While there is barely a story to tie it all together, The Mirror finds connections in the longings of Alexei. He longs to understand his past, his land, his family, his inspirations and fears, and that’s what the movie is able to convey in its abstract but persuasive way.
Mirror(Зеркало)
✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
Soviet Union · 1975
1h 47m
Director Andrei Tarkovsky
Starring Margarita Terekhova, Ignat Daniltsev, Larisa Tarkovskaya, Alla Demidova
Genre Drama, History
Add to Watchlist
Please login to add films to your watchlist.
A film largely informed by the life of its director Andrei Tarkovsky as the thoughts, emotions, and memories of the 40 year-old Alexei intertwine through different time periods, including pre-war (1930s), wartime, and post-war (1960s), characterized through his subjective experience of each. The closest cinema has ever come to poetry.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
The New Yorker by Anthony Lane
The smallest details (a stammering child, the wrinkle in the turned page of a book) stick like burrs, and we are left to wonder if any director has delved with more modesty and honesty into the heartbreak of the past.
The Irish Times by Donald Clarke
Mirror is much copied, but as the recent run of Terrence Malick films demonstrates, eschewing time and plot for flotsam and psyche is much harder than Tarkovsky makes it look.
The New York Times by Lawrence Van Gelder
Mr. Tarkovsky appears so absorbed in grappling with his own demons that universality suffers. [17 Aug 1983, p.C14]
CineVue by Maximilian Von Thun
Tarkovsky possessed a sensibility for, and mastery over, the cinematic form that few directors – before or after – have been able to match; a mastery evident in almost every sublime frame of Mirror.
Chicago Tribune by Michael Wilmington
Truly original and unique: genuine film poetry, full of spellbinding images and sequences. [20 Mar 1998, p.L]
The Guardian by Peter Bradshaw
A startling piece of film-making, floating free of the conventional demands of period and narrative.
Users who liked this film also liked
Solaris
(Солярис)
A psychologist must keep his mind intact as he navigates a space station full of strange visions.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Soviet Union • 1972
- Director Andrei Tarkovsky
- Cast Donatas Banionis, Natalya Bondarchuk, Jüri Järvet, Anatoliy Solonitsyn, Nikolay Grinko, Vladislav Dvorzhetsky
- Genre Adventure, Drama, Mystery, Science Fiction
- Available on Criterion Channel, Max Amazon Channel, Max, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, YouTube
Andrei Rublev
(Андрей Рублёв)
An expansive Russian drama following the life of revered icon painter Andrei Rublev.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Soviet Union • 1966
- Director Andrei Tarkovsky
- Cast Anatoliy Solonitsyn, Ivan Lapikov, Nikolay Grinko, Nikolai Sergeyev, Irma Raush
- Genre Drama, History
- Available on Criterion Channel, Apple TV, Darkroom
Nostalgia
(Ностальгия)
Russian poet Andrei Gorchakov is traveling through Italy researching the life of an 18th-century Russian composer, when he meets the lunatic Domenico.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Italy, Soviet Union • 1983
- Director Andrei Tarkovsky
- Cast Oleg Yankovskiy, Erland Josephson, Domiziana Giordano, Patrizia Terreno, Laura De Marchi, Delia Boccardo
- Genre Drama, Romance
- Available on Klassiki, Kino Film Collection, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, YouTube, Kanopy
Stalker
(Сталкер)
A stalker takes two men into a mysterious place in which deep seeded desires are granted.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Soviet Union • 1979
- Director Andrei Tarkovsky
- Cast Aleksandr Kaydanovskiy, Anatoliy Solonitsyn, Nikolay Grinko, Alisa Freyndlikh, Natasha Abramova, Faime Jurno
- Genre Science Fiction, Drama
- Available on Criterion Channel, Max Amazon Channel, Max, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, YouTube
The Baby of Mâcon
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Netherlands, France, United Kingdom • 1993
- Director Peter Greenaway
- Cast Julia Ormond, Ralph Fiennes, Philip Stone, Jonathan Lacey, Celia Gregory, Don Henderson
