What kind of cancer did Tarkovsky have? Andrey Tarkovsky. The last days of a genius. The scandalous life of the Tarkovsky couple

The last few years of life Andrey Tarkovsky spent in the West. In 1984, having not received permission from the Soviet authorities to extend his stay abroad, Tarkovsky announced that he was staying in the West. He valued his time too much, as if he had a presentiment that he had very little to live. Meanwhile, the possibility of working in the USSR seemed then very problematic. While living in the West, the director still managed to shoot the film "Sacrifice", but this was his last film.

“Does death scare me?” Andrey Tarkovsky reflected in Donatella Balivo's documentary film dedicated to his work. “In my opinion, death does not exist at all. There is some kind of torturous act in the form of suffering. When I think about death, I think about physical suffering, and not about death as such. Death, in my opinion, simply does not exist. I don’t know ... Once I dreamed that I died, and it seemed like the truth. I felt such liberation, such lightness incredible that perhaps it was the feeling of lightness and freedom that gave me the feeling that I died, that is, I was freed from all connections with this world. In any case, I do not believe in death. There is only suffering and pain, and often a person confuses it - death and suffering. I don’t know. Maybe when I come across this directly, I’ll get scared, and I’ll reason differently ... It's hard to say. "

No, he didn't think otherwise. “About ten days before his death,” recalls his Italian friend, cameraman Franco Terilli, “Andrei sent me a sheet from Paris on which a glass and a rose were drawn. It was already difficult for him to write. A few days before his death, they called me and asked me to call Andrei the next day - he wanted to tell me something very important. I was able to call only a day later. He picked up the phone but said nothing. I realized that he wanted to say goodbye to me in silence.

And a year before that, it seems, in December 1985, he called me from Florence: come now. I have arrived. He was lying in bed and asked Larissa to leave us alone. "Do not be afraid of what I tell you," Andrei said, "I myself am not afraid of it." He told me that the day before there was a call from Sweden - he was diagnosed with cancer, and that he had very little to live. “I am not afraid of death,” Andrey said so calmly that I was amazed.

It all started in Berlin, where we were invited by the German Academy, - says Larisa Tarkovskaya about Andrei's illness. - He began to cough violently; as a child he had tuberculosis, he coughed all the time and therefore did not pay attention to it. But when in September 1985 he came to Florence to work on the editing of "Sacrifice", he constantly had a slight fever, and this already worried him. It feels like a lingering cold ... It was at that moment that he fell ill. But we didn't know yet ...

When the news of the terrible diagnosis came, the Tarkovskys were in a difficult financial situation. Money for the "Sacrifice" has not yet been received; there was no medical insurance, and the course of treatment required significant money - 40 thousand francs. Only one examination with a scanner cost 16 thousand. Marina Vlady gave the money for this. Upon learning of the disaster, she took out her checkbook without further ado and wrote a check for the required amount. Later, the husband of Marina Vlady, Professor Leon Schwarzenberg, became Andrei's attending physician.

After undergoing treatment, Andrey's condition improved markedly, and on July 11, 1986 he left the clinic. Marina Vlady settled the Tarkovsky family at her place. For a while, the house of Marina Vlady became the house of Andrei. Tarkovsky continues to work on editing "Sacrifice", and after a while leaves Paris for the Federal Republic of Germany - to undergo another course of treatment in a fashionable clinic ("on the advice of a foolish friend" - comments Marina Vlady).

Unfortunately, the fashionable clinic did not help, although Andrei hoped for it very much. As a result, he returned to Paris, and here the last months of his life passed. “He believed that he would get well,” says Larisa Tarkovskaya. “For some reason, he believed that God would help him. He especially perked up when his son arrived ... Andrei worked until the last day, keeping an absolutely clear mind. He finished the final chapter of the book "Time Captured" nine days before his death! For the last few days he had been taking morphine for pain relief ("I am floating," he said), but his consciousness was unclouded; some kind of inner energy helped him to always be collected. And until the last hour he was fully conscious ... I remember that on the last day of his life he called me on the phone; I came to him. He joked with me, laughed ... He was afraid that I would leave. At seven o'clock the nurse came, and I had to go. I hadn't slept before for three months - I had to give him medicine every three hours ...

December 29, 1986 Andrei Tarkovsky died. Hundreds of people came to the courtyard of St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, where Andrew was buried. On the church steps Mstislav Rostropovich played the sublimely strict "Sarabanda" on the cello Bach .

And the last refuge of Andrei Tarkovsky was the cemetery on the outskirts of Paris - Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois.

The famous Soviet screenwriter and film director was born in April 1932 in a tiny village in the Kostroma region. At this time, Andrei's mother was visiting her relatives, where, in due time, she was relieved of the burden. The boy's father was a prominent art worker - the popular screenwriter Arseny Tarkovsky.

Mother, Maria Ivanovna, belonged to an old noble family, and was a very educated woman.

Some time after the birth of their first child, the Tarkovsky family united in Moscow, where two years later Andrei had a sister, Marina.

Childhood and students

Andrei's childhood can hardly be called happy. When the boy was three years old, his father left his family for another woman. Maria Ivanovna was forced to raise two small children alone.

Later, Tarkovsky Jr. recalled that this was one of the most difficult periods - life from hand to mouth was aggravated by a desperate longing for his father, whom the boy lacked so much.

In the wartime hard times, the Tarkovskys, along with other Muscovites, were evacuated. Maria Ivanovna and her children were sheltered by her relatives in the small town of Yuryevets.

After returning to Moscow, Andrei continued his studies at his old school, but, despite all the efforts of his mother, he did not differ in particular diligence. From the age of seven, Andrei studied piano at a music school. And as a teenager, he began to take lessons in academic drawing.

Having received a school certificate in hand, Andrey applied to the Institute of Oriental Studies, where he began to study Arabic culture... However, he studied for only a year: the young man quickly realized that he was in a hurry with the choice of his future profession.

In 1953, Andrei, as part of a geological expedition, went to one of the remote areas of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, where he lived for a year on the banks of the Kureika River. Hard physical work and the environment of pristine taiga nature left an indelible mark on the soul of twenty-year-old Andrey. It was then that he realized that he wanted to become a film director.

Immediately upon returning home, Andrei took the documents to the directing department at VGIK. Its curator was the famous Mikhail Ilyich Romm, an outstanding film director, winner of numerous awards and prizes. An experienced teacher quickly discerned great talent in the young man.

Andrei was very lucky not only with the curator: the years of study and formation of the future director fell on a period of global renewal in Soviet art. Cinematography began to actively develop, many more films began to be shot.

The so-called "Khrushchev thaw" had a beneficial effect on the development of art; a wave of Western cinema, music and literature rushed into the previously closed Soviet Union. All this greatly influenced the further work of Tarkovsky.

His first work was the short film The Assassins, which was highly praised by Romm. While studying at VGIK, Tarkovsky met with, and this friendship became significant in the fates of two talented people.

As a graduation project, Tarkovsky made the film Skating Rink and Violin, which was noted by film critics. In 1960, Andrei became a certified director and started to work with great passion.

The young director decided to shoot the epic film "Andrei Rublev", but the members of the USSR Artistic Council commission did not take yesterday's student's idea seriously and categorically refused to give him the go-ahead for the film adaptation of the film on such a complex topic.

The director put aside the cherished script for "Andrei Rublev" and proceeded to a film called "Ivan's Childhood". It was thanks to him that Tarkovsky became popular throughout the Union. Despite the acute budget deficit and lack of time, Tarkovsky managed to create a real film masterpiece that won more than twenty different awards and prizes around the world.

Interesting notes:

After such a resounding success, Tarkovsky again decided to take the USSR artistic council by storm, and this time he was allowed to start filming Andrei Rublev. This historical tape, dedicated to the life and work of the Russian monk-icon painter, has become truly cult in the USSR.

He attracted composer Vyacheslav Ovchinnikov and cameraman Vadim Yusov to work.with whom he worked closely throughout his life. The film has collected many awards not only in the director's homeland, but also far beyond its borders.

After a five-year break, Tarkovsky returned to work. This time saw the light of his philosophical and fantastic picture "Solaris", based on the novel of the same name by Stanislav Lem.

In 1974, the director shot a very autobiographical film - "The Mirror", in which he shared with the audience his innermost memories and inner experiences.

Filmed in 1979, Stalker was highly acclaimed at the Cannes Film Festival, where it received a prize. A year later, it was released in the USSR.

In 1980, Tarkovsky became the People's Artist of the RSFSR. He went to Italy to begin work on his new painting Nostalgia. Three years later, the project was ready, and after showing at the Cannes Film Festival it received several prizes and the most commendable reviews from the jury.

Emigrant period

After the end of a creative trip to Italy, Tarkovsky and his wife were in no hurry to leave Rome. He wrote an official letter asking him and his family members to stay in Italy for the next three years, after which he promised to return to his homeland.

However, the director's request was not satisfied, and in 1984 he made an official statement about his decision to stay in the West forever, and thus became a defector.

After Tarkovsky moved to the West, his films were banned in the USSR, and his name could not be mentioned in the press. In the meantime, the Italian government presented the director with an apartment in Florence and awarded him the title of honorary citizen. The last work of Tarkovsky was the picture "Sacrifice", filmed in 1985.

At the end of 1985, doctors diagnosed the outstanding film director with a terrible disease - lung cancer. Upon learning of Tarkovsky's fatal illness, the Soviet authorities gave permission for his son to fly to Italy to his father. In the same period, the ban on screenings of Tarkovsky's films was lifted - they began to be shown again in the country's cinemas.

Andrei Arsenievich died on December 29, 1986 in Paris. The Soviet film director was buried in the Russian cemetery of Sainte-Genevieve-de-Bunois.

