Andrei Tarkovsky
Blu-Ray Review: Mirror
Andrei Tarkovsky is without doubt the greatest Russian filmmaker of all time. He’s certainly the first name that comes to mind when discussing the movies of the Motherland. Despite making less than ten films in a career which spanned three decades, he left an indelible mark on the history of world cinema. Whilst the likes …
Album review: Kevin Richard Martin – ‘Return To Solaris’: The Bug is the ghost in the machine for this ecstatically eerie rescoring of the Soviet sci-fi classic
WORKING with huge acclaim in the shadowier textures of electronic music now for longer than we care to recall, Kevin Richard Martin – aka The Bug, King Midas Sound, Techno Animal – has composed a new score for Andrei Tarkovsky’s incredible 1972 sci-fi Solaris, which work will be released on Phantom Limb on June 25th. …
Track: Kevin Richard Martin shares the title track from his deeply eerie, forthcoming rescoring of the sci-fi classic, ‘Solaris’
KNOWN in the hallowed halls of dark electronica for his work as The Bug, King Midas Sound and others, when Kevin Richard Martin was offered a commission to write, record and perform a new score for a film of his choice by the Vooruit Arts Centre in Ghent, it’s perhaps not altogether a surprise that …
News: Kevin Richard Martin of The Bug returns with a June rescoring of Tarkovsky’s ‘Solaris’; hear a taster, ‘In Love With A Ghost’
WORKING with huge acclaim in the shadowier textures of electronic music now for longer than we care to recall, Kevin Richard Martin – aka The Bug, King Midas Sound, Techno Animal – has composed a new score for Andrei Tarkovsky’s incredible 1972 sci-fi Solaris, which will be released on Phantom Limb on June 25th. Based …
Blu-Ray Review: Stalker (Criterion Collection)
In today’s effect driven film market, most science fiction cinema is reliant on green screens and CGI. However, as films such as Primer and Coherence demonstrate, more cerebral fare can be done well without relying on visual effects. Many consider Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey as the greatest sci-fi film ever made. However, a …
DVD Review: Sacrifice
As Andrei Tarkovsky reached the end of his career, a combination of voluntary exile from his Motherland and a growing degree of introspection had a profound influence on his filmmaking. He shot Sacrifice, which was to be his final film, in Sweden. Using many of Ingmar Bergman’s collaborators, it’s a film which shares much with …
DVD Review: Nostalgia
As human beings we’ve never been very good at living in the present; nostalgia is never too far away. Whether that’s for the Classics or the Spice Girls; Plato or Pulp. However, dwelling-on, or pining for, the past is never really any good for you. Despite leaving his native Russia in order to avoid the …
DVD Review: Solaris
Space has been explored in just about every conceivable way through cinema, literature and television. Whilst action-oriented films usually dominate at the box office, it’s often more subtle psychological sci-fi which leaves a lasting impression. The classic example, which is generally considered the best genre film ever made, is 2001: A Space Odyssey. More recently, …
Blu-ray Review: Mirror
Like any other artists or writers, film directors occasionally get the itch to put themselves in the limelight. This mostly manifests itself in the form of a documentary, such as Agnes Varda’s The Beaches of Agnes, Ari Folman’s Waltz with Bashir or Sarah Polley’s deeply personal The Stories We Tell. However, the likes of Jodorowsky …
Blu-Ray Review: Andrei Rublev
Andrei Rublev was considered to be one of the greatest Russian medieval painters of Orthodox frescos and icons. His authenticated work was all carried out in the 15th century and he was canonised as a saint by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1988. Andrei Tarkovsky took up the challenge of documenting his life on film, …