- 147
Tarkovsky, Andrei Arsenyevich
Estimate
300,000 - 500,000 USD
bidding is closed
Description
- ink and paper
Highly important group of four typescripts of screenplays of movies, two of them masterpieces, two of them never made; all once owned by Tarkovsky, comprising:
1. Working typescript of Stalker (1977), extensively annotated by Tarkovsky, with revisions, alterations, deletions and additions, written in a variety of inks, ballpoints, felt-tips and crayons, with paste-overs and text cut away, with one autograph drawing, autograph title in decorated capital letters, 54 pages, 10 January 1977
2. Early photocopy of the final version of the typescript of Mirror (1974), with “Kinofilm” label “Montazhnie Listi”, without annotations, 97 pages
3. Typescript (undercopy) of Svetii Veter, a film never made by Tarkovsky, without annotations, (1972), 78 pages
4. Typescript of Hoffmanniana, never made by Tarkovsky, without annotations, (1976), 56 pages
All in original hand-made cardboard covers, 11.5 x 8.5 inches
Tarkovsky is regarded as the genius of modern Russian cinema and one of the most influential and loved of all contemporary film-makers, renowned for his supreme poetry and craftsmanship.
The draft of Stalker is highly important, with extensive annotations covering most pages, in which the genesis, evolution and development of Tarkovsky’s ideas can be traced. Moreover, the use of different inks, pencils and crayons allow us to view many different layers of working at various different times. There are many significant differences from the movie as we know it today. It is likely that this script is for the first version of the film, which was shot, but never edited, because the film used was defective and Tarkovsky was forced to reshoot the entire work. Stalker is one of the most popular movies by the director, 52 editions were published between 1979 and 2007 in five languages.
At the center of The Zone, a lawless wilderness, lies a room in the play of mystical forces and beyond the realm of physics. Armed guards are the first in a series of lethal obstacles preventing outsiders from reaching the place where man’s greatest desires can be realized. Only the Stalker can lead a scientist and writer through The Zone, where an obstacle-course of mental and physical barriers tests the limits of their endurance. In the end, they must face the room where the center of evil and power confronts them and the future of mankind. This highly influential movie, with its distant echoes of The Magic Flute, made its mark on the age: the depopulated wasteland around Chernobyl was nicknamed “The Zone of Alienation,” the Ukrainians doomed to make safe the stricken power station were referred to as “stalkers.”
The text here is a version of the movie the world has never seen. In 1977, before the filming of Stalker, Tarkovsky was so impoverished that he frequently could not afford to use the Moscow subway. He needed to make a popular money-making movie and he chose to adapt the novel Roadside Picnic by the Strugatsky brothers. In the end, he produced a movie that had little to do with the novel: Tarkovsky later claimed that the only similarity between film and novel was the use of the words “Stalker” and “The Zone.” Begun as a money-making thriller, it turned into a philosophical parable and this annotated typescript charts this transformation in the many annotations, changes and revisions. Indeed, in a number of instances, the original directions are completely reversed. But it is the dialogue which is subject to the greatest change, as if the director is constantly refining the characters’ speech, like a sculptor chipping away at his block, until almost nothing is left of the original text.
Tarkovsky did not like writing screenplays and did not even wish to appear in the credits with the Stugatsky brothers, who provided the first version of the script. But the director loved to rewrite existing texts, adding, as here, visual documentation. The script is much longer than the film, despite the movie being over 180 minutes. The text here is over half as long again as the completed movie: many scenes are cut, new ones inserted and the dialogue heavily edited. All Tarkovsky's annotations bring the script towards the final version: it is truly a working, creative manuscript.