Two spouses of a filmmaker

Andrei Tarkovsky met his first wife while still studying at VGIK. Irma Rausch won the heart of young Andrey, and the romance spun surprisingly quickly. Just as quickly, the young got married, and soon they had a son, Arseny.

Irma understood her husband and supported her in every possible way, but their marriage broke up in 1970. The reason for the divorce was Tarkovsky's hobby - a young girl named Larisa Kizilova, whom the director met during the filming of his film "Andrei Rublev".

In marriage, they had a common son, Andrei, Tarkovsky also adopted Larisa's daughter, Olga. Throughout her life, Larisa was very kind to her talented spouse and called him "you". After the death of the director, she died after him.

Films by Andrey Tarkovsky

Year Russian name original name Who was
1956 The killers The killers

director, screenwriter, actor (Second visitor)

1958 There will be no layoff today There will be no layoff today

director, screenwriter, actor (Demoman)

1960 Skating rink and violin Skating rink and violin

director, screenwriter

1962 Ivan's childhood Ivan's childhood

director, screenwriter (uncredited)

1965 I am twenty years old ("Zastava Ilyich") Ilyich's outpost

Laureate of the "Golden Lion" prize at the Venice Film Festival (1962, for the film "Ivan's Childhood")
Winner of the International Film Critics Association (FIPRESCI) prize at the Cannes Film Festival (1969, for the film "Andrei Rublev")
Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival (1972, for the film "Solaris")
Winner of the International Film Critics Association (FIPRESCI) prize (for the film "Solaris")
Winner of the Ecumenical (Christian) Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival (1980, for the film "Stalker")
Winner of the title of "Best Director" at the Cannes Film Festival (1983, for the film "Nostalgia")
Winner of the International Film Critics Association (FIPRESCI) prize (for the film "Nostalgia")
Winner of the Ecumenical (Christian) Jury Prize (for the film "Nostalgia")
Best Foreign Language Film, British Academy (1988, Sacrifice)

Andrei Tarkovsky was born on April 4, 1932 in the village of Zavrazhie, Kadyisky District, Kostroma Region, now Yuryevetsky District, Ivanovo Region.

His father, Arseny Tarkovsky, was an outstanding Russian poet and translator from oriental languages. Mother, Maria Vishnyakova, was also a poet and prose writer, but her fame was limited only to literary circles. Later, she destroyed all her manuscripts, and wrote in her diaries that she did it due to her "lack of talent."

In the small town of Yuryevets, Andrei Tarkovsky lived with his mother and younger sister almost until the war. Tarkovsky's elder sister Maria recalled the roots of the Tarkovsky family this way: “There are two versions: Polish and Caucasian. Caucasian - a myth, even some provocation, a joke. It appeared because in the Caucasus there is Tarkitau mountain, the village of Tarki, about which the poet Polezhaev, who was exiled there, wrote. Someone once came to my grandfather and said that he should inherit herds and silver mines, simply because of the similarity of names. Grandpa refused: he was against private property and had nothing to do with the Caucasus. All the Tarkovskys were blond with blue eyes - with pronounced Slavic roots. The family comes from Poland, where the surname "Tarkovsky" is quite common. (For example, the actor Mikhail Tarkovsky starred in Andrzej Wajda's film. And the city of Tarkov is in Poland). When I conceived the book of memoirs "Shards of a Mirror", I began by collecting material: there was something at home, I was looking for something in the archives: I went to Ukraine, to Kirovograd, to my father's homeland. I managed to find a lot of evidence that our family came from Poland. There is a letter from the beginning of the 19th century, according to which the Polish genealogy can be traced very clearly. A certain Vaclav Tarkovsky appeared at the end of the 18th century in Russia. First, the Tarkovskys lived in Western Ukraine, then in the Zhitomir province, then in Elizavetgrad (present-day Kirovograd). It was a seedy noble family. And our grandmother was of Romanian blood, she was from Yass. My and Andrey's appearance suggests that Romanian blood has mixed with Slavic. I am very sorry that the Caucasian version of the origin of the Tarkovsky clan, completely groundless, has gone for a walk in the books ... ".

The birth of a second child did not save the family. By 1935, his father finally left the family, which was the first strong shock in the life of little Andrei. The theme of the father and parting with him is extremely important for understanding the entire work of Andrei Tarkovsky.

Maria Tarkovskaya recalled: “My parents parted when Andrei and I were very young. It was a sore subject for my mother. We understood this and tried not to disturb her. Dad was a man completely immersed in passion. He felt deep and insane love for his mother, then, when the feeling for her burned out, he was just as passionate about his second wife. He had the nature of a poet, completely devoid of rationality. He warns Andrei in his letters that he "does not rush into love, like into a deep well, and not be like a leaf in the wind." I didn't want my son to repeat his mistakes ... Mom was an amazing person: very wise, loving both us and dad. She was able to maintain good relations with him and never interfered with our meetings. Basically, these were our birthdays, to which dad always came. There were also joint trips. He wanted to take us to Kirovograd, the city of his childhood. But it never happened ... Mom never married again, believing that no man could replace our father. She loved only him all her life ... And she forgave him everything, but there was pain in her soul ... And dad in difficult moments of life, when he was alone and various incidents happened to him, he always called mom.

In 1939, Maria Vishnyakova moved with her children to Moscow, where Andrei went to school. But two years later, the family was forced to return to Yuryevets because of the outbreak of the war. Andrei's father volunteered for the front, where he lost his leg as a result of a severe injury. And while Arseny Tarkovsky underwent one operation after another, his ex-wife Maria, working as a proofreader in a printing house, single-handedly raised and fed two children in a hungry Russian outback. Later Tarkovsky will write about those years: “It was a difficult time. I've always missed my father. When my father left our family, I was three years old. Life was unusually difficult in every way. And yet I got a lot in my life. All the best that I have in life, the fact that I became a director - all this I owe to my mother. "

In 1943, the family returned to Moscow, and Andrei again went to study at a Moscow school, where Andrei Voznesensky became one of his classmates. Mom continued to work in the printing house, and although life began to improve, Andrei greatly missed his native wooden house in Yuryevets. All these motives later became the basis for the movie "The Mirror".

At school, Andrei did not show much interest in science, but he enthusiastically studied music and drawing. After graduating from high school, he did not have any specific aspirations, and decided to follow in his father's footsteps, enrolling in the Moscow Institute of Oriental Studies. His sister said: “Andrei left the Institute of Oriental Studies. And I told my mother right away: “Do you really think that he will study there ?!”. As a freshman, my brother still tried, inscribed alifa and nunna in calligraphic Arabic script, but then he got bored ... In his second year he stopped going to college altogether. "

After studying without much enthusiasm for about a year, Andrei left the institute and, having no definite goal, got in touch with a street company of young people of extremely dubious nature. Such a case from the life of young Tarkovsky is very indicative: Andrei, dressed in a brand new sweater bought by his mother, walked through the courtyard where the local punks played football. Andrey was offered to join and become a goalkeeper. In order not to offend "friends", Andrey agreed. He took his place in the makeshift goal and began to catch the dirty leather ball with his hands. The ball, hitting Andrey, left huge dirty spots on the snow-white sweater. But self-esteem did not allow to stop the game, and Andrei endured until it ended. By that time, the sweater had fallen into disrepair.

Tarkovsky recalled that time: “At one time I went through a very difficult moment. In general, I fell into bad company when I was young. My mother saved me in a very strange way - she got me into a geological party. I worked there as a collector, almost a worker, in the taiga, in Siberia. And it remained the best memory in my life. I was then 20 years old. " This was also confirmed by his sister: “My brother was never a gray person and in any way tried to stand out from the crowd. He became a dude, sewed his trousers with pipes. But when he came from a geological expedition to the Turukhansk region, he was already a different person, mature, matured. In addition to the fact that he worked for several months in taiga, very dangerous conditions, it was the summer of 1953, when Beria released the criminals. Andrey was just in Siberia when the criminals seized barges, steamers and hung out black pirate flags on the masts. "

Returning from a year's trip to Siberia, gaining life experience, seeing that there is another life, different from the life of the Moscow street punks, in the summer of 1954, Tarkovsky submitted documents to the directing department of VGIK. The workshop was recruited that year by Mikhail Ilyich Romm, famous for his ability to discern "future directors" in still very young guys and girls. The flair of the renowned teacher did not disappoint that year either. Vasily Shukshin, Alexander Gordon, Andrei Tarkovsky, Irma Raush, Marika Beiku - the fame of many of them later went far beyond the purely professional circles. With the beginning of his studies, Tarkovsky began a new life. At the very beginning of the Khrushchev "thaw", Tarkovsky, together with fellow students Alexander Gordon and Marika Beiku, filmed the short film "The Assassins" based on the story of the same name by Ernest Hemingway at the educational film studio. The film is, of course, extremely student-friendly, but due to the young and, as a result, new approach to the subject of cinema in general, the picture stood out noticeably against the background of what was filmed at that time by “great Soviet directors”. The master of the course, Mikhail Ilyich Romm, highly appreciated the work done by the students.

