Tarkovsky and the Search for the Spirit of the Feminine

BA HONS in Fine Art disser­ta­tion in English, unpub­lished (revised 2009). This thesis was selected for the Media Vali­da­tion visit in 1988, to repre­sent study under­taken at the Exeter College of Art & Design, School of Arts Research (GB).

The prin­cipal char­ac­ters in Andrey Tarkovsky’s films are men who pursue complex and elusive ideals. Each film shows these men at a point of crisis in their lives. Their inner convic­tions demand that they act with unques­tioning quasi-reli­gious faith. They betray human weak­ness and hesi­tate on the brink between noble and cowardly behav­iour. Tarkovsky is inter­ested in the journey of their spir­i­tual transformation.

I found myself having to look at the general state of our civi­liza­tion… Our age is the final climax of an entire histor­ical cycle… it is the personal respon­si­bility of every indi­vidual as partic­i­pant in the histor­ical process.”1

It is the model or memory of a woman that precip­i­tates a reac­tion from Tarkovsky’s protag­o­nists, a cathartic inci­dent that resolves a dilemma.

1217, Sculpting in Time – Reflec­tions on the Cinema”, Andrey Tarkovsky. 1987, The Bodley Head, London ISBN 0292776241”, Andrey Tarkovsky.


Presen­ta­tion

1988 This thesis was selected for the Media Vali­da­tion visit, to demon­strate the work of the Exeter College of Art & Design School of Arts Research (GB)

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