As puzzling as one has come to expect from Tarkovsky, the film still delivers with its deeply moving scenario eliciting subconscious emotional responses in the viewer. As in The Mirror, the film is deeply invested in the significance of the mother-son relationship (Tarkovsky dedicates the film to his mother) and the motherland-son relationship (reflecting Tarkovsky's fraught relationship with his beloved Russia).
Many of the scenes are framed as beautifully as any classical Italian painting, and the usual Tarkovsky motifs are interwoven throughout the screenplay, particularly water, which again cascades through interior setting and in which the players are frequently immersed.
If you find Tarkovsky's indirect approach irritating, the film will not please you. But if you appreciate his artistry and subtlety, you will be mesmerized by Nostalgia.
Many of the scenes are framed as beautifully as any classical Italian painting, and the usual Tarkovsky motifs are interwoven throughout the screenplay, particularly water, which again cascades through interior setting and in which the players are frequently immersed.
If you find Tarkovsky's indirect approach irritating, the film will not please you. But if you appreciate his artistry and subtlety, you will be mesmerized by Nostalgia.