Red Sparrow is a 2018 spy-thriller film directed by Francis Lawrence who worked with Jennifer Lawrence (the star here) on a couple of the Hunger Games movies, but this is a very different beast. Jennifer Lawrence plays Dominika Egorova (in, it has to be said, a not entirely convincing Russian accent), and Joel Edgerton, Matthias Schoenarts and Charlotte Rampling star as the film's secondary characters. This one is a pretty big departure from what Lawrence has done in the past, although it has to be said that she's making some pretty bold career choices. I'm not the first one to say that, and for a good reason: it's true. After last year's Mother! it appeared as if she was trying purposefully trying to appear in more "mature" films, and believe me, it doesn't get much more mature than Red Sparrow. The film plays out like one of those schlocky exploitation from the seventies, in that there's sexual violence, sex, violence, torture, and all manner o
Stalker is a 1979 art-house science-fiction film which was directed by Andrei Tarkovsky. It was written by Arkadi and Boris Strugatsky, who also wrote the novel the film is based on, Roadside Picnic. It tells the story of Alexander Kaidanovsky's Stalker, a person whose job it is to lead people from an unidentified bleak city, or town (it's unclear where exactly he lives) through an area called the Zone, which ultimately leads to a place called the Room that allegedly grants the wishes of anybody who steps inside. In the film, the Zone is referred to as a place where a meteor (or is it something else?) may have crashed, but it's never really made explicit.
If that description sounds vague, it's because the overall plot of the film is. However, this is not plot-based cinema by any means. The thing it's closest to in style is Beckett's Waiting for Godot, although that isn't really an accurate comparison to make either. It's an incredibly minimal film in terms of visual effects and bombastic set-pieces. The only thing which makes it a sci-fi is the fact that it's set in a kind dystopian future police state. There's a sense that the Zone might be the world of the past, but it's never really made clear. The only thing which indicates this are the colour palates - orange for the non-Zone areas, and blues and greens, sometimes grey, for the Zone.
This film is so good it almost defies explanation. It really is something that has to be seen to be believed. Stalker has some of the most beautiful cinematography I've ever seen. Every single shot in this film looks like a painting, and the set design is meticulous. It's strangely mesmerising, and although the film is nearly three hours long, I found it incredibly difficult to take my eyes off the screen. There's a sense of mystery and wonder about the Zone which exists in hardly any films. It's always exciting to see what will appear next, or what will happen to the characters. The sense of danger about the Zone is something which you feel incredibly acutely, and the reason that happens is because you care about the characters.
These are some of the most fascinating, well-written characters I've ever seen in science fiction. By the end of the film, you feel like you know them as if you've been friends with them for years. Not a single piece of dialogue is wasteful in Stalker. But even so, each time you feel as if a question has been answered, the nature of the Zone and the motivations of the characters grow more complex. The film is incredibly existential and nihilistic, and the questions Stalker poses about the world and living in it made me want to watch the film again right away.
The score in this film is beautiful too. It's dreamlike and lends itself to the stuff happening onscreen so well that sometimes it feels more like an organic part of the landscape than a score. Stalker probably has one of the best soundtracks I've ever heard.
And that's what makes this film a truly great one. The experience of watching the film is so disorientating, and the writing so complex, you feel as if you've only just scratched the surface of it the first time around. I can't explain it, but something about the film really gets under your skin. Despite the melancholy themes of Stalker, there is true beauty in the film, too. The word 'masterpiece' gets thrown around a lot in reference to films these days, but Stalker is fully deserving of it.
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