MovieChat Forums > Offret (1986) Discussion > Don't fear the Reaper

Don't fear the Reaper

posted 20 years ago by Autlan
15 replies | jump to latest

I liked the film and loved the start of the film especially. The way it was shot and the characters moved made them seem very scandinavian. Which is impressive since Tarkovsky was from Belarus, but not a suprise since he was really talented. Part of that beginning is a story about a tree which is shown on the movie poster next to the title. Now it may just be me, but every time I see that picture I'm drawn to Alexander's worried look and for a split moment I think I see death in a flowing black robe holding a scythe over his right shoulder. It is infact only a darkened image of him touching the tree from the story, but it is strange when aging is also quite a central theme in the film.

[–] GerFalcon 19 years ago

I'm trying to get what moment you mean, exactly. Is it right at the beginning when the camera moves upwards showing the tree in the painting? Just below the leaves on the right you see a robed figure on a horse with a scythe. Is that it?

[–] Autlan 19 years ago

I just meant the movie poster. Over Alexander's right shoulder you can see him standing and touching the tree above his head, perhaps even trying to right it. For some reason when I glance quickly at that background figure with the brackets around, it looks like the reaper. Happens every time. I can't remember the picture with death on horseback you pointed out, might be time for a rewatching.

[–] GerFalcon 19 years ago

Right, now I understand. That is a scene from the beginning of the movie where Alexander plants the tree and talks to Little Man, that is for sure, there's no reaper in that, despite Alexander's look. But I don't claim to understand all the metaphors Tarkovsky used in this movie, I guess everyone can make up his own answers because there aren't any offered by him. That doesn't seem satisfying but we have to do with that.

[–] Autlan 19 years ago

Yeah, it's probably all inside my head =\ Padded walls and troublesome sleeves for me soon...

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] thao 19 years ago

Tarkovsky from Belarus? I don't think so. He was from Russia.

- This comment is most likely authentic and fairly close to what I intended to say -

[–] Autlan 19 years ago

http://www.sensesof cinema.com/contents/ directors/02/tarkovs ky.html
"b April 4, 1932. Zavrazhe, Ivanono, Russia (now Belorus)."

http://www.britanni ca.com/eb/article?to cId=9071301
"born April 4, 1932, Moscow"

http://www.filmsinr eview.com/At%20Home/ dvdrev-voyage_in_tim e.htm
"Tarkovsky, who was born in Ivonova, Russia in 1932,"

Hope I can be forgiven for brusing any national identities in my confusion.

[–] thao 19 years ago

This is amazing. Yes he was born in Zavrozhie, near Yurievo on the Volga, but that is in Russia, not Belarus. Just look it up at:

http://encarta.msn. com/encnet/features/ mapcenter/map.aspx

But thanks for the info.

- This comment is most likely authentic and fairly close to what I intended to say -

[–] ereinion 19 years ago

No, it's Zavrazhe near Ivanovo, which is in southwestern Belarus. I looked it up.

[–] thao 19 years ago

Not according to Maya Turovskaya, the author of Tarkovsky: Cinema as Poetry. She is very reliable source. Where did you find your info ereinion?

- This comment is most likely authentic and fairly close to what I intended to say -

[–] ereinion 19 years ago

Right here thao.

[–] thao 19 years ago

"here" where?

Link missing.

- This comment is most likely authentic and fairly close to what I intended to say -

[–] Camoo 19 years ago

err wasnt it once called belorussia?

[–] GamblinMike 19 years ago

It is Belarus I'm from there as well, it was part of the Soviet Union, just like Parajanov is sometimes considered another Russian director, he is Armenian. But Belarus is very Russian, ofcourse you have different dialects in someplaces too, you can hardly -maybe never- take a direct flight to that place, you have to go to Moscow then get to Belarus.

[–] Doctor-T- 16 years ago

well there's not a moment in this film where anyone doesn't look like the grim reaper is about to mow them down. and if life was lived in the joyless manic depressive Thorazine haze this movie depicts, i'd say the reaper would be doing them all a favor, putting them out of their annoying endless self-absorbed misery. this is a movie for people who have it all but still love to feel sorry for themselves, which is why i hated all the characters and the film that glorifies them.

some people confuse being an intellectual with being deadly serious and joyless every waking moment. being an intellectual means questioning idiotic superstitions, not accepting them so you can use them to be a self destructive drama queen. this tired movie romanticizes every negative cliche about the tormented intellectual, i for one don't believe that understanding the world and gaining self awareness is a downer, this movie is about perpetuating dark-ages oppressive ideas, the claim that it's about new beginnings is a laugh.

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