The Mirror - Who Gazes Back? I REVIEW

The Mirror - Who Gazes Back? I REVIEW

31/08/2024

By: Logos Review

I just know The Mirror must have been shot on some super exotic Soviet filmstock/lenses since, like all Tarkovsky cinema this has a very soft and singular look that i have always found immensly beautiful. Reaching such aesthetics while feeling so effortless and simple requires a special talent for directing that besides making it look like a masterwork worthy of preservation for the ages, is also fairly strong with its presentation. Yet when i stare at this beautiful picture i wonder if it's only glazing back with the dead empty eyes of a reflection. 

Regardless of its success, and whether it is making me incredibly immersed, or incredibly drowsy, it's always pretty interesting to watch Tarkovsky’s “sculpting time” technique of letting the moment hang on the screen and then the magic of cinema is supposed to do the rest. 

Naturally, The Mirror is a highly introspective film, perfect for one to soak themselves into the screen and absorb from the characters lives, layed out totally naked in such vulnerability thanks to magnificent performances. Larisa Tarkovskaya gives it her all in a lead so legendary its right up there with performances from the likes of Elizabeth Huppert. A delicate harmony of carefully coordinated long shots stemming from a highly personal screenplay and subtle yet very loaded performances, this is every modern day cinema kid’s wet dream. Alas, such a formula can only work in the hands of a master director. 

Interestingly, this is a two-faced mirror and depending on your taste and above all else, your patience threshold, you may get to see only one of them; The unapologetic commitment to the style is simultaneously The Mirror’s most admirable attribute and biggest setback. A style so experimental reactions could only be divisive and not without reason. In its worst moments the film is meandering, shapeless both in purpose and montage even for the ethereal tone it aimed. 

We dont simply jump from one story to another: each of the film’s segments could have been a proper short film on their own, all while the “sculpted time” method is on in full blast at all times during long sequences that one wonders at the intent of letting them in the final cut, if of course there was any beyond creating more illusion of time, of which i don't think the film needed more. Even as a VIP passenger, being taken into several subsequent trips is jarring especially if all the while you have no clue regarding your destination. 

Surely, i am insinuating an indulgence that has culminated in slight directorial misfire, and that diagnosis might not be too off the mark. After all, i’ve heard this called Tarkovsky’s most personal movie. That really would explain everything: Out of all subjects in the universe, of course he was gonna craft this painstakingly beautiful production around fragments of his life. An artist being an artist! 

Watching the mirror is like listening to a war veteran grandpa stumble over fragments of highly interesting anecdotes. All enrichening by default, even when its definitive purpose or cohesion seemed nebulous to me. That's something i hope gets cleared on a subsequent watch, that for sure won't be happening anytime soon. 

7.5/10