It surprises me every time I notice how differently we perceive the same event, movie, book, or painting before a public opinion is established.
And how often we feel similar about the same event, movie, book, or painting after we have learned the common point of view? Apparently, we are susceptible to the influence of an authority.
We also like to belong to a group. Many reasons affect our opinion. It is also interesting to observe how a well-spread opinion (accepted as true by “everybody”) turns out to be wrong later. The popularity of an opinion seems depends more on who expresses it than on the quality of the object of the opinion.
In 1975, with my university friends, I have attended the meeting with Andrei Tarkovsky, a Russian very talented (he received many international awards too, in Cannes and Venice, to name a few) filmmaker. We met him in a big audience after we watched his new movie Mirror – an amazingly advanced movie by its language (it feels you are in his head and even in his dreams). At that time, I believed that being popular was everybody’s dream. But Tarkovsky said that he did not want his movies to be shown everywhere at the same time.
He did not want accidental viewer in the movie theater who came only because there was no other choice. He wanted his movie to be shown in one theater only so that people would be coming to see what they were prepared to see. He was not chasing popularity. He was looking for understanding, cooperation, unity.
Popularity brings money, but it lacks content because most of the people give praise to a movie (in this case) under the influence of popular opinion, without the understanding what the filmmaker actually wanted to say. They are excited not because of the movie, but because they need the excitement.
They like to find something common with other people – their friends, for example. They like to belong. That’s why the misunderstanding grows along with the growth of the popularity. It took me (a half, I hope, of) life to understand Tarkovsky. In 1975, he was 43.
From time to time I watch his movies again: Mirror, Stalker, Andrei Rublev, The Sacrifice. My favorite scenes are the beginning of Mirror (“I can speak“), documentary of the war in Spain and Da Vinci book a boy leafs through (with the magnificent Pergolesi music at the background) in Mirror too.
A peasant flying an air balloon (sometimes in the 1400s) at the beginning of Andrei Rublev, the crucifixion (in Andrei Rublev too), all “The Bell” chapter of Andrei Rublev, the tensed silence in Stalker, the quiet boy boy with his throat bandaged in the Sacrifice – all these scenes became a part of my life along with the book Walden by Henry David Thoreau (the favorite Tarkovsky’s book).
Andrei Tarkovsky achieved his quest to express inexpressible. He is not widely popular but is well-understood by those who watch his movies.
There is no comparison!
A customer is surprised and tells his tailor:
– It took you a month to finish these pants, while it took God only seven days to create the whole world.
– Well, – the tailor answers undeterred. – Just look at these pants and then look at this world.
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