In 1957, important changes took place in the life of Tarkovsky's personal: he married a fellow student Irma Raush. Their relationship was somehow complicated and contradictory at once, two bright and completely dissimilar creative people with their plans and dreams, world order and philosophy could hardly find common ground. Irma Rausch later said: “Right off the bat I entered the directing department of VGIK, which I dreamed about, although everyone tried to persuade me to go to the acting department, and having gained freedom, I felt happy to the point of frivolity. Life seemed amazing and wonderful, and I was so happy about everything ... I didn't have to laugh, for which I was often kicked out of the audience. At the institute we were busy from morning to evening, rehearsals sometimes dragged on until late. Andrei immediately began to look after me, and if he was released earlier, he waited for me, and then escorted me to the hostel. The hostel was in the town of Mossovet on the Yaroslavl highway, and he lived on Serpukhovka. I got home late at night. In general, Andrei scared me very much with the seriousness of his relationship and his intentions. He immediately wanted to get married, but I did not want to change anything, because everything was interesting and joyful to me. I didn't want to marry not specifically Andrei, but in general. It seemed to me that getting married was putting an end to myself ... Andrei evoked difficult feelings. Something imperceptibly peeped in the appearance of this foppish young man in the capital. I could not figure it out, and we often quarreled because of the difference in attitudes. For you to understand this difference, I will give you the following example: Andrei admired how the scene of the rape and murder of a girl in The Holy Spring was filmed, and I liked the chorus of gnomes in Snow White ... We got married only after the third year, when everyone parted for different reasons studios for practice. Andrey and I no longer wanted to part, and we got married without telling anyone. My mom almost had a blow. Andrei's mother, Maria Ivanovna, whom I also met by that time and whom I fell in love with very much, reacted to the event with philosophical firmness. And I confessed to Arseny Alexandrovich that I decided to marry Andrei after I met him. He laughed a lot and then told his friends about it. We have developed a very good relationship with him. They survived even after Andrey and I parted. Arseny Alexandrovich, just like me, loved fairy tales, and we gave each other books. "

At the same time, in 1957, Tarkovsky met a freshman Andrei Konchalovsky, with whom they later wrote the script for Tarkovsky's diploma film, Skating Rink and Violin, which was filmed in 1960 at the Mosfilm film studio. Since it was difficult to ideologically diversify the picture for reasons of censorship, Tarkovsky decided to take the sentimental story of the friendship of a young violinist and a skating rink driver, and pedal the visual component. The director was guided by the sensational film by Albert Lamoris "Red Balloon" - a touching story of the relationship between a little boy and a red balloon. Just like in the French film, Tarkovsky's short film paid attention to the play of colors, which was an important achievement of the cameraman Vadim Yusov. The Skating Rink and the Violin won first prize at the New York Student Film Festival, and soon Tarkovsky's first feature-length debut, Ivan's Childhood, took place. Based on the story "Ivan" by Vladimir Bogomolov, the film was staged in 1962 at the "Mosfilm" studio.

In the same year, Irma Raush gave birth to Tarkovsky's son Arseny. The beginning of work on the first big serious project, as well as the birth of a son, became for Tarkovsky the first big tests in his life. And if at first both health and relative family well-being allowed Tarkovsky to overcome these trials, then later the problems became more and more, and the strength to solve them - less and less. Irma Rausch recalled: “At first we did not have a home - we ran with two suitcases and books in rented apartments. This - thank God - did not feel like family life, and it made me much easier. The first apartment appeared after Ivanov's childhood. By inertia, I had fun, because the 1960s were quite optimistic, and we had a lot of interesting people in our house. But, on the other hand, I was knocked out of the cinema ... After Ivan's Childhood, a son, Arseny, was born - an ordinary everyday canvas ... Andrei had the idea that directing is not a woman's business at all. It is now women who cant went to the cinema, but then there were only a few. He believed that I was a good actress, should act in films and write fairy tales. My head has always been full of them. And Andrey managed to confuse me. On your head. Subsequently, this was one of the components of our divorce. The profession of an actress never attracted me ... When the script for “Rublev” was being written, Andrei laughed: “And Irka will play Fool. She has nothing to play - the foolishness is in her character. " But you know, all the time I was thinking about myself and Maria Ivanovna, with whom we have very similar fates. She and Arseny Alexandrovich also studied together, then Andrei was born, followed by a daughter. And at some point - we talked about this with Maria Ivanovna - this talent of her husband suddenly knocked her self-confidence out of her. It seemed to her that she was not so talented next to him, and, given the appearance of children, at some point she decided that her fate was children and her husband. She was very afraid that the same thing would happen to me. But I was brought up differently, and the time was different ... ”.

Irma Rausch played the role of Ivan's mother in the film "Ivan's Childhood", which told about the fate of 12-year-old intelligence officer Ivan. Having lost his mother early, the boy decided to go to the front to fight the enemy who had taken away his childhood. A childhood that returns to Ivan only in dreams. Dreams in this picture are more than just an artistic device. They form the fabric of the film; they are, in essence, the film. In addition, under the scenes of a dream, Tarkovsky managed to disguise that artistic freedom that would never have been missed by the notorious art council as a description of the ordinary life of a small, but still a soldier of the Soviet Army. It was this unheard-of freedom of expression at that time that brought the film world fame. The film won the main prize at the Venice Film Festival and inspired a number of directors: for example, Sergei Paradzhanov, having watched Ivan's Childhood, exclaimed: “Now I know how to make a movie!”. The film was also highly appreciated by one of Tarkovsky's idols - Ingmar Bergman.

A friend and husband of Andrei's older sister Maria, Alexander Gordon, wrote in “Memories of Andrei Tarkovsky”: “You should have seen Andrei after receiving the Grand Prize for this film in Venice. He beamed all over, the inspiration of fame breaking through all his restraint, almost through a rented elegant tuxedo - a testament to other worlds - captured in a famous photograph of 1962. It was a triumph for the young Soviet direction. In addition to the Tarkovsky Prize, Andrei Konchalovsky was awarded in Venice for the short film "Boy and the Dove" and Yuliy Karasik for the film "Wild Dog Dingo". Later, Valentina Malyavina, who played in Ivan's Childhood, told how, after a trip to America with a film, Andrei fell on his back in a snowdrift at the Mikhalkovs' dacha, stretched out his arms and exclaimed: “I'm happy!”.

In 1964, Tarkovsky began work on the large-scale project "Passion for Andrei". Alexander Gordon recalled: “He and Konchalovsky began to write a script about Andrei Rublev. Strictly speaking, the very idea of \u200b\u200bstaging a film about the great Russian icon painter originally belonged to Vasily Livanov, a wonderful actor and director. He dreamed of playing this role and, having met with Andrei Konchalovsky, spoke about his plan. But he could not imagine that the idea that fell into the hands of the two Andreev would never come back to him. A duel took place between Tarkovsky and Livanov in the restaurant of the Central House of Writers - an easy hand-to-hand fight, but "from the heart." Having exchanged blows, the opponents cooled down and dispersed. "

The aim of the project was to depict all the inner work that the artist performs when working on his works. It was not by chance that Tarkovsky chose the great Russian icon painter Andrei Rublev as the main character. It turned out that these passions were not only for Andrei Rublev, but also for Andrei Tarkovsky himself. This, perhaps, is the beginning of the process, during which the director took his own experiences as material, and the plot of the film was a kind of frame. Soviet censorship put an end to this kind of autobiography, and Tarkovsky had to rename the film Andrei Rublev. This picture was released in the Soviet distribution with a very limited number of copies in 1966, and in an extremely cut form. Alexander Gordon wrote about that period: “In December 1966, the premiere took place in the White Hall of the Union of Cinematographers, after which the film was put on the shelf, having previously sold it to the French company Gumont, which has remained an unthinkable mystery in its hypocrisy. Some party documents, tendentious and ignorant, I would like to quote: “The ideological concept is erroneous, vicious, has an anti-people character. The people did not suffer, did not endure and did not remain silent, as in the film, and the uprisings followed the uprisings ... The film humiliates the dignity of the Russian man, turns him into a savage, almost into an animal. The painted back of the buffoon looks like a symbol of the level at which culture was available to the people ... The film works against us, against the people, history and party politics in the field of art. "

The beginning of the campaign against the picture after the screenings in the Central Committee was laid by P.N. Demichev. Of course, he did not even imagine then that in a few years he would have to turn 180 degrees and give the command to release the film on the screen. “To advertise widely, sell abroad as widely as possible. This is politically beneficial. " In the meantime, the painting was closed. On February 7, 1967, Tarkovsky wrote a letter to A.V. Romanov stating that he did not agree to carry out the next amendments, and about the long-term persecution that began during the release of Ivanov Detstva. He writes about "a sense of persecution and hopelessness, which was caused by a ridiculous list of amendments, designed to destroy everything we have done in two years."

On May 31, 1967, the art council of Mosfilm met, but Tarkovsky did not come for discussion, and the diplomatic Mikhail Romm defended Andrei, wanting to justify his absence: “I have known Tarkovsky for many years, I have known him since the entrance exams. This is a nervous person, already upon entering VGIK he was to some extent injured, and much attention was paid to calm him down. He is a very vulnerable, very creative person. If he heard this summary of demands, I understand that he is ill, I understand that they cannot find him, because for an artist it is a devastating statement that everything that he has invested in this business is all wrong. For so many years of work - and this has been going on since 1961 - a huge chunk of life. "

The film "Passion for Andrey" is divided into 8 short stories, each of which tells about a particular period in the life of Andrey Rublev. The main role in the film was played by Anatoly Solonitsyn. Tarkovsky's wife Irma Raush also played in the film. She played the role of a holy fool girl who followed the icon painter on the heels. The ending of the film is quite remarkable - after two hours of black and white narration about the life of the icon painter, we see bright colorful works of the master - his icons. The color possibilities of the cinema have been used at the highest level.

