Voyage in Time

The lost film diary of master Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky, made during a trip to Italy in 1982, is no longer missing, and its arrival exemplifies the best potential of DVD releases. If someday everything ever filmed is going to be available on DVD, then let momentous, intimate films like Voyage in Time (Tempo Di Viaggio) take precedence and become easily available to the movie-loving public.

By 1982, Tarkovsky (Solaris, The Sacrifice) was unable to work in his native country following constant battles with government censors. He came to Italy to search locations for his next film, and the movie diary he co-directed with Italian screenwriter Tonino Guerra is as poetic as any Tarkovsky drama.

Tarkovsky is separated from his family and appears unsure if he will ever make another movie. These anxieties, the worries of an artist struggling to fulfill his dreams, are captured poignantly on-screen. Frequently clad in worn jeans and a denim jacket, his casual appearance and spontaneous chatter about movies and art bring Voyage in Time the everyday feel of a home movie.

But as Tarkovsky travels with his friend, Guerra, through the Italian countryside, Voyage in Time achieves an impressive visual grandeur. Like the Tarkovsky classics Andrei Rublev and The Mirror, Voyage in Time uses long tracking shots of the Italian landscapes, intimate telephoto images and extended moments of silence. The action of the movie occurs when Tarkovsky speaks to Guerra, defining his relationship to filmmaking.

Tarkovsky made seven films over 25 years of filmmaking before his death in 1986. He was always in search of artistic freedom, humanism and spirituality, in his film works, and, as proven by Voyage in Time, in his own life. (Steve Ramos) And the Rest
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