1961 ‘Каток и скрипка’ Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky
Seven year old Sasha practices violin every day to satisfy the ambition of his parents. Already withdrawn as a result of his routines, Sasha quickly regains confidence when he accidentally meets and befriends worker Sergei, who works on a steamroller in their upscale Moscow neighborhood.
All great artists must start some where, and the final student film from legendary Russian Director Andrei Tarkovsky is a solid early effort.
The roughly 45 minute film follows the story of Sasha who is a young violinist in Moscow. He gets picked on by kids in his neighborhood until one day he meets a steamroller driver named Sergei, who becomes a father figure in his life.
From my brief research on the film Tarkovsky was inspired to create this story based on the father son dynamic in the 1948 film 'Bicycle Thieves'. The Steamroller and the Violin captures the theme of being an artist compared to being apart of the labor force or proletariat. I can see how this…
A poignant short film from Andrei Tarkovsky that displays flashes of brilliance in the early days of his career. It features a cute as a button young lad with a latent gift for striking up a moving tune on his violin. His talent emerges when he befriends an unlikely man who is working with a steamroller just below his apartment, and the friendship blossoms amongst the bullying and torment of neighbourhood children. So many wonderful moments are vividly realised between the characters and some inspired camera technique is displayed in an early scene involving a mirror, where we spend a short moment gazing at small wonders through Sasha's eyes. 45 minutes that are well worth your time.
Everything Tarkovsky touches is gold. He can do no complete wrong. This is a great example of that. Yes, The Steamroller and the Violin is not by any means as complex/artsy as Andrei's feature length films, but it is nonetheless an entertaining and well made film. The first few minutes shocked me at just how different it was from anything Tarkovsky has done, but as it progressed I got used to it and eventually loved it.
One of my biggest fears going into this was that the main character would be super annoying. Thank Tarkovsky I was wrong, because that kid was great. He looked really young too, so is he the best youngest performance? Maybe I am being too…
A precocious music student befriends a worker, and the connection (and disconnection) between artists and workers is neatly depicted in Tarkovsky's student film. It is a film of yearning, of misunderstanding, and of a certain symbiosis that, at the same time, suggests a commonality between artist and worker. It's also a sweet tale of friendship, which I always like.
Short and sweet, The Steamroller and the Violin is a touching little film about friendship by the masterful Andrei Tarkovsky. Despite being a student film, Tarkovsky's vision is clear, even if the film is little like his later works. Within The Steamroller and the Violin, Tarkovsky find beauty in music, in puddles, in conversation. He even manages to find beauty in dilapidated buildings being demolished. During the final act, the two leads cannot meet up and this simple trivial inaction feels like a tragedy. For all its slight nature and simple storytelling, The Steamroller and the Violin is ultimately very moving and hence worth commending. It seems that from the earliest days, Andrei Tarkovsky possessed cinematic skills so few ever…
Let me remind everyone that this is a student film. Yep.. truly the beginnings of the great filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky!
Un niño de siete años traba amistad con un obrero de la construcción y cada uno aprende a ver la vida a través de los ojos del otro. Tarkovsky demuestra desde su primer corto que la sensibilidad se le daba de manera muy natural. Gran debut.
This is one of Tarkovsky's short early films, a 40-minute poetic tale of friendship about a boy called Sacha who is learning to play the violin who befriends a steamroller worker called Sergei and the impact that both have on each other. This is an extremely beautiful achievement by a young Tarkovsky that already shows his absolutely mastery of the craft of cinema, with every shot being intelligently calculated and incredibly beautiful. This film is more a poem than a film, with every shot seeming more a verse than a shot. Every single scene is filled with such emotion that it's impossible not to grow attached to the two protagonists and feel heartbroken by the end. All throughout the film there are beautiful and extremely imaginative shots of mirror surfaces that make the film all the more poetic and thought-provoking. This is definitely a great introduction to the filmography of Tarkovsky that already reveals the genius of this man.
when that paper plane missed my heart stopped.
the way the ending is filmed is so purely beautiful how they end up riding into the corner of the shot
Has anyone on here seen Chapayev?
Also, Andrei, what is up with all those apples? Is it a garden of Eden thing or do you just really like apples?
A boy and a violin to save the world.
This is Tarkovsky's first breath of life but I also felt I was looking at De Sica's legacy here.
Tarkovsky’s impressive student film has notably unique visuals for Soviet cinema at the time. The attention to asthetics and movement of the camera has always been a priority for Tarkovsky, and this is no exception. The Russian director shot this wonderful short film in color, and he wonderfully exploits this advantage by having stylized red fades, which could have been the inspiration for the same technique that Bergman would later use in Cries and Whispers. The film’s story isn’t as profound compared to Tarkovsky’s later works, and as a result, there are much less meditative shots that ponder on images. In this regard, it feels most similar to Ivan’s Childhood than anything else directed by Tarkovsky. Regardless, the talent in…
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