- Genre Drama, History
- Available on Fandor, Fandor Amazon Channel, Tubi TV, Freevee, Plex, Plex Channel
The Sacrifice
(Offret)
To avert the end of the world, Alexander promises God that he'll give up everything he values in life, including his beloved son.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Sweden, France, United Kingdom • 1986
- Director Andrei Tarkovsky
- Cast Erland Josephson, Susan Fleetwood, Allan Edwall, Guðrún Gísladóttir, Sven Wollter, Valérie Mairesse
- Genre Drama
- Available on Klassiki, Kino Film Collection, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Amazon Video, YouTube, Kanopy, Hoopla
Ivan's Childhood
(Иваново детство)
Based on a short story by Vladimir Bogomolov, the film tells the story of an orphan whose family is killed by the invading German forces during World War I,
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Soviet Union • 1962
- Director Andrei Tarkovsky
- Cast Nikolay Burlyaev, Valentin Zubkov, Nikolay Grinko, Yevgeni Zharikov, Valentina Malyavina, Irma Raush
- Genre Drama, War
- Available on Criterion Channel, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, YouTube, Plex, Plex Channel
The Tree of Wooden Clogs
(L'albero degli zoccoli)
When the family of man was still--- a family.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Italy • 1978
- Director Ermanno Olmi
- Cast Luigi Ornaghi, Francesca Moriggi, Omar Brignoli, Antonio Ferrari, Teresa Brescianini, Giuseppe Brignoli
- Genre Drama, History
- Available on Criterion Channel, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, YouTube
Beware of a Holy Whore
(Warnung vor einer heiligen Nutte)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- West Germany, Italy • 1971
- Director Rainer Werner Fassbinder
- Cast Lou Castel, Eddie Constantine, Marquard Bohm, Hanna Schygulla, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Margarethe von Trotta
- Genre Drama, Comedy
- Available on Criterion Channel
A Man from Boulevard des Capucines
(Человек с бульвара Капуцинов)
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Soviet Union • 1987
- Director Alla Surikova
- Cast Andrey Mironov, Aleksandra Yakovleva-Aasmyae, Mikhail Boyarskiy, Oleg Tabakov, Nikolai Karachentsov, Igor Kvasha
- Genre Comedy, Romance, Western, Music
- Available on No streaming locations found.
Madame Satã
Hustler, dreamer, devil, saint
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Brazil, France • 2002
- Director Karim Aïnouz
- Cast Lázaro Ramos, Marcélia Cartaxo, Flávio Bauraqui, Renata Sorrah, Fellipe Marques, Emiliano Queiroz
- Genre Crime, Drama, Romance, History
- Available on No streaming locations found.
Orchestra Rehearsal
(Prova d'orchestra)
The Decline of the West in C# Major
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Italy, West Germany • 1978
- Director Federico Fellini
- Cast Balduin Baas, Clara Colosimo, Elizabeth Labi, Ronaldo Bonacchi, Ferdinando Villella, David Maunsell
- Genre Drama, Comedy
- Available on Google Play Movies, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, YouTube, Apple TV
Blind Mountain
(盲山)
A young woman plans her escape after being drugged, kidnapped and sold as a bride in a remote village.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- China • 2007
- Director Li Yang
- Cast Huang Lu, Youan Yang, Yuling Zhang, Yunle He, Yingao Jia
- Genre Crime, Drama
- Available on Kanopy
Out of It
(La Carapate)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 1978
- Director Gérard Oury
- Cast Pierre Richard, Victor Lanoux, Raymond Bussières, Jean-Pierre Darras, Yvonne Gaudeau, Jacques Frantz
- Genre Comedy
- Available on No streaming locations found.
Legend of the Galactic Heroes: My Conquest Is the Sea of Stars
(銀河英雄伝説 -わが征くは星の大海-
)
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 1988
- Director Noboru Ishiguro
- Cast Kei Tomiyama, Masashi Hironaka, Ryou Horikawa, Katsuji Mori, Kazuhiko Inoue, Norio Wakamoto
- Genre Animation, Science Fiction, War
- Available on No streaming locations found.
Just Don't Think I'll Scream
(Ne croyez surtout pas que je hurle)
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 2019
- Director Frank Beauvais
- Cast Frank Beauvais
- Genre Documentary, Drama
- Available on Hoopla