Mirror (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]

One of my favorite movies, and the packaging is exceptional

Tarkovsky can be pretty challenging/opaque. Don't be intimidated by this one. I found this movie to be relatively easy to understand. Just don't try to think too hard or you'll end up either confused or disappointed. "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar" ~ Sigmund Freud. I find that when a film is extremely long, the time required to re-watch it is hard to come by. This one is just right. This is one of the most beautiful things (not just films) I've ever seen. I highly recommend it.

Great movie

Deeply personal, nearly free-form, highly poetic and slowly paced...clearly this not for all tastes. Visually arresting dream imagery with a loosely structured stream of consciousness (surpassing a fractured narrative) is more of an intensely intimate experience, or experimental art film than a traditional movie. Those familiar with Russian master director Andrei Tarkovsky will immediately see symbolic style and visual motifs in this beautifully unique work of nostalgia and reflection. A clear marker for his films to come, haunting elements of his superb, hypnotic Nostalghia, Stalker, and his final work, The Sacrifice, are present. Best suited for fans of Russian cinema, although readers of poetry or novels by Virginia Woolf, Marcel Proust etc. may be much more receptive and reap the rewards of this challenging film. Criterion Collection's two disc Blu Ray set restores the film's mesmerizing cinematography, and contains hours of documentaries and interviews.

Andrei Tarkovsky has to be looked at in a different light, once you realize he only made seven features and was hounded by the Russian censers almost his whole career. There seems to be even talk of him being "eliminated" by the KGB ! A treasure to the world, by any standard and there comes talk of that !! "Mirror" is and was a very personal film to Tarkovsky and once the back ground to this film [ which comes with a 2nd DVD ] and his life is seen, it breaks one's heart to know he passed away at just 54 years. That being said, the film that Criterion has presented is absolutely brilliant ... it might even be better in blue ray, but I have the standard DVD and its faultless. The film might be a challenge for some, but with parents and the willingness to see what is being shown and said, it will be well worth the time spent. All his films are works of "art", and he seems to have worked very hard to make that visible. This film is 46 years old and looks as if it were shot yesterday. Only a small hand full of director's have that ability. Give it a look see ... it might amaze you as it did me.

I've never heard of this movie before, but it popped up in the recommendations page from Amazon. The synopsis looked interesting so I bought it. What a great movie. The cinemotography was awesome and I just loved watching the film. I was a little confused while I was watching it, but the picture itself was great. After I saw the commentary in the video about this film, the movie started making sense to me. The movie is like a poem from the writer who wrote this about his life. Once I learned what it was about when I watched it the second time it actually made sense to me and I appreciated it a lot more. Great movie.

Might buy another copy for a friend.

This is completely unacceptable. I ordered several Criterion Collection Blu-rays of Andrei Tarkovsky’s films, along with two other editions, and what arrived was honestly a disgrace. The outer cardboard boxes had been badly smashed during transport, but what shocked me even more was the way the Blu-rays had been packed in the first place: simply thrown into Amazon’s thin paper packaging with virtually no protection whatsoever. No proper cushioning, no air pillows, no bubble wrap, nothing that could reasonably protect collectible physical media during shipping. Unsurprisingly, almost all of the Blu-ray discs had come loose inside their cases. Several were heavily scratched as a result. These are not disposable household items. They are carefully produced physical editions of important works of cinema, bought by people who often care deeply about the condition of the discs, cases and packaging. Criterion editions in particular are premium products and are frequently purchased by collectors, film enthusiasts and people who intend to keep them for decades. To see them treated like this is infuriating. Amazon is one of the largest e-commerce companies in the world and has had decades to understand how products need to be packaged for transportation. There is simply no excuse for shipping fragile physical media in packaging this inadequate and then leaving the customer to deal with damaged cases and scratched discs. And unfortunately, this is not an isolated problem. I have seen the same careless treatment with books as well: insufficient protection, damaged corners, crushed covers and products moving freely inside oversized or unsuitable packaging. At some point this stops being bad luck and becomes a packaging standard that is simply not good enough. If Amazon wants to sell books, films, music and collectible physical media, then it should treat these products—and the customers buying them—with a basic level of care and respect. Receiving a collection of Tarkovsky films should have been something I was genuinely excited about. Instead, opening these packages was an extremely sad sight. Amazon seriously needs to rethink how it packages Blu-rays, books and other physical media. Future buyers: if condition matters to you, be aware that these editions may arrive with very little protection during shipping.

Andrey’s most personal and intuitive work. The booklet that comes with is nice.

日本のメーカーも見習って欲しいクオリティです。

O disco veio com vários riscos profundos. Decepcionante

Just to confirm that this Criterion Blu-ray is region A only, and will not play in the UK. But Criterion has now produced a region B UK Blu-ray which is identical except for the insert, which only contains an essay by Carmen Gray. The US version contains an 88 page illustrated book which adds a proposal for the film and a complete script treatment by Andrei Tarkovsky and Alexander Misharin. Also available is the Curzon UK Blu-ray which has an illustrated booklet containing the proposal plus an essay by Maya Turovskaya and poems by Tarkovsky’s father. There are second discs included in both Criterion and Curzon editions where the extras are not identical but overlap.

I've watched this movie twice now, and realize I'll have to see it at least once more before I understand it very well. I did enjoy it, was overwhelmed by the sheer beauty of it. It is hard to tell which scenes are memories and which are dreams. Well, the scenes where the ceiling's falling in and the mom's just wandering around oblivious to the plaster falling around her has to be a dream or fantasy. Likewise the levitation scene. Tarkovsky teaches and rewards patience.