Editing Andrei Tarkovsky (section)

==Influences and thoughts on film==
Tarkovsky became a film director during the mid and late 1950s, a period referred to as the [[Khrushchev Thaw]], during which Soviet society opened to foreign films, literature and music, among other things. This allowed Tarkovsky to see films of European, American and Japanese directors, an experience that influenced his own film making. His teacher and mentor at the film school, [[Mikhail Romm]], allowed his students considerable freedom and emphasized the independence of the film director.

Tarkovsky was, according to fellow student Shavkat Abdusalmov, fascinated by Japanese films. He was amazed by how every character on the screen is exceptional and how everyday events such as a Samurai cutting bread with his sword are elevated to something special and put into the limelight.<ref>{{cite book |last=Abdusalamov |first=Shavkat |author2=translated by Sergei Sossinsky |title=Feedback Effects, in About Andrei Tarkovsky, Memoirs and Biographies |publisher=Progress Publishers |year=1990 |location=Moscow |url=http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~tstronds/nostalghia.com/TheTopics/On_Japanese_Influences.html |isbn=978-5-01-001973-0 |access-date=26 December 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070612085621/http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~tstronds/nostalghia.com/TheTopics/On_Japanese_Influences.html |archive-date=12 June 2007 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Tarkovsky has also expressed interest in the art of [[Haiku]] and its ability to create "images in such a way that they mean nothing beyond themselves".<ref>Tarkovsky, Andrei. Sculpting in Time. Trans. Kitty Hunter-Blair. Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press, 2003.</ref>

Tarkovsky was also a deeply religious [[Orthodoxy|Orthodox Christian]], who believed great art should have a higher spiritual purpose. He was a perfectionist not given to humor or humility: his signature style was ponderous and literary, having many characters that pondered over religious themes and issues regarding faith.<ref>{{Cite web |last=David |first=Eric |date=2007-07-24 |title='The Man Who Saw the Angel' |url=https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/julyweb-only/foftarkovsky.html |access-date=2023-09-27 |website=ChristianityToday.com |language=en}}</ref>

Tarkovsky perceived that the art of cinema has only been truly mastered by very few filmmakers, stating in a 1970 interview with Naum Abramov that "they can be counted on the fingers of one hand".<ref name=BFI>{{cite web |last1=Gamble |first1=Patrick |title=10 great films that inspired Andrei Tarkovsky |url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/lists/10-great-films-inspired-andrei-tarkovsky |website=BFI |publisher=British Film Institute |access-date=20 July 2016 |date=27 October 2015}}</ref> In 1972, Tarkovsky told film historian Leonid Kozlov his ten favorite films. The list is as follows: ''[[Diary of a Country Priest]]'' and ''[[Mouchette]]'' by [[Robert Bresson]]; ''[[Winter Light]]'', ''[[Wild Strawberries (film)|Wild Strawberries]]'', and ''[[Persona (1966 film)|Persona]]'' by [[Ingmar Bergman]]; ''[[Nazarín]]'' by [[Luis Buñuel]]; ''[[City Lights]]'' by [[Charlie Chaplin]]; ''[[Ugetsu]]'' by [[Kenji Mizoguchi]]; ''[[Seven Samurai]]'' by [[Akira Kurosawa]], and ''[[Woman in the Dunes]]'' by [[Hiroshi Teshigahara]]. He also liked [[Pier Paolo Pasolini]]'s film ''[[The Gospel According to St. Matthew (film)|The Gospel According to St. Matthew]]''.<ref>{{cite web |author1=Aleksandr Lipkov |author2=Robert Bird |title=The Passion According to Andrei: An Unpublished Interview with Andrei Tarkovsky |url=http://www.nostalghia.com/TheTopics/PassionacctoAndrei.html |website=nostalghia.com |publisher=Literaturnoe obozrenie 1988, University of Chicago |access-date=22 March 2024 |pages=74–80 |date=February 1, 1967 |quote=Interviewer: "What do you think about Pasolini's Gospel according to Matthew? That's also a kind of historical film."  Tarkovsky: "Of course. I like the picture. I like it precisely because its director did not succumb to the temptation of interpreting the Bible. The Bible has been interpreted for two thousand years and no one can reach unanimous agreement. So Pasolini did not set himself this task, he just left the thing in the form in which it was born. Many feel that the image of a militant cruel Christ was made up by the author of the film. Not true! Read the Gospels and you will see that this was a cruel, cantankerous, irreconcilable man. Moreover with what genius was it written! On the one hand he's God and the Church has been relying on him for two thousand years, but he succumbs to doubt in the garden of Gethsemane. What could be simpler than to call for help from his father and avoid dying on the cross, but he doesn't do this. He is all back-to-front..."}}</ref> Among his favorite directors were Buñuel, Mizoguchi, Bergman, Bresson, Kurosawa, [[Michelangelo Antonioni]], [[Jean Vigo]], and [[Carl Theodor Dreyer]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Lasica |first=Tom |title=Tarkovsky's Choice |journal=Sight and Sound |volume=3 |issue=3 |date=March 1993 |url=http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~tstronds/nostalghia.com/TheTopics/Tarkovsky-TopTen.html |access-date=25 December 2007 |archive-url=http://arquivo.pt/wayback/20090706074126/http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~tstronds/nostalghia.com/TheTopics/Tarkovsky-TopTen.html |archive-date=6 July 2009 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

With the exception of ''City Lights'', the list does not contain any films of the early silent era. The reason is that Tarkovsky saw film as an art as only a relatively recent phenomenon, with the early film-making forming only a prelude. The list has also no films or directors from Tarkovsky's native Soviet Union, although he rated Soviet directors such as [[Boris Barnet]], [[Sergei Parajanov]] and [[Alexander Dovzhenko]] highly. He said of Dovzhenko's ''[[Earth (1930 film)|Earth]]'': "I have lived a lot among very simple farmers and met extraordinary people. They spread calmness, had such tact, they conveyed a feeling of dignity and displayed wisdom that I have seldom come across on such a scale. Dovzhenko had obviously understood wherein the sense of life resides. [...] This trespassing of the border between nature and mankind is an ideal place for the existence of man. Dovzhenko understood this."{{sfn|Gianvito|2006|p=42–43}}

He was also not a fan of blockbusters or science fiction, largely dismissing the latter for its "comic book" trappings and vulgar commercialism. <!--However, in notable exceptions Tarkovsky praised the [[James Cameron]] blockbuster film ''[[The Terminator]]'', saying that its "vision of the future and the relation between man and its destiny is pushing the frontier of cinema as an art". He was critical of the "brutality and low acting skills", but was nevertheless impressed by the film. --> He equally liked [[George Lucas]]'s ''[[Star Wars (film)|Star Wars]]'' according to his son, Andrei A. Tarkovsky.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Andrei Tarkovsky, Solaris and Stalker |url=https://www2.bfi.org.uk/features/tarkovsky/ |access-date=2023-09-27 |website=www2.bfi.org.uk}}</ref><!--<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-07-17 |title=The James Cameron action film that Andrei Tarkovsky loved |url=https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/james-cameron-film-andrei-tarkovsky-loved/ |access-date=2023-09-27 |website=faroutmagazine.co.uk |language=en-US}}</ref>--><ref>{{Cite web |date=2013-10-29 |title="This is not a coincidence": Max Dax talks to Andrey A. Tarkovsky |url=https://www.electronicbeats.net/this-is-not-a-coincidence-max-dax-talks-to-andrey-a-tarkovsky/ |access-date=2023-09-27 |website=Telekom Electronic Beats |language=en-US}}</ref>