On the set of the film "Andrei Rublev" Tarkovsky met Larisa Kizilova, who played a significant role in his later life. Later, Irma Rausch told about the break with Tarkovsky: “We parted for a long time. We officially divorced in 70, but it all came to an end much earlier. I went to the shooting, Andrey also went on an expedition, we parted in an amicable way. It was obvious that we were having a hard time with each other. After the divorce, I went to Gorky's studio. Returning to my profession after such a long break was not easy. Vasya Shukshin worked at the studio at that time, he helped me - we were always great friends with him. I began to shoot children's films ... "Relations with the eldest son Arseny were also difficult:" ... I did a great stupidity. When Andrei got married, he wanted Arseny to come to his house, but I did not allow. “When the boy grows up, he will decide for himself,” I thought. I remembered too well the expression on the face of Andrei, with whom he went to his father's house - probably this expression appeared in childhood and remained so. It turned out that Andrei hardly communicated with his son. It was hard for him to come to our house, as he himself said. In the end, Maria Ivanovna intervened - she simply took Arseny by the hand and led him to his father. True, Arseny was already in high school by that time. The relationship with his father was not easy, as it was with Andrei himself with Arseny Alexandrovich, despite the fact that they loved each other very much. To everything else, the loudness of the surname added complexity - both at school and then at the institute, Arseny all the time had to defend himself, defending his independence ... But I am happy that our son Arseny loved his grandfather very much. Their relationship was simple and affectionate. In recent years, the Tarkovskys lived in Matveyevsky, in the House of Cinema Veterans. By that time, Arseny graduated from the institute and became a surgeon. He often visited them. And then in the hospital, when the grandfather fell ill, he sat next to him on the last night, when Arseny Aleksandrovich was already unconscious. "

In 1969 the film "Andrei Rublev" was sent to the Cannes Film Festival, where the picture was shown out of competition and won the main prize of the International Film Press Federation. After finishing work on Andrei Rublev, Tarkovsky took up work on two scenarios at once: Solaris and Confession. The first, based on the novel of the same name by Stanislav Lem, was written by Tarkovsky together with screenwriter Friedrich Gorenstein. "Confession" was a completely autobiographical project, created by the director alone (only much later Alexander Misharin will join the work). In general, Tarkovsky considered it necessary for a director to have several projects in work at once. So in his diaries we can read that there are always at least ten films, each of which he can start filming right now. Among them are "Doctor Faustus", "The Glass Bead Game", "Dostoevsky", the life of Jesus. It is another matter that the opportunities provided to the director by the state were much less than those of the director himself. Alexander Gordon recalled: “Of course, those were not easy years in Andrey's life. The scripts were written, but they waited a long time. And although we had different reasons, we were both unemployed, so we often met. Andrey's personal life was very complicated and confusing. And he involved Marina and me in this confusion. He will go to live with Kizilova, and then he calls from another place: "Go and take my things from Zvezdny Boulevard." We take a taxi, arrive, pick up things. Larisa Kizilova does not look in our direction. And after a while everything repeats ... ".

Larisa Kizilova with Tarkovsky went through the most difficult and brightest days of his life. She was his nanny, mother, wet nurse, irreplaceable and constant companion of life, the very support that a creative person who is unable to cope with everyday life needs so much. Larisa told about her life with Tarkovsky in a later interview: “… When we met, I immediately understood at first sight:“ This is my destiny! .. ”I was 24 years old, and he was irresistible in his white jeans. He knew how to wear things with some chic. I was even a little eccentric and foppish, but perhaps it won me over. At first I became his assistant. For the first time, Tarkovsky took me to the Locarno Film Festival. He said then: “Larochka, be more critical of those around you. Before you is a false world with very bitter seedlings. Here, not everything is as simple and chic as it looks around. Especially if you have a few pennies in your pocket, and without money you are zero. " But around I saw another world, a world with different smells, different people, different smiles, different clothes. And the main thing that struck me was the children. No, the children were the same as ours, only without complexes. They also played, joked, laughed, but it was free laughter. Andrey was very fond of children. As he told about the birth of our baby ... I was very ill then. Heart attacks did not stop. They began during the filming of Ivan's Childhood. He was very worried and said to me: “God, you would rather (he and Andrei were on“ you ”for the rest of their lives. - Izvestia) gave birth! Give birth to at least a bookcase, chair or stool. But I'm alive. I will love her very much. " On August 7, 1970, a severe thunderstorm broke out. In the maternity hospital near Prospekt Mira in Moscow, everything suddenly went dark. It was like a collapse. There was one clap of thunder, then another. And when the thunder stopped, the first cry of our son was heard! Later, Andrey Sr. told this scene in different ways, but he always repeated the same thing with enthusiasm: "He weighed 4600 grams!" He stole a tablet with the first data of his son. This tablet became his relic ... And, in general, I have not seen a kinder, simpler and at the same time complex, subtle and mysterious person like Andrei. His special decency was manifested in his attitude to both his own and other people's children ... ”.

In 1972 Tarkovsky completed work on the fantastic film Solaris.

The film revealed the theme of ethical, moral and religious problems of mankind through the relationship of the latter with extraterrestrial civilizations. In the same year, Tarkovsky passed the film to the artistic council, and in response received a list of comments, consisting of 35 points. Among them: "Remove the concept of God", "Remove the concept of Christianity", "Remove the scene with the mother." Among the remarks were absolutely absurd ones: "It is not necessary for Hari to become a human being", "The viewer will not understand anything." The viewer turned out to be much more discerning than the officials, and Soviet cinemas surrounded by queues in four rings. Many residents of big cities went to the provinces to watch Solaris, as it went there in a less cut-off form.

Against this background, the Grand Prize of the Cannes Film Festival in 1972 became an expected phenomenon. Despite this, Tarkovsky was very upset by such an attitude from his "fatherland". In his diaries for 1973, he wrote: "Nobody needs you, you are completely alien to your culture, you have not done anything for it, you are nothing."

“I was not too lazy,” wrote Alexander Gordon, “and having studied the relevant documents of Mosfilm, I calculated the time Tarkovsky had worked on the films. Work on Solaris lasted three years, or more precisely, three years and four months. It went in stages as follows: from the application for the script (December 18, 1968) to the approval of the literary script and permission to start work (March 3, 1970), one year and four months passed. Although the authors spent no more than three to four months on writing the script. The rest of the time was spent on discussing options, agreeing on amendments, passing documents through the authorities. It took another two years to work on the film - directorial development, preparatory period, filming, dubbing, editing and numerous submissions of various versions and amendments to the film. Only in February 1972 was the work completed, and the official date of delivery of the film according to the Goskino papers was April 11, 1972. Total: three years, four months and five days ... They say that Tarkovsky spent a long time filming his films and therefore made so few of them. They also say that he was hampered by the bureaucratic system. In one of the letters to his father, Andrei wrote about this. The system really got in the way, what is true is true. It took a particularly long time to approve the scripts. But he shot the films themselves professionally and quickly, subject to quality training. However, when it came to the delivery of the film, everything, as a rule, was delayed ... ".

The following year, Tarkovsky returned to work on Confession, interrupted due to the filming of Solaris, and brought Alexander Misharin into the work. The working title "Confession", which had already become both "White Day" and "White-White Day", eventually became "The Mirror", and under this name the film was shot in the same year. For many movie lovers, The Mirror is Tarkovsky's central work. There are enough reasons for this point of view: the film is completely autobiographical, there is no plot as such - the film seemed to “float” from one image to another, from childhood to adulthood, from adulthood to youth. The image of the father, or rather the image of his absence, was clearly manifested: the poems of Arseny Tarkovsky, read by the author himself, remind us of the distance that, in early childhood, separated the main character (director) and his father. By this time, Tarkovsky had already divorced his first wife Irma Raush and married Larisa Kizilova, who bore him a son, Andrei. Thus, Tarkovsky became for his first son Arseny what his father Arseny became for him in his time. The actual absence of the main character himself is also very important. The audience saw the world through his eyes, thought in terms of it. The role of the mother was played by Margarita Terekhova, whose physical resemblance to Tarkovsky's mother is quite difficult to deny. However, a lot of criticism fell upon the film - just for its autobiography, for excessive symbolism. The only aspect of the film that no one has ever denied was superb is Georgy Rerberg's cinematography. It was in this picture that its author was fully reflected, with all its pluses and minuses, with all the thanks and grievances. And if we want to form our own opinion about the person and the director Andrei Tarkovsky, we must first of all watch "The Mirror". More than any other film, Mirror can be called the Tarkovsky family film. The voice of his father sounded off-screen, reading his poems in the role of the old mother, Andrei's mother starred, the boy's first love was played by his stepdaughter Olya, daughter of Larisa Kizilova. Larisa also played - in the most difficult episode, in partnership with Margarita Terekhova (in Terekhova's "Mirror" there are two roles - the hero's mother Maria and his wife Natalia). Finally, Tarkovsky himself appeared in the frame - however, his face was not visible, but only his hands, the emaciated hands of a dying man on the bed.

“At the meeting of the Commission for Defining Categories of Films,” wrote Alexander Gordon, “fierce debates flared up at Mosfilm. Here are some excerpts from the transcript:

“Evgeny Matveev: I am sorry for such a great artist as Tarkovsky, and it’s just embarrassing to even speak. It was said here that at a meeting in the Union of Cinematographers, together with the State Film Agency, it was said in one of the speeches about “elitism”. Apparently, it was not by chance that the word “elitism” was used in relation to Tarkovsky's picture to characterize it. Presumably, there will be those who will applaud, shout "hurray" - the brilliant Tarkovsky, the only Fellini in our country, and the like. There will be a lot of noise, but for whom was this picture created? I think for a few. But I will definitely vote for the first category.

Nikolay Sizov (general director of Mosfilm, as chairman of the artistic council with the right of two votes): This is not at all necessary. Vote as you see fit. I personally will vote for the second category. Everyone has their own opinion…

Efim Dzigan: I have no doubt that this picture will not be accepted and understood by a wide audience. And it seems to me that such disrespect for the viewer for whom we work ... does not deserve to give such a high assessment to a film as the first category ... It would be deeply wrong to encourage such tendencies in our cinematography.

