Saturday, April 16 through Saturday, April 30 From his first internationally exhibited film, IVAN'S CHILDHOOD, it was clear that Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky's (1932-1986) warmth and humanity, dazzling visuals-even religious imagery in the Communist Soviet Union-signaled an exceptional talent. But it was his second, long-suppressed film, ANDREI RUBLEV, that revealed a genius for epic sweep combined with subconscious probings-on a level reached by Ingmar Bergman-that created a whole moved by a mystical sensibility unique to film. Tarkovsky maintained this epic, mystical vision throughout his all-too-brief career, creating the most personal works without slipping into obscurity-and remaining an eerily gripping narrator.

ANDREI RUBLEV

Tarkovky's most spectacular work: a sweeping, medieval epic set in 15thcentury Russia. Icon-master Rublev observes the ambiguities and horrors of his era from the artist's point of view, including the hairraising sack of Vladimir by the Tartars. In the final, tour-de-force sequence, a novice bell-caster (Kolya Burlyaev, grown since his portrayal of Ivan in IVAN'S CHILDHOOD) attempts to mold an enormous bell, restoring Rublev's faith in life and art. The screen turns to color with Rublev's real-life icons in the transcendent climax.

DIR Andrei Tarkovsky; SCRAndrei MikhalkovKonchalovsky and Tarkovsky; PROD Tamara Ogorodnikova. USSR, 1965, b&w with a color sequence, scope, 205 min. In Russian with English subtitles. UNRATED

NOSTALGHIA

A Russian expatriate wanders wintry Italian landscapes while returning in memory to his homeland. An inspired madman finds the fate of the world hanging on a candle's flight across a dry pool-arguably the most agonizingly suspenseful sequence in recent cinema. All the story's pieces come together in an overwhelming final shot that arrives before the audience realizes what it's seeing via a baffling special effect. Special Prize for Creativity, Cannes Film Festival.

DIR Andrei Tarkovsky; SCR Tonino Guerra and Tarkovsky; PROD Franco Casati and Daniel Toscan du Plantier. USSR/Italy/ France, 1983, color, 120 min. In Russian and Italian with English subtitles. UNRATED

THE SACRIFICE [Offret]

Tarkovsky's final film, shot in Sweden, at first evokes Ingmar Bergman with its small group isolated in a tense situation, but soon expands to Tarkovsky's more epic, cosmic view. Faced with nuclear holocaust, a mystic sacrifice must be offered to restore the world-with unforeseen results. In perhaps the supreme example of his disciplined mastery, a burning building collapses on cue to devastating dramatic effect. (How did he do it? For an answer, see DIRECTED BY ANDREI TARKOVSKY.)

DIR/SCR Andrei Tarkovsky; PROD Anna-Lena Wibom. Sweden, 1986, color/b&w, 145 min. In Swedish with English subtitles. UNRATED

THE MIRROR [Zerkalo]

Tarkovsky's most personal and autobiographical film features his father's poems studded throughout the soundtrack, and some actual locations from his childhood. A collage of diverse elements, the story moves back and forth among three time frames, with the same actress playing both the protagonist's mother and wife. Tarkovsy's only really "non-linear" work was minimally released by the Soviet authorities- then acclaimed around the world.

DIR Andrei Tarkovsky; SCR Alexander Misharin and Tarkovsky; PROD Erik Waisberg. USSR, 1975, color/b&w, 106 min. In Russian with English subtitles. UNRATED "An extraordinarily beautiful movie." -J. HOBERMAN, VILLAGE VOICE

STALKER

In this futuristic parablebased on a story by the Soviet sci-fi honcho Strugatsky brothers, tormented seekers guided by a licensed Stalker venture into a forbidden region called the Zone. Perhaps Tarkovsky's subtlest evocation of beauty and dread: colored bottles float on an indoor pool, cars chase each other in firstgear through grimy industrial bywaysand a dead telephone nerve-shatteringly rings in an abandoned building.

DIR Andrei Tarkovsky; SCR Arkady and Boris Strugatzky, from their novel Picnic by the Roadside; PROD Aleksandra Demidova. USSR, 1979, color/b&w, 161 min. In Russian with English subtitles. UNRATED

MY NAME IS IVAN/ IVAN'S CHILDHOOD [Ivanovo detstvo]

Tarkovsky burst the bonds of the Soviet Union's Patriotic War genre with his first feature's portrait of Ivan (Kolya Burlyaev), the 12-year-old runner/spy whose only knowledge of life is war. Tarkovsky's religious imagery was immediately noted, but the film's eye-popping black & white photography, surrealistic episodes and juxtaposition of nature (birch trees) and carnage proved the true precursors of his uniquely personal works to come. Golden Lion, Venice Film Festival.

DIR Andrei Tarkovsky; SCR Vladimir Bogomolov and Mikhail Papava. USSR, 1962, b&w, 84 min. In Russian with English subtitles. UNRATED

SOLARIS

Within the debris-strewn corridors of a decrepit space station, Kris Kelvin struggles with the enigma of a sentient planet, accompanied by an embodiment of his own past. In adapting the novel by Pole Stanislaw Lem-then the world's best-selling sci-fier-Tarkovsky added the scenes on Earth. In what is considered Tarkovsky's most positive work, the moving resolution is held until the last seconds of the very last shot. Special Jury Prize, Cannes Film Festival.

DIR Andrei Tarkovsky; SCR Friedrich Gorenstein and Tarkovsky, from the novel by Stanislaw Lem; PROD Viacheslav Tarasov. USSR, 1972, color, scope, 167 min. In Russian with English subtitles. RATED PG

DIRECTED BY ANDREI TARKOVSKY

A Swedish film crew follows Tarkovsky during the filming of THE SACRIFICE, with the director's Q&A sessions, rural musings and clips from his films intercut with the hair-raising highlight-the jamming of the camera during the house burning that concludes THE SACRIFICE. One of the finest documentaries on a director ever, with Tarkovsky an illuminating commentator on his own work and mustviewing for THE SACRIFICE audiences.

DIR/SCR Michal Leszczylowski. Sweden, 1988, color,101 min. UNRATED