The first mention of Tarkovsky’s interest in the novel is in a diary entry of 26 January 1973: “Just read a science-fiction novel by the Strugatsky brothers, Roadside Picnic… from it you could make a stunning scenario for someone, by the way”. Initially he suggested it to his friend Mikhail Kalatozov, who was unable to secure the film-rights. At this time, Tarkovsky wanted to film The Idiot and Hoffmanniana, but he was refused permission. No film could be shot without the approval of the State Committee for Cinematography, and this was not forthcoming. So Tarkovsky turned to create his masterpiece Stalker.
The photocopy of the final version of Mirror (“Montazhni Listi”) is exceedingly rare and precious. Only small numbers of this would have been produced and it is highly likely that none (if any) exist elsewhere. It is a highly personal document, revealing the shot-by-shot structure of the movie, involving camera positions and shots. Mirror is his most famous and popular work: the scene in the cornfield, with Arseny Tarkovsky’s poem recited, is surely one of the most striking and evocative scenes in modern cinema.
These “montage pages” were not produced to work with during filming, but rather to describe the finished film. Very few were produced, those that were being distributed to special libraries, notably retained in the Mosfilm archives. They contain the essence of the film, including frame-lengths, camera angle, the camera’s movements and the actual content of each frame. They represent a unique phenomenon of Soviet cinema. “Montage pages” are designed to outlive the movie, to survive the crumbling of film and to provide a permanent record.
The typescripts of the films not made by Tarkovsky reveal the type of subject to which he was most attracted, characterised by an interior spirituality and intensity allied to a metaphysical outlook, with long takes, an unconventional dramatic structure and a highly personal approach to cinematography.
A giant of modern film-making, Tarkovsky is the most important Russian film director after Eisenstein: a man who created his own surreal universe of film, not only for the Russian tradition, but for world cinematography in general. His early death at 54, after emigrating from the USSR, the country that nurtured and nourished him, but ultimately rejected him, deprived the world of a uniquely Russian genius, one following in the tradition of Tchaikovsky, Tolstoy, Turgenev, Eisenstein and Pasternak. He transformed the art of film-making and his masterpieces Stalker and Mirror bear comparison with the best of Fellini, Kubrick, Bergman, Visconti, Godard, and Kurosawa.
We are delighted to acknowledge the kind assistance of Alexander Kargaltsev in the cataloguing of this lot.
1. Working typescript of Stalker (1977), extensively annotated by Tarkovsky, with revisions, alterations, deletions and additions, written in a variety of inks, ballpoints, felt-tips and crayons, with paste-overs and text cut away, with one autograph drawing, autograph title in decorated capital letters, 54 pages, 10 January 1977
2. Early photocopy of the final version of the typescript of Mirror (1974), with “Kinofilm” label “Montazhnie Listi”, without annotations, 97 pages
3. Typescript (undercopy) of Svetii Veter, a film never made by Tarkovsky, without annotations, (1972), 78 pages
4. Typescript of Hoffmanniana, never made by Tarkovsky, without annotations, (1976), 56 pages
All in original hand-made cardboard covers, 11.5 x 8.5 inches
Tarkovsky is regarded as the genius of modern Russian cinema and one of the most influential and loved of all contemporary film-makers, renowned for his supreme poetry and craftsmanship.
The draft of Stalker is highly important, with extensive annotations covering most pages, in which the genesis, evolution and development of Tarkovsky’s ideas can be traced. Moreover, the use of different inks, pencils and crayons allow us to view many different layers of working at various different times. There are many significant differences from the movie as we know it today. It is likely that this script is for the first version of the film, which was shot, but never edited, because the film used was defective and Tarkovsky was forced to reshoot the entire work. Stalker is one of the most popular movies by the director, 52 editions were published between 1979 and 2007 in five languages.
At the center of The Zone, a lawless wilderness, lies a room in the play of mystical forces and beyond the realm of physics. Armed guards are the first in a series of lethal obstacles preventing outsiders from reaching the place where man’s greatest desires can be realized. Only the Stalker can lead a scientist and writer through The Zone, where an obstacle-course of mental and physical barriers tests the limits of their endurance. In the end, they must face the room where the center of evil and power confronts them and the future of mankind. This highly influential movie, with its distant echoes of The Magic Flute, made its mark on the age: the depopulated wasteland around Chernobyl was nicknamed “The Zone of Alienation,” the Ukrainians doomed to make safe the stricken power station were referred to as “stalkers.”