Grigory Alexandrov: Everything is not clear here. Maybe I'm too old to understand this, but I understand what we have to do and that this is not the direction that needs to be supported. I take the liberty of saying that the audience will not see this picture ... Appreciating Tarkovsky highly, I believe that this picture does not follow the main path of our Soviet art.

Nikolay Sizov: Of course, if you approach art, as Vera Petrovna Stroeva formulated, that great art cannot be optimistic, then this may be a step forward in his work ... but generally speaking, if you do not separate art from tasks, implementation of which we are called to work, the outstanding picture of Andrei Tarkovsky cannot be called ... ".

The voting results were as follows: eleven votes were cast for the first category, twelve for the second. Only in the early 1990s, after Tarkovsky's death, this decision was revised and the film "Mirror" was nevertheless awarded the first category. When the final version of The Mirror was completed, the film was released only in three cinemas in Moscow ... ".

In those years, Tarkovsky did not manage to shoot the film Hamlet, but in 1976 he staged a Shakespeare play on the stage of the Lenin Komsomol Theater with Anatoly Solonitsyn in the title role. Tarkovsky said that there was a huge secret in this play for him. He saw the tragedy of Hamlet “in the moral and spiritual decline, in the necessity, before committing a murder, to accept the laws of this world, to act according to its rules, that is, to renounce his spiritual claims and become an ordinary murderer. That's where the meaning of the drama is! Tragedy!".

After the "Mirror" Tarkovsky prepared for shooting for several years and made another fantastic film - "Stalker". The script was written by the Strugatsky brothers based on their own story "Roadside Picnic". Arkady Strugatsky said with delight: "We wrote eighteen versions of the script, because that's what Andrei demanded." The film told about the journey of the Writer and Professor, accompanied by Stalker, to the Zone - a place struck by a strange disaster. There is a certain Room in the Zone where any wishes come true. But when they reached the Room, the travelers realized that they really wanted something quite different from what they had in mind. Returning back, seemingly empty-handed, they became completely different people. On the set of the film, or rather, after filming, a catastrophe happened to Tarkovsky, the scale of which is comparable only to the scale of the disaster in the Zone: either because of the developer's mistake, or on someone's special order, the working negative was shown in the wrong way - film was actually washed off the tape. Tarkovsky survived a heart attack. Having recovered a little, he completely reshomed the film. During the editing period, another attack occurred, during which Tarkovsky wrote in his diary: “God! I feel Your approach. I feel your hand on the back of my head. For I want to see Your world as You created it, and Your people as You try to make them. I love You, Lord, and I want nothing more from You. " Fortunately, the attack was not fatal, and Tarkovsky finished the film, which in 1980 was shown to great success at the Cannes Film Festival. Stalker, released in 1980, is Tarkovsky's last film in the Soviet Union. In the same year he was awarded the title of People's Artist of the RSFSR, and he became a laureate of the Italian prize "David Donatello" in the nomination "For his contribution to the art of cinema." "Now I feel so strong, so creatively high, so great is my desire to work, but where, where is this work?" - wrote the director in his diary.

By this time, Tarkovsky had acquired acquaintances abroad, in particular, he struck up a great friendship with the Italian screenwriter Tonino Guerra. And in 1980, Tarkovsky went to Italy, where, together with Guerra, he began work on the script for the film Nostalgia. Son Andrei stayed in Moscow with his grandmother, and Rome in 1981 welcomed Tarkovsky warmly. Tonino Guerra became a close friend and co-author of the director, and the Mayor of Florence placed the house at Tarkovsky's disposal. During his travels in Italy, connected with the choice of nature for "Nostalgia", Tarkovsky shot a documentary film "Travel time". In one of the scenes of this film, Tarkovsky, responding to letters from Italian students, spoke about his preferences in art: Leonardo da Vinci, Leo Tolstoy, Johann Sebastian Bach, Robert Bresson - all of them, according to Tarkovsky, have achieved ingenious simplicity in their works.

Tarkovsky highly appreciated the films of Parajanov, Fellini and Antonioni. When watching Time of Travel, one gets the feeling that Tarkovsky was looking for something special in Italy, something that is not in Italy. Isn't Tarkovsky looking for Russia in Italy? Russia, which no longer exists in the socialist state, which was stolen from the director, leaving only a wooden blockhouse in Yuryevets? So the hero of the film "Nostalgia" writer Gorchakov was looking in Italy for traces of the work of the Russian serf composer Sosnovsky. I was looking for a Russian composer, but I found a local madman - blessed Domenico. “I wanted to talk about Russian nostalgia,” Tarkovsky noted, “that special and specific state of mind that arises in us, Russians, far from our Motherland.”

The preparatory period lasted three years and the shooting went on for three months. For Tarkovsky, this work was a milestone: “It was only in“ Nostalgia ”that I felt that cinema was able to very much express the author's state of mind,” he said in an interview. "Before, I didn't think it was possible."

In 1983 Tarkovsky brought "Nostalgia" to the Cannes Film Festival, where 82-year-old Robert Bresson was with his last film "Money" (based on Tolstoy's "Fake Coupon"). And here it is, a historic moment - the big prize for the best director's work was won by two films at once: "Nostalgia" and "Money". At the press conference, Tarkovsky and Bresson were sitting side by side, no more than half a meter from each other. For Tarkovsky, Bresson, of course, was at an absolutely unattainable level, but for all those gathered it was clear that the figures of these two directors were quite comparable. And none of them is better or worse - that's not the point. The fact is that each of them managed to show the world the way everyone sees - and no one sees. And then a scandal erupted. Tarkovsky was outraged by the distribution of awards, in his opinion, unfair, and accused Sergei Bondarchuk, who was a member of the jury, of allegedly opposing the award of the main prize to Nostalgia.

In the future, Tarkovsky was to return to Moscow, as required by the State Film Agency. He was promised to renew his visa, but at first it was proposed to discuss his creative plans. In response, the director demanded the arrival of his son and mother-in-law, and the extension of the trip abroad for another three years. Tarkovsky was terribly nervous, and on July 10, 1984, at a press conference, he said that he would forever remain in the West. He explained this decision not by political motives, but by the fact that he was not given and is not given the opportunity to work and implement his plans in his homeland.

I. Alberti spoke about that time: “The most poignant memories of Andrei are associated with the moment when he decided to stay. He desperately asked that his little son and mother Larisa and her daughter from her first marriage be released to him: this also played a role in the decision to stay in the West - at first he only wanted to work here for several years. Three days after the press conference, I spent next to him. These days he badly needed psychological support and friendly participation. He felt lost, it was a tragedy for him. He very keenly felt his spiritual connection with Russia, with its trees, birds, grasses, and only extraordinary circumstances could influence the decision to stay. In general, his concept of homeland was much broader than the concept of geographic, social, and so on. It was a spiritual concept, including, first of all, Russian culture. "

As soon as the news of Tarkovsky's decision to stay in the West reached the limits of the Soviet Union, the official authorities immediately declared him a traitor. The newspapers and magazines immediately fell silent, not saying a word about Tarkovsky. All of his films were removed from the box office, even by the Victory Day they stopped playing "Ivan's Childhood" - one of the most talented films on a military theme. Most of his colleagues turned their backs on Tarkovsky. From the pages of Literaturnaya Gazeta, Mikhail Ulyanov said: “In no country in the world will Tarkovsky be given the right to film the same film three times, but we did. He was offered to film Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky's The Idiot, which every director can dream of, but he preferred to go to Italy and stage Nostalgia there. These are their personal decisions and tragedies (the article was also about the director of the Taganka Theater, Yuri Petrovich Lyubimov, who also remained in the West), and not some malicious intent of the country. "

Many then, frightened by the system, betrayed Tarkovsky. From an interview with Larisa Kizilova: “Andrei said:“ I generally have nostalgia for people. But not in cities, not even in Moscow with its bosses. No regrets. Cities will ever be rebuilt, and people are clearly more difficult. Am I? Never ... "- Which of your friends has not betrayed? - I would like to single out Sergey Parajanov from my friends-filmmakers. We met him after Sergei was released from prison. I remembered his words: “There are people who have everything, but they are very poor. You, Tarkovsky, a beggar, but believe me: you are one of the richest on the planet, and remain forever yourself. God will give!"

Marriage to Larisa Kizilova for a long time spoiled Andrei's relationship with his sister Maria, who talked about that period of her brother's life this way: “Otar Ioseliani was already working in France at that time, Konchalovsky lived in America ... Andrei went on a creative trip to shoot Nostalgia in Italy and under strong pressure from his friends, who wished him well, and from his wife Larissa, in July 1983, announced his non-return. “It was the most disgusting day of my life,” he later wrote. It was terrible for him that his son and his relatives were left "hostage" here ... His tragedy is that he was born in our country with its terrible regime. And there was no real friend nearby who would say: “What are you doing? Wait! Be patient! " It was a blow for us, because we understood what he had doomed himself to. We learned about his decision from the press, and were shocked ... Dad had the hardest part: he lost his son ... Andrei understood that he was sinking to the bottom. He was performing a sacrifice. But for what? If he had lingered here even a little bit, then, perhaps, he would not have become so terribly ill ... "

In 1984, Tarkovsky went to Sweden, where he agreed to shoot the film "Sacrifice". The film was directed by Sven Nykvist, Ingmar Bergman's permanent cameraman, whose films Tarkovsky admired so much. A year later, Tarkovsky learned that he had lung cancer, and immediately began filming "Sacrifice", realizing that this was his last film. The picture told about the life of a family on the eve of the end of the world associated with atomic war. The head of the family, atheist Alexander, tried to understand what he needed to do, what sacrifice to make in order to save the life of his children. Tarkovsky himself explained the idea of \u200b\u200bthe film in the following way: “Sacrifice is what every generation must do in relation to its children: sacrifice itself”. Andrei Tarkovsky made this sacrifice, putting all of himself into his last film.

