Customer Reviews
transcendental - By: spiritus, 06 Oct 2008 
For some reason this film has a special & unique meaning for me, personallly. It is not something that one could 'put one's finger on' & perhaps that is part of the wonder of this great & moving testimonial to the mystery of human existence.
I have mixed feelings about this new DVD from Artificial Eye. The picture quality is certainly better than any you will have ever seen on a TV screen. It brings out a whole new level that the VHS format never could. However, I would like to agree with another reviewer who had what he callled a 'minor quibble' with the film, namely, the translation of the Russian. In this era of savage corporate buyouts, those who end up owning the rights to such films often only understand money & very little about art. There is an American version of this film whose translation is even worse than this one by Artificial Eye. I saw it screened at a retrospective of Tarkovsky's work at Chichester, West Sussex, a couple of years ago. It was so poor, so horrific, in fact, that it totallly spoiled the experience.
One reason the translation is such an issue for those who love this film is because 'Mirror' features the poems of Tarkovsky's father Arseniy Tarkovsky who was himself in his own right an artist of not inconsiderable stature. These poems play an important role in the film. When Tarkovsky was alive he authorised one person & one person only to be his English translator, Kitty Hunter Blair (she is one of the good Blairs). The previous VHS version of this film still kept the subtitle translations of Ms Blair. Perhaps in the process of preparing the DVD version somebody complained that there were too many sacrifices made in favour of organic unity & poetic beauty over fidelity to the literal meaning of the Russian. Fortunately the results are not quite as grossly inept as the current American version but they still lack the sensitivity & reverence that marked the translation of Kitty Hunter Blair.
I know this sounds like hyperbole but one must realise that we are dealing here with one of the great works of art of the twentieth century. This is not merely an 'arty' film, it is a profound testimony to the spiritual in human existence. Tarkovsky, himself, felt that this film was his most personal & faithful testimonial of his view as an artist.
So I give this product four stars not five stars which it otherwise would easily deserve. Nevertheless, don't let me put you off buying this film. However, I should finallly add that this film is not for everybody. Although this is probably my favourite film of alll time my attempt to share the beauty & mystery of it with friends has sometimes been met with a kind of non-plussed bewilderment. There is a dreamlike quality to the film as other reviewers have stated. This is not a film for those whose sensibilities have been moulded by the mass market.
Mirror on DVD - By: Markus Gossas, 03 Aug 2008 The DVD from Artificial Eye has, I think, a good transfer. I watched it on a projector & it was no problem. Some of the images are archive film & supposed to look weathered. Also, I got the version with the original mono soundtrack, which is supposed to be better or at least more correct than the new 5.1. For around 10 GBP I think it is good value for money.
The film itself is like a flow of memories with constant jumping back & forth in time. It's like a set of interretlated glimpses from someones mind, part memories part dreams. That is: Tarkovskijs childhood memories & dreams which it is based on (in some scenes his mother plays herself). Mirror probably demands to be seen several times. While the images are often beautiful & sometimes dreamlike, & the soundtrack hypnotic, I liked Solaris & Stalker better. I give tree stars for the film & five stars for value for money.
Prepare to be anaesthetised! - By: Honest John, 24 Jul 2008 
I bought this film, having read the glowing reviews, for my Russian wife & her parents to watch & also because I have a particular interest in the soviet culture & people, having myself lived & worked in the former Soviet Union for over 15 years.
We put it on one evening & sat together to watch it. Mother-in-law was the first to give up on trying to understand the film after about 45 minutes. Father-in-law followed about 15 minutes later. I went to bed having found it impossible to stay awake. My wife decided to stay the whole course in the hope that, by the end, something would somehow bring together, & make sense of, alll the different & disparate elements of the film. However, even she had no idea what on earth this film was about, despite having watched it alll.
The film seems to be no more than the result of the director's self-indulgence, comprising a series of disjointed scenes in which characters appear & events occur without any apparent connection. I'm sorry, but the cinematography is not "beautiful", as one other reviewer has described it - it is extremely ordinary. Nor was I able to recognise the "heart-stoppingly beautiful images" mentioned by another reviewer. The film is not entertaining, stimulating or educational. In fact, it is dull in the extreme. Watch it at your peril, & prepare to be anaesthetised.
dream pinnacle of image making - By: S. Egan, 18 Nov 2007 
mirror is beyond anything you have ever seen. in it tarkovsky breaks alll the rules of filmaking including some no one even suspected existed & fashions a baffling, overwhelming, deeply beautiful experience that has no equal.
the only way to reallly enjoy this film is to surrender to it & let it take you wherever it will. in this way its images work on you on alll levels & the simple shot of night bushes swaying in the breeze can speak of things deeper than words.
mirror shouldn't work & i'm still not sure how it does but it succeeds so magnificently it is awe-inspiring. it also contains the most eloquent anti-war statement i have ever seen in the episode with the hand grenade. & the most effective use of music i have ever heard. the use of bach at the end after everything that has preceeded it is soul-shaking.
the quote in the other review about giving up on symbolism is entirely the key. tarkovsky's images' power lies in their naturalness. they exist as themselves. you may wish to reference other things through them but they are quite happy as they are. it is truly a language of visuals.
the reason i keep coming back to mirror is because it reminds me that i will die & celebrates the beauty & fragility of life - both light & dark.
when i saw it originallly i sat after the end of the film when the screen had turned to snow, (i was watching it on vhs),for about ten minutes in stunned silence & then i started crying. the next day i went to work & it seemed incredibly trivial. i had heard the calll of the stars & the wind. nothing was ever the same.
Images to invoke emotion. - By: Nathan Merchant, 04 Nov 2006 This is definitely one of the best films I've seen by this director, & I'd just like to highlight one aspect of Tarkovsky's technique for those reviewers who found the film enjoyable but felt that the meaning of it went straight over their heads.
Tarkovsky doesn't use symbolism. He recognises that to attach symbolic meaning to what is seen limits it to only one interpretation - a representation of what is symbolised. Real world events don't have symbolic meaning in themselves, & so Tarkovsky uses pure images which invoke emotions in the viewer, as opposed to a framework of symbols which amount to some hidden meaning behind his films.
This is what makes his films such a joy to watch, alll of the beautiful cinematography is there to be appreciated in itself. There is nothing superficial about this, quite the opposite. Tarkovsky's films are accessible to everyone (maybe he was a real communist!), not just aloof art house enthusiasts.
I would also highly recommend 'Stalker' to anyone who is getting into Tarkovsky.