The text here is a version of the movie the world has never seen. In 1977, before the filming of Stalker, Tarkovsky was so impoverished that he frequently could not afford to use the Moscow subway. He needed to make a popular money-making movie and he chose to adapt the novel Roadside Picnic by the Strugatsky brothers. In the end, he produced a movie that had little to do with the novel: Tarkovsky later claimed that the only similarity between film and novel was the use of the words “Stalker” and “The Zone.” Begun as a money-making thriller, it turned into a philosophical parable and this annotated typescript charts this transformation in the many annotations, changes and revisions. Indeed, in a number of instances, the original directions are completely reversed. But it is the dialogue which is subject to the greatest change, as if the director is constantly refining the characters’ speech, like a sculptor chipping away at his block, until almost nothing is left of the original text.
Tarkovsky did not like writing screenplays and did not even wish to appear in the credits with the Stugatsky brothers, who provided the first version of the script. But the director loved to rewrite existing texts, adding, as here, visual documentation. The script is much longer than the film, despite the movie being over 180 minutes. The text here is over half as long again as the completed movie: many scenes are cut, new ones inserted and the dialogue heavily edited. All Tarkovsky's annotations bring the script towards the final version: it is truly a working, creative manuscript.
The first mention of Tarkovsky’s interest in the novel is in a diary entry of 26 January 1973: “Just read a science-fiction novel by the Strugatsky brothers, Roadside Picnic… from it you could make a stunning scenario for someone, by the way”. Initially he suggested it to his friend Mikhail Kalatozov, who was unable to secure the film-rights. At this time, Tarkovsky wanted to film The Idiot and Hoffmanniana, but he was refused permission. No film could be shot without the approval of the State Committee for Cinematography, and this was not forthcoming. So Tarkovsky turned to create his masterpiece Stalker.
The photocopy of the final version of Mirror (“Montazhni Listi”) is exceedingly rare and precious. Only small numbers of this would have been produced and it is highly likely that none (if any) exist elsewhere. It is a highly personal document, revealing the shot-by-shot structure of the movie, involving camera positions and shots. Mirror is his most famous and popular work: the scene in the cornfield, with Arseny Tarkovsky’s poem recited, is surely one of the most striking and evocative scenes in modern cinema.
These “montage pages” were not produced to work with during filming, but rather to describe the finished film. Very few were produced, those that were being distributed to special libraries, notably retained in the Mosfilm archives. They contain the essence of the film, including frame-lengths, camera angle, the camera’s movements and the actual content of each frame. They represent a unique phenomenon of Soviet cinema. “Montage pages” are designed to outlive the movie, to survive the crumbling of film and to provide a permanent record.
The typescripts of the films not made by Tarkovsky reveal the type of subject to which he was most attracted, characterised by an interior spirituality and intensity allied to a metaphysical outlook, with long takes, an unconventional dramatic structure and a highly personal approach to cinematography.
A giant of modern film-making, Tarkovsky is the most important Russian film director after Eisenstein: a man who created his own surreal universe of film, not only for the Russian tradition, but for world cinematography in general. His early death at 54, after emigrating from the USSR, the country that nurtured and nourished him, but ultimately rejected him, deprived the world of a uniquely Russian genius, one following in the tradition of Tchaikovsky, Tolstoy, Turgenev, Eisenstein and Pasternak. He transformed the art of film-making and his masterpieces Stalker and Mirror bear comparison with the best of Fellini, Kubrick, Bergman, Visconti, Godard, and Kurosawa.
We are delighted to acknowledge the kind assistance of Alexander Kargaltsev in the cataloguing of this lot.