On the set of the film "Sacrifice", Tarkovsky had an affair with the Norwegian Inger Person, who worked as a costume designer in the film crew. And shortly before her death, a son, Alexander, was born to her from Andrei Tarkovsky, whom Andrei never saw. A photograph of his three-month-old son was brought to the hospital. Now Alexander lives with his mother in Norway. “In the last days, they brought him photographs of his three-month-old illegitimate son. He was in disarray ... - Maria Tarkovskaya recalls, - I tried to find Alexander's mother, and we started a family relationship. We met in Paris when Alexander was a little over a year old. We went together to the cemetery to see Andrey. It was very sad, but some kind of peace came ... I will not forget Sasha's little hand with a watering can: he watered flowers at his father's grave ... Then they came to Moscow, we visited them in Scandinavia. For Andrey's sake, this lovely woman learned Russian. She spoke with Andrey in Italian. All of Andrey's sons are very beautiful. In Sasha, I also find a great resemblance to Andrei - in temperament, in mobility, in some kind of physical dexterity. He is the national champion in fencing among juniors. In Moscow, I attended a fencing competition, where Alexander arrived with his friend. He fought bravely like a Viking. But the flight affected: the whole day he was waiting for his exit on the track and lost one point to his opponent. When he threw the mask on the floor in annoyance at losing, I saw Andrey in him. "

In May 1986, already seriously ill, Tarkovsky received several prizes at the Cannes Film Festival. The entire cinematic community helped Tarkovsky in the fight against the disease, but one chemotherapy after another deprived his body of its last strength. An entry in Tarkovsky's diary of December 15: "There is no strength to recover", and just below the last phrase, written in the hand of Andrei Tarkovsky: "A negative, cut for some reason in many random places ...".

“Until the last hour, Andrei did not lose consciousness, and even more so - self-control, reason. - told Larisa Kizilova, - He joked, tried to cheer, support me morally and physically. For example, he said: “What a big ward in this hospital. Tell me, can you arrange something so that I can shoot a couple of scenes, or maybe a whole film? Even cartoon is ready. You, Larochka, the role of Snow White. I have long been a Gnome-Grunt ... ”There were only six days left before death. “How happy I would be if I received a phone call from Moscow! Or maybe all the phones were turned off there? And this is possible with us. " “Well, what are you? Everything is all right there. Your films have gone everywhere in cinemas, ”Larissa said trying to cheer him up. “Apparently, my business is very bad! Probably, they heard there that I was dying ... But my films are also of very average gaiety ... And now I have no time for laughter. But I believe in the life that was left and left ... ”.

Before his death, Andrei Tarkovsky wrote a will, which his wife Larissa carefully kept: “Recently, apparently in connection with rumors about my imminent death, my films have been widely shown in the Union. As you can see, my posthumous canonization is already being prepared. When I cannot object to anything, I will become pleasing to those in power, those who for 17 years did not let me work, those who forced me to stay in the West in order to finally implement my creative plans, those who are five years forcibly separated us from our 10-year-old son. Knowing the mores of some members of my family (alas, they don’t choose kinship!), I want to protect with this letter my wife Lara, my constant faithful friend and helper, whose nobility and love are shown now more than ever (she is now my permanent nurse, my only support), from any future attacks. When I die, I ask her to bury me in Paris, in the Russian cemetery. Neither alive nor dead, I do not want to return to the country that has caused me and my loved ones so much pain, suffering, humiliation. I am a Russian, but I do not consider myself Soviet. I hope that my wife and son will not violate my will, despite all the difficulties that await them in connection with my decision. Andrey Tarkovsky. Paris, November 5, 1986 ".

Andrei Tarkovsky died of lung cancer on December 29, 1986 in a Parisian hospital. His funeral took place on January 3, 1987 at the Russian cemetery of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois, near Paris. Sister Maria and her husband Alexander Gordon came from the Soviet Union to the funeral: “When we went to Andrei's funeral, we were carrying a letter from our father with a request to bury Tarkovsky's ashes in Russia. But experts in French family law explained that all rights are in the hands of the wife. Larissa refused to bury Andrei in Russia, because then she would not be released from here. It made no sense for her to return, since she just achieved what she wanted: to live abroad. There was already a son, whom, when Andrei fell mortally ill, the authorities deigned to release. When I sent a telegram addressed to Gorbachev with a request to facilitate my meeting with my brother, they called me from the OVIR: "Relatives are not allowed to visit those sent abroad." Recently, the idea of \u200b\u200breburial has arisen, but I have a negative attitude to this: since fate has brought Andrei to the Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois cemetery, then it must be so. After all, it had already been moved once: for the first time the body was buried in the grave of Esaul Grigoriev, and later the mayor of Saint-Genevieve allocated a special place for Tarkovsky's grave. The history of the grave monument is also complex. At first there was a simple wooden cross, which I personally liked. And then, without telling me anything about her plans, Andrei's widow ordered a monument. The inscription on it is absolutely illiterate from the point of view of the Russian language: “Andrei Tarkovsky. To the man who saw the angel. " In addition, it seems to me that such an inscription is simply unacceptable on the monument (and the priest told me about it). You can't write such things. Even if he saw an angel ... ”.

Larisa herself made a sketch of the monument: the mountain is like Golgotha, seven steps were carved in it, symbolizing completeness and corresponding to the number of films created by Andrey: “How many reproaches I have heard! My relatives accused me that there was no monument to Andrei for a long time, that I had put my husband on Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois not in a “new place”. Ernst Neizvestny's promises to make a monument and donate it in memory of Tarkovsky remained promises ... But why stir up old grievances? I could not pay the sculptors as much as they requested. But I didn’t lose hope that we would raise a monument to Andrei ... ”The monument cost 100 thousand dollars. Larisa paid the cost of the burial place 200 years in advance, not knowing that in just ten years she would lie next to her husband.

In 1987, Alexander Sokurov made a documentary about Andrei Tarkovsky "Moscow Elegy".

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In 2007, the film "The Way of the Cross of Andrei Tarkovsky" was made about Andrei Tarkovsky. In addition to interviews with famous filmmakers, the film has a lot of filming related to the last years of the director's life in Italy: it depicts Florence, where Tarkovsky lived and his museum, institute and Fund are located, the town of Bagna Vignoni, where the film Nostalgia was filmed, an old house Italian screenwriter Tonino Guerra and interviews with him. There are also many rare newsreels in the film: the young Tarkovsky, the director during the filming of his films and fragments of the documentary "Travel Time", filmed in Italy by Andrei Tarkovsky together with Tonino Guerra.

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The text was prepared by Tatiana Khalina

Used materials:

Surkova O.E. Comparison book
Surkova O.E. The Chronicles of Tarkovsky: "Solaris"
Surkova O.E. The Chronicles of Tarkovsky: "The Mirror"
Surkova O.E. The Chronicles of Tarkovsky: "Stalker"
Surkova O.E. With Tarkovsky and about Tarkovsky.
Surkova O.E. Tarkovsky and I: The Diary of a Pioneer.
Turovskaya M.I. 7 p. ½ and Films by Andrey Tarkovsky.
Gordon A.V. Not Quenched Thirst: About Andrei Tarkovsky.
About Tarkovsky. Memoirs in two books (Anthology: T. Guerra, K. Zanussi, A. Konchalovsky, A. Kurosava, V. Sheman, E. Yuzefson, D. Banionis, N. Bondarchuk, N. Burlyaev, N. Grinko, V. Malyavina , M. Terekhova, O. Yankovsky and others)
Materials of the site www.tarkovsky.su
Materials of the site www.tarkovsky.net.ru
Materials of the site www.people.ucalgary.ca
Materials of the site www.cinemotions.blogspot.com

FILMOGRAPHY:

1956 - Assassins - director, screenwriter, actor (Second Visitor)
1958 - There will be no layoff today - director, screenwriter, actor (Demoman)
1960 - Skating rink and violin - director, screenwriter
1962 - Ivan's childhood - director, screenwriter (uncredited)
1965 - I am twenty years old ("Ilyich's Outpost") - actor (Guest at the birthday party, with a toast about turnips)
1966 - Andrei Rublev - director, screenwriter
1967 - Sergei Lazo - screenwriter (uncredited), actor (Bochkarev, White Guard officer, - uncredited), editor (uncredited)
1968 - One Chance in a Thousand - Screenwriter, Artistic Director
1972 - Solaris - director, screenwriter
1973 - Tart Grapes ("Pressing") - editor (uncredited), artistic director
1974 - Mirror - director, screenwriter
1979 - Stalker - director, screenwriter (uncredited), artistic director
1979 - Beware! Snakes! - screenwriter
1982 - Travel Time - director, screenwriter
1983 - Nostalgia - director, screenwriter
1983 - Boris Godunov - director
1983 - The Way to Bresson - the protagonist of the documentary film by Yurien Rood and Leo de Boer
1985 - Sacrifice - director, screenwriter, editor

Tarkovsky Andrey Arsenievich (1932-1986)

Andrei Arsenievich Tarkovsky is a Soviet director. Films: "Ivan's Childhood" (1962), "Andrey Rublev" (1966/1971), "Solaris" (1973), "Mirror" (1975), "Stalker" (1980), "Nostalgia" (1983), "Sacrifice "(1986).

Andrei Tarkovsky was born on April 4, 1932 in the village of Zavrazhie (near the town of Yuryevets on the Volga), Ivanovo region. His father is the famous poet Arseny Alexandrovich Tarkovsky. Mother, Maria Ivanovna Vishnyakova, graduated from the Literary Institute.

