can anybody explain why alexander meets maria...? do they make sex there? why they are in air? how such an incident could be expected to have an impact on another world war?
i think it will be helpful if someone can explain things out...I think it will help many people like me...
If cinema is an industry, It should be brought under polution control board...Adoor Gopalakrishnan
Here is a try, although I think that these questions can have a\many answers.
"can anybody explain why alexander meets maria...?"
Because he believes she's a witch and if he had sex with her the war will stop.
"do they make sex there?"
Yes.
"why they are in air?"
The scene is not to be taken literally. Maybe it's a dream, maybe a hallucination, but also, if Maria is really a witch then she has some magic powers. The third explanation is a joke. Anyway, Tarkovsky used levitation scenes frequently in his films (only Nostalghia and Stalker out of seven films don't have them).
"how such an incident could be expected to have an impact on another world war? "
Reasons are desperation, madness and pure faith in miracles.
~~~ ~~~
Thank you enkibilal, that cleared a few questions up for me as well.
Loved the film ,and loved the themes. I'm starting to really like Andrei Tarkovsky!
*can anybody explain why alexander meets maria...?*
it's a ridiculous manipulation of an already ridiculous premise: our "loving" god is going to kill and torture everyone unless some obscure self-involved prick makes a "sacrifice".
*do they make sex there?*
of course, every rich old self-pitying white guy has to come up with an idiotic rationalization for why they should screw their hot young maid. and you can't have an art movie made by an old white guy without a topless maid - cmon!
why they are in air?
so that the old guy screwing his maid will seem mystical and not just the tired cliche that it really is.
*how such an incident could be expected to have an impact on another world war?*
it couldn't unless you have a dark-ages mentality and only have a few functioning brain cells, and want to find yet another reason for rich class-conscious pseudo-intellectual snobs to feel sorry for themselves and fantasize about ridiculous dishonest scenarios in which they would be heroes for making the great sacrifice of screwing their maids and burning down their family's houses. which is also not much of a sacrifice since, even though they live in beautiful houses in beautiful places where most people would love to live, they live in endless self-pitying misery anyway.
*
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You sir are a fool!
sharehaha this was pretty funny.
dj dreamstream doesn't think middle class people can have problems?
<quote> *how such an incident could be expected to have an impact on another world war?*
it couldn't unless you have a dark-ages mentality and only have a few functioning brain cells, and want to find yet another reason for rich class-conscious pseudo-intellectual snobs to feel sorry for themselves and fantasize about ridiculous dishonest scenarios in which they would be heroes for making the great sacrifice of screwing their maids and burning down their family's houses. which is also not much of a sacrifice since, even though they live in beautiful houses in beautiful places where most people would love to live, they live in endless self-pitying misery anyway. </quote>
So you'd like the film more if it culminated instead in, let's say, an assertive, mentally handicapped, female person of color constructing a wheelchair? Or a minority of some sort reigning wrath down upon the oppression of everything "pseudo-intellectual" that is expressed in a Tarkovsky film?
<quote> *how such an incident could be expected to have an impact on another world war?*
it couldn't unless you have a dark-ages mentality and only have a few functioning brain cells, and want to find yet another reason for rich class-conscious pseudo-intellectual snobs to feel sorry for themselves and fantasize about ridiculous dishonest scenarios in which they would be heroes for making the great sacrifice of screwing their maids and burning down their family's houses. which is also not much of a sacrifice since, even though they live in beautiful houses in beautiful places where most people would love to live, they live in endless self-pitying misery anyway. </quote>
Although I get the impression that you're being sarcastic about the film's effect and its intended audience, you're actually remarkably close to what I think Tarkovsky is actually articulating here - Alexander IS rich, class-conscious, a snob, self-obsessed, and the scenario where he sleeps with Maria (which I strongly suspect is a dream/fantasy) can be seen ironically - Alexander as the saviour of the world by having sex with a woman who isn't his wife. Remember the part where he talks to Maria about his mother's garden - it's all about him; the effect the garden had on him, wanting to make it in his style. When Maria asks 'but what did your mother think?', he can't even summon an answer, he's so narcissistic.
Your point about 'endless self-pitying misery' then is actually pretty close to the mark - I loved the film and get the impression you didn't, but you still hit the nail on the head!
Rich class-conscious pseudo-intellectual snobs feel sorry for themselves and fantasize about ridiculous dishonest scenarios in which they would be heroes for making the great sacrifice of screwing their maids and burning down their family's houses
LOL, as Tarkovsky intended ;)
Anyway, I must agree with zoothorn21 that there's both insight and sharpness in this sarcasm regarding how to interpret the film.
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No doubt people will disagree with me, but my interpretation is that the apocalyptic war and the visit to Maria took place in Alexander's imagination/dream. The subjective part of the film starts after Alexander's son jumps on him and he passes out (or perhaps from the scene where Otto is "touched" by an angel and falls to the floor, I haven't exactly figured out which) and ends when he wakes up on the sofa and calls his work.
But to answer OP's first question, Alexander's sanity is in the process of breaking down and he is susceptible to magic thinking. Otto is a bit of a messenger throughout the film, so perhaps Maria is a succubus who uses Otto to summon Alexander to her. Alexander seems impressionable to what Otto tells him.