've seen. But there are endless beautiful and haunting moments in this film, especially the low-angle kiss shot, Ivan becoming…

Ivan's Childhood is a lyrical war movie, an emotional, poetic experience. It's about childhood and war, two aspects of life far apart but flung together in this world. It is not the most sophisticated Andrei Tarkovsky movie, nor the most moving or artistic, but it has an elegant simplicity to it. Ivan's Childhood is about nature and innocence, surrounded by the stink of war.

Ivan is a child of war, having had to live a difficult life and grow up quick. As a child though, this world overwhelms him and he doesn't quite understand it. Ivan is convinced he has to fight, he thinks everyone should, and this seems to be his way to cope with trauma. He wants revenge, to…

From time to time mid-watch of a film, my heart will race and hands start to sweat as I get the inkling it has the potential to become an all-time favourite.

However, this hasn't happened for a while. Recently, I've really struggled to enjoy the medium at all, finding it almost impossible to engage or maintain interest regardless of what I was putting on. Naturally, this has left me in a rut of frustration, unable to gain any pleasure from something I hold so close to my heart, an interest I'd go so far as to define myself with. It's an incredibly numbing feeling.

The love for film has never left; I've still wanted to watch as much as humanely…

"Will this be the last war on Earth?"

Andrei Tarkovsky hits the ground running with his first feature film, 'Ivan's Childhood.' With a haunting opening flashback sequence that jolts you harshly into into the nightmarish realities of Ivan's story, we follow the young boy as he makes his way across a violent landscape, working alongside the Soviet Army, in hopes of getting his own brand of revenge after the slaughter of his family. Nikolai Burlyayev, who plays the eponymous, fearless young fighter, gives one of the strongest child performances I've ever seen in film, outacting the rest of the cast and outranking his fellow soldiers with his attitude, confidence and unwavering dedication to his unofficial duty. He knows his strengths…

A mud-soaked forest. Water lazily dripping into a well. The jagged remains of a burnt-down house. The hollow creaking of a dislocated door. Towering white trees in a barren forest. A furiously chiming bell. Sunlight seeping through the bent but not broken survivor of an explosion: a cross. You and her on the cart, holding apples into the rain. Laughing. The peaceful lapping of a boat on troubled waters. Two long-dead bodies sitting grotesquely in the swamp. Treading through a mud-engulfed forest. A silence-puncturing gunshot. The voice of German soldiers. Towering trees in the darkness. The troubled lapping of a boat on peaceful waters. An execution room. Running across a beach. Overtaking her. Reaching your destination: a perished tree.

Ivan's…

What childhood?
War is not for children.
Ivan didn't have a childhood and his journey is something no child should have to go through.

That essentially sums up Tarkovksy's haunting look at a young orphaned boy amidst World War II. He wants to fight and help because he has nothing left. He is naive and yet has proven himself of great service. Soldiers around him want him away from the war because "the front line is no place for a child." However, through the course of the film we see that Ivan is beyond his years in many aspects. Through dreams and imagination we see his childlike desires and glee but this is contrasted by his harsh muddy reality that…

There’s no denying the visual luster and crystalline black & white imagery of the famed Russian classic Ivan’s Childhood, Andrei Tarkovsky’s debut. Even before the existence of Fellini’s “8½,” Tarkovsky put his camera in flight or lets it glide like a kite, and uses negative camera filter to evocate a surreal dream.

His story is one of orphaned Ivan in World War II during the Nazi invasion into Russia, reiterating the oft movie theme of lost innocence and the patriotic purpose to serve the war effort in some way. Ivan is kept company with Soviet officers inside a bunker – holed up long enough for Tarkovsky to lose visual invention – where there is constant talk about sending Ivan along on…

Tarkovsky Marathon Part 1: Ivan's Childhood

Andrei Tarkovsky is one of those directors who I've wanted to watch for years at this point. Everyone talks about him. It doesn't matter if somebody is a world renowned director or a fellow film student, everyone has something to say about his films. Christmas time finally gave me the chance to get his filmography and I started in the obvious place with Ivan's Childhood.

This could very well be one of the finest debuts in all of cinema. Tarkovsky already conveys such confidence in his direction and that confidence works its way into most parts of the film. Nikolai Burlyayev delivers a fantastic performance as the titular Ivan. His story is a sad…