Andrey lived with his mother, grandmother and sister in a wooden house on Shchipok street in the distant Zamoskvorechye. “It was a difficult time. I always missed my father. When my father left our family, I was three years old. Life was unusually difficult in every sense. And yet I got a lot in life. All the best that I have in life , the fact that I became a director - I owe all this to my mother ", - said Tarkovsky.

During the war, the family was evacuated to Yuryevets. Maria Ivanovna walked across the river across the ice, carrying potatoes from distant villages. But already in 1943, the Tarkovskys returned to Moscow.

Maria Ivanovna worked as a proofreader at the First Model Printing House. Somehow she managed to carve out money for books and albums, tickets to the conservatory - in addition to the ordinary school, Andrei studied both in an art school and in a music school (in the piano class). At school, Andrei behaved freely, talked with teachers on equal terms. I was excellent in humanitarian subjects.

In 1951-1952, Tarkovsky studied at the Arabic department of the Moscow Institute of Oriental Studies, but without completing the course, he got a job at the All-Russian Research Institute of Non-Ferrous Metals and Gold, then worked as a geologist. “At one time, I went through a very difficult moment,” he recalled. “In general, I ended up in bad company when I was young. My mother saved me in a very strange way - she arranged me for a geological party. I worked there as a collector, almost a worker, in taiga, in Siberia. And it remained the best memory in my life. I was then 20 years old ... "

In the fall of 1954, Tarkovsky entered the VGIK at the directing department (workshop of Mikhail Romm), and in 1960 he completed his studies.

During his student years, Andrei fell in love with Irma Raush, a spectacular blonde. Their relationship was not easy, for Tarkovsky it was painful. They got married in 1957.

Tarkovsky's true debut was the film Ivan's Childhood (1962). He was invited to complete the picture, which was filled up by another director. Tarkovsky rewrote the script of the Stalin Prize laureate Papava based on the story of Bogomolov together with Mikhalkov-Konchalovsky.

The hero of this film is a boy. The war deprived him of his childhood, mother, happiness and made him an avenger. He goes on reconnaissance. There are two faces of Ivan in the film: a sunny boy from dreams and a thin, black, with sunken eyes full of longing, a twelve-year-old scout. The contrast was shocking. "The boy is as mad as the war itself," wrote Jean Paul Sartre in his famous essay on Ivan's Childhood. The film won the Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival, was awarded prizes at the Acapulco and San Francisco festivals ...

Tarkovsky has many new ideas. Already in the fall, together with Andrei Mikhalkov-Konchalovsky, he completed the first version of the script "Passion for Andrei" (the film will be released under the title "Andrei Rublev"). “We wrote the script for a long time, intoxicated, it took about six months only to study the material,” recalls Mikhalkov-Konchalovsky. “We read books on history, everyday life, crafts of Ancient Russia, tried to understand what life was like then, - we had to open everything from scratch ".

In Tarkovsky's film, the genius Russian icon painter of the 15th century Andrei Rublev (Solonitsyn) observes life against the background of princely strife and Mongol raids, reflects on the fate of Russia, on the artist's mission, on the purpose of art. The film was shot mainly on location, and cameraman V. Yusov managed to create a charming image of Russian nature.

In mid-1966, the film crew presented the film "The Passion for Andrei" for delivery. At the Committee on Cinematography, Tarkovsky was first congratulated on his success, but after a few days the congratulations were taken back: the film did not like someone from the party leadership. After repeated processing of the picture, a new version of it appeared under the name "Andrei Rublev". But in this form, she did not receive approval.

still from the film "Andrei Rublev"

In Cannes, "Andrei Rublev" was by pure chance. Sovexportfilm sold it, along with six other films, to the French businessman Alex Moskovich, who brought the picture to the Cannes film market. There she was awarded the FIPRESCI Criticism Prize. Only in 1971 the film, reduced by a third, was allowed to be released on screens in the Soviet Union.

Tarkovsky began working on the script for a film about the revolutionary Lazo. And he prescribed for himself the role of a White Guard officer. The film "Final. Death of Lazo" was filmed in Chisinau by Alexander Gordon, the husband of Tarkovsky's sister Marina.

"I don't understand Andryusha," said Yermash, head of the culture department of the Central Committee of the CPSU. "Why does he need to play a White Guard, shoot communists, shoot a child, kill!" Goskino chairman Romanov was angry: "Do you understand who Tarkovsky is shooting at? He is shooting at the communists! He is shooting at us!" Gordon had to amend the picture.

Of course, these were not easy years in Tarkovsky's life. The scripts were written, but they waited a long time. Andrey's personal life was very difficult. The marriage with Irma Rausch has cracked. There were rumors that he was living with some Mosfilm employee. Then it turned out that this was Larisa Yegorkina, who worked as an assistant director at Andrei Rublev. He left his family, rarely saw his son Arseny, hid from his family and old friends. He has changed, became tough, secretive, distrustful to the point of suspicion.

Tarkovsky offered in various instances about a dozen different applications, among them were screen versions of the classics - the stories of Hoffman, "The Life of Archpriest Avvakum" ... In the first place was the screen version of "Demons". Finally, he was approved an application for a script based on S. Lem's science fiction novel Solaris.

The action of the film takes place on a space scientific station, near the mysterious planet Solaris, the conscious matter of which - the Thinking Ocean - is capable of embodying dreams, thoughts, and memories of heroes in the forms of earthly life. This picture is a reflection on the psychology, memory and morality of a person. Solaris (1973) echoes Tarkovsky's earlier paintings with deep philosophical generalizations. A whole galaxy of brilliant actors gathered in this film - D. Banionis, Y. Yarvet, A. Solonitsyn, N. Grinko, V. Dvorzhetsky, N. Bondarchuk.

still from the film "Solaris"

In 1974, Tarkovsky moved to a new apartment. Now he could afford to have a separate office. Andrey Arsenievich's talent was multifaceted. He wrote poetry, painted beautifully, understood music. “This is how we imagined a Russian intellectual,” notes the prominent Italian historian Paolo Alatri.

Tarkovsky was a believer, he constantly read and reread the Bible. "For me, cinema is a moral and not a professional occupation," Tarkovsky stressed.

Having visited Paris, Tarkovsky learned that "Andrei Rublev", according to a poll of authoritative film critics, entered the top ten best films in the world. But there was not a word about this in the Soviet press, in the reports and reports of film directors.

In 1974, the director completed the film "The Mirror". The script, which was originally called "White, White Day", he wrote together with Alexander Misharin. "Basically, the script was autobiographical, it was built on Tarkovsky's memories of childhood, family, and some circumstances of his adult life," writes prose writer L. Lazarev.

More than any other film, "The Mirror" can be called the Tarkovsky family film. The voice of his father sounded off-screen, reading his poems in the role of the old mother, Andrey's mother starred, the boy's first love was played by his stepdaughter Olya, daughter of Larisa Yegorkina. Larisa also played - in the most difficult episode, in partnership with Margarita Terekhova (in Terekhova's "Mirror" there are two roles - the hero's mother Maria and his wife Natalia). Finally, Tarkovsky himself appeared in the frame - however, his face was not visible, but only his hands, the emaciated hands of a dying man on the bed.

"Mirror" also did not immediately appear on the screens, the authorities did not give a visa to print copies, they were thinking about which ones to require bills or reshoots. But abroad the picture immediately received universal recognition.

Tarkovsky did not manage to make the film "Hamlet", but in 1976 he staged a Shakespeare play on the stage of the Theater. Lenin Komsomol with A. Solonitsyn in the title role. Tarkovsky said that there was a huge secret in this play for him. He saw the tragedy of Hamlet "in the moral and spiritual decline, in the necessity, before committing murder, to accept the laws of this world, to act according to its rules, that is, to abandon his spiritual claims and become an ordinary murderer. That is where the meaning of the drama is! Tragedy!"

Tarkovsky began work on a new film. He drew attention to the story of Boris and Arkady Strugatsky "Roadside Picnic". Gradually, a complete rethinking of the original idea took place. Arkady Strugatsky said with delight: "We wrote eighteen versions of the script, because that's what Andrei demanded."

stills from the film "Stalker"

This is a story about a mysterious Zone left on Earth by aliens from outer space. The bravest ones get there with the help of guides - stalkers. Having passed a difficult path and reaching the coveted room in which all desires are fulfilled, the heroes of "Stalker" do not dare to cross its threshold. During the journey, they had enough reason to doubt the purity of their thoughts.

Stalker, released in 1980, is Tarkovsky's last film in the Soviet Union. In the same year he was awarded the title of People's Artist of the RSFSR. He won the Italian David Donatello Prize in the category For Contribution to Cinematography. "Now I feel so strong, so creatively high, so great is my desire to work, but where, where is this work?" - wrote the director in his diary.

After "Stalker" Tarkovsky, under various pretexts, refused to work at "Mosfilm". He had known Tonino Guerra for a long time and wanted to make a film in Italy. Preliminary negotiations between Sovexportfilm and RAI, Italian television, have begun. In March 1981, a contract with the Italians for the filming of the film "Nostalgia" was signed, and soon Tarkovsky left. Son Andrei stayed with his grandmother in Moscow.

Rome met Tarkovsky warmly. Tonino Guerra became a close friend and co-director of the director. And the mayor of Florence gave him a house. First, a documentary sketch "Andrei Tarkovsky and Tonino Guerra - time of travel" was shot.

