Unlike all the other art forms, film is able to seize and render the passage of time, to stop it, almost to possess it in infinity. I'd say that film is the sculpting of time.
Interpretation
Film uniquely captures and preserves moments in time, allowing viewers to experience time as an art form.
In this quote, Andrei Tarkovsky expresses the idea that film is distinct among artistic mediums because it has the capability to capture and manipulate the flow of time. Unlike painting or music, film can evoke the feeling of time being halted or stretched, offering a profound experience that allows viewers to engage with moments in a way that transcends mere representation, effectively sculpting time into a narrative form.
In practice
During a film studies class, I shared Tarkovsky's quote to highlight the unique qualities of cinema compared to other visual arts.
AN ARTISTIC DISCOVERY OCCURS EACH TIME AS A NEW AND UNIQUE IMAGE OF THE WORLD, A HIEROGLYPHIC OF ABSOLUTE TRUTH. IT APPEARS AS A REVELATION, AS A MOMENTARY, PASSIONATE WISH TO GRASP INTUITIVELY AND AT A STROKE ALL THE LAWS OF THIS WORLD-ITS BEAUTY AND UGLINESS, ITS COMPASSION AND CRUELTY, ITS INFINITY AND ITS LIMITATIONS.
When I speak of poetry I am not thinking of it as a genre. Poetry is an awareness of the world, a particular way of relating to reality. So poetry becomes a philosophy to guide a man throughout his life.
Art would be useless if the world were perfect.
Perhaps the meaning of all human activity lies in the artistic consciousness, in the pointless and selfless creative act? Perhaps our capacity to create is evidence that we ourselves were created in the image and likeness of God?
Above all, I feel that the sounds of this world are so beautiful in themselves that if only we could listen to them properly, cinema would have no need for music at all.
THE ARTISTIC IMAGE IS ALWAYS A METONYM, WHERE ONE THING IS SUBSTITUTED FOR ANOTHER, THE SMALLER FOR THE GREATER. TO TELL OF WHAT IS LIVING, THE ARTIST USES SOMETHING DEAD; TO SPEAK OF THE INFINITE, HE SHOWS THE FINITE.
Producing is a way of finding a great script that nobody's making, and believing in it, and doing what you can to get it made. It lets you work with your friends, people you really love to do something with.
The artist in our time has two chief responsibilities: (1) art; and (2) sedition.
A work-room should be like an old shoe; no matter how shabby, it's better than a new one.
Without tradition, art is a flock of sheep without a shepherd. Without innovation, it is a corpse.
At the time I begin writing a novel, the last thing I want to do is follow a plot outline. To know too much at the start takes the pleasure out of discovering what the book is about.
The critic who doesn't make a personal statement, in remeasurements he himself has made, is merely an unreliable critic. He is not a measurer but a repeater of other men's results. KRINO, to pick out for oneself, to choose. That's what the word means.
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