Part of Weekend Classics
Andrei Tarkovsky explained that in Russian the word “nostalghia” conveys “the love for your homeland and the melancholy that arises from being far away.” This debilitating form of homesickness is embodied in the film by Andrei (Oleg Yankovsky, THE MIRROR), a Russian intellectual doing research in Italy. He becomes obsessed with the Botticelli-like beauty of his translator Eugenia (Domiziana Giordano), as well as with the apocalyptic ramblings of a self-destructive wanderer named Domenico (Erland Josephson, THE SACRIFICE). Written with frequent Michelangelo Antonioni collaborator Tonino Guerra (L’AVVENTURA) and newly restored in 4K from the original camera negative, Nostalghia is a mystical and mysterious collision of East and West, shot with the tactile beauty that only Tarkovsky can provide.
NOSTALGHIA was restored in 4K in 2022 by CSC – Cinetecanazionale in collaboration with Rai Cinema at Augustus Color laboratory, from the original negatives and the original soundtrack preserved at Rai Cinema.
“Perhaps Tarkovsky’s most opaque film, NOSTALGHIA is nonetheless one of his most personal.” —Kalvin Henely, Slant Magazine (May 30, 2013) “Not much happens, and everything does, all in Tarkovsky’s stately, long-take style, where each shot gives the shadows time to spread and deepen. You know when you’re a few minutes early to meet someone, and you don’t have a phone or magazine to fuss with, and you for once take in the world around you through what’s left of your animal senses? That’s what Tarkovsky forces from us, again and again.” —Alan Scherstuhl, Village Voice (May 29, 2013)