The hero of "Nostalgia" was to be a Russian serf composer (prototype - Bortnyansky), sent to study in Italy. But this idea was quickly abandoned, and the place of the composer was taken by the modern writer Gorchakov (Yankovsky). "I wanted to talk about Russian nostalgia, - noted Tarkovsky, - that special and specific state of mind that arises in us, Russians, far from the Motherland."

The preparatory period lasted three years and the shooting went on for three months. For Tarkovsky, this work was a milestone. “Only in 'Nostalgia' did I feel that cinema is able to a very large extent express the state of mind of the author, - he said in an interview. - Before, I did not imagine that this was possible."

Italy put Nostalgia at the 1983 Cannes Film Festival with a Grand Prix in mind. And then a scandal erupted. Tarkovsky was outraged by the distribution of the awards, in his opinion, unfair, and accused Sergei Bondarchuk, who was a member of the jury, of allegedly opposing the award of the main prize to Nostalgia.

Tarkovsky had to return to Moscow, as required by the State Film Agency. He was promised to renew his visa, but at first it was proposed to discuss his creative plans. The director demanded the arrival of his son and mother-in-law and the extension of the trip abroad for another three years.

Tarkovsky was terribly nervous. Having received no response from the Soviet authorities to his requests, he declared at a press conference in Milan that he and his wife would remain in the West. From that moment on, Tarkovsky began to fear that he would either be killed or stolen and taken to the Soviet Union.

A new difficult life began for the director. There was no money for a new painting. Friends procured him a scholarship from the Berlin Academy of Arts - a thousand dollars a month for a year. I had to live in Berlin, look for funds for the production of "Hoffmaniana", suggest other projects.

Tarkovsky happily took on the production of the opera "Boris Godunov" in London's Covent Garden. He considered Mussorgsky the most brilliant composer of Russia, and Pushkin was his favorite poet. The conductor was the famous Claudio Abbado. The performance was a success.

In the summer of 1985, on the island of Gotland in Sweden, Tarkovsky began shooting the film "Sacrifice" according to his own script. It is based on the well-known Gospel story about a dried fig tree. The image of the hero-seeker was embodied in the complex figure of the philosopher and writer Alexander (Erland Yousefson). To save humanity from nuclear disaster, he sacrifices his home and his mind. "The film is dedicated to my son Andryusha, with hope and faith," Tarkovsky wrote in the last frame of this cinematic poem, full of references to the creations of human thought (Shakespeare, Chekhov, Leonardo da Vinci).

In December 1985, Andrei undergoes a medical examination, and, as is customary in the West, he is diagnosed with lung cancer. Tarkovsky's disease shocked many. French President F. Mitterrand sent a telegram to M. Gorbachev with a request to allow the director's son and mother-in-law to leave. A few days later they flew to Paris.

But medicine was powerless. Andrei Arsenievich Tarkovsky died on December 29, 1986 and was buried at the Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois Orthodox cemetery in someone else's grave. Then he was reburied. The headstone appeared only in 1994.

The great Swede Ingmar Bergman wrote: "Tarkovsky is the greatest for me, for he brought to the cinema a new, special language that allows him to grasp life like a dream."

Andrei Tarkovsky, the son of the famous Russian poet Arseny Tarkovsky, was born on 4 April 1932 in the village of Zavrazhie, Ivanovo Region. In 1951-1952 he studied at the Arabic department of the Middle East faculty of the Moscow Institute of Oriental Studies; then, in 1952-1953, he worked at the All-Russian Research Institute of Non-Ferrous Metals and Gold, worked in geological parties.

In 1960, Andrei Tarkovsky graduated from the directing department of VGIK, where he studied in the workshop of Mikhail Romm. The diploma work of a novice director, the short film Skating Rink and the Violin, won the main prize at the 1961 New York Student Film Festival. Then he worked at the Mosfilm film studio. Andrei Tarkovsky was the author and co-author of the scripts "Antarctica - a distant country", "One chance in a thousand", "Hoffmanian", "Beware! Snake! ”, He also starred in the films“ I’m 20 years old ”,“ Sergei Lazo ”. During his studies, he directed a number of short films ("The Assassins"). Andrei Tarkovsky's first full-length work, Ivan's Childhood, based on the war story “Ivan” by V. Bogomolov, has brought world fame to Andrei Tarkovsky. This film has won many prestigious film awards, including the Golden Lion of St. Mark at the Venice Film Festival.

Subsequently, all of Tarkovsky's paintings became notable events in the country's cultural life, influencing the spiritual development of society. The film "Passion for Andrei" with Anatoly Solonitsyn in the title role, released in 1971 with cuts under the title "Andrei Rublev", was included in the top 100 films in the history of cinema. The life of the great icon painter served as the starting point for Tarkovsky's reflections on the fate of the artist in Russia.

A special place in the director's work is occupied by films that he staged from the books of outstanding modern science fiction writers - Stanislav Lem and the Strugatsky brothers: "Solaris" and "Stalker". Putting these works as the basis of his films, Andrei Tarkovsky philosophically rethought them, giving them a new sound. And between these films, he shot an autobiographical picture "The Mirror".

Tarkovsky made two theatrical productions: in 1972 - a performance based on the play Hamlet by W. Shakespeare at the Moscow Lenin Komsomol Theater, and in 1983 - Pushkin's Boris Godunov in London at the Covent Garden stage.

In 1982, the director left for Italy, where he directed the film Nostalgia with Oleg Yankovsky in the title role of a Russian poet who died in Italy from homesickness. The theme of personal sacrifice was most developed in Sacrifice, Tarkovsky's last film directed in Sweden.

Andrei Tarkovsky spent the last few years of his life in the West. In 1984, having not received permission from the Soviet authorities to extend his stay abroad, Tarkovsky announced that he was staying in the West. He valued his time too much, as if he had a presentiment that he had very little to live. Meanwhile, the possibility of working in the USSR seemed then very problematic. While living in the West, the director still managed to shoot the film "Sacrifice", but this was his last film.

“Does death frighten me? - reflected Andrey Tarkovsky in the documentary film by Donatella Balivo, dedicated to his work. - In my opinion, death does not exist at all. There is some act, painful, in the form of suffering. When I think about death, I think about physical suffering, not death itself. Death, in my opinion, simply does not exist. I don't know ... Once I dreamed that I died, and it seemed like the truth. I felt such a liberation, such an incredible lightness that, perhaps, it was the feeling of lightness and freedom that gave me the feeling that I had died, that is, freed myself from all connections with this world. Anyway, I don't believe in death. There is only suffering and pain, and often a person confuses these - death and suffering. I do not know. Maybe when I face this directly, I will become scared, and I will reason differently ... It's hard to say. "

No, he didn't think otherwise. “About ten days before his death,” recalls his Italian friend, cameraman Franco Terilli, “Andrei sent me a sheet from Paris with a glass and a rose painted on it. It was already difficult for him to write. A few days before his death, they called me and asked me to call Andrey the next day - he wanted to tell me something very important. I could only call every other day. He picked up the phone but said nothing. I realized that he wanted to say goodbye to me in silence.

And a year before that, it seems, in December 1985, he called me from Florence: come now. I have arrived. He lay in bed and asked Larissa to leave us alone. "Do not be afraid of what I tell you," Andrei said, "I myself am not afraid of it." He told me that the day before there was a call from Sweden - he was diagnosed with cancer, and that he had very little to live. “I'm not afraid of death,” Andrei said so calmly that I was amazed.

It all started in Berlin, where we were invited by the German Academy, says Larisa Tarkovskaya about Andrei's illness. He began to cough violently; as a child he had tuberculosis, he coughed all the time and therefore did not pay attention to it. But when in September 1985 he came to Florence to work on the editing of "Sacrifice", he constantly had a slight fever, and this already worried him. It feels like a lingering cold ... It was at that moment that he fell ill. But we didn't know yet ...

When the news of the terrible diagnosis came, the Tarkovskys were in a difficult financial situation. The money for the "Sacrifice" has not yet been received; there was no medical insurance, and the course of treatment required significant money - 40 thousand francs. Only one examination with a scanner cost 16 thousand. Marina Vlady gave the money for this. Upon learning of the disaster, she took out her checkbook without further ado and wrote out a check for the required amount. Later, the husband of Marina Vlady, Professor Leon Schwarzenberg, became Andrei's attending physician.

After undergoing treatment, Andrey's condition improved markedly, and on July 11, 1986 he left the clinic. Marina Vlady settled the Tarkovsky family at her place. For a while, the house of Marina Vladi became the house of Andrey. Tarkovsky continues to work on the montage of Sacrifice, and after a while leaves Paris for the Federal Republic of Germany to undergo another course of treatment in a fashionable clinic (“on the advice of an unwise friend,” comments Marina Vlady).

Unfortunately, the fashionable clinic did not help, although Andrei hoped for it very much. As a result, he returned to Paris, and here the last months of his life passed. “He believed that he would recover,” says Larisa Tarkovskaya. “For some reason, he believed that God would help him. He especially perked up when his son arrived ... Andrei worked until the last day, keeping an absolutely clear mind. He finished the final chapter of the book "Time Captured" nine days before his death! For the last few days he had been taking morphine for pain relief ("I am floating," he said), but his consciousness was unclouded; some kind of inner energy helped him to always be collected. And until the last hour he was fully conscious ... I remember that on the last day of his life he called me on the phone; I came to him. He joked with me, laughed ... He was afraid that I would leave. At seven o'clock the nurse came, and I had to go. I hadn't slept before for three months - I had to give him medicine every three hours ...

December 29, 1986 Andrei Tarkovsky died. Hundreds of people came to the courtyard of St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, where Andrew was buried. On the steps of the church, Mstislav Rostropovich played Bach's sublimely strict Sarabanda on the cello.

And the last refuge of Andrei Tarkovsky was the cemetery on the outskirts of Paris - Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois.