"My discovery of Tarkovsky was like a miracle. Suddenly I found myself standing at the door of a room the keys of which had, until then never been given to me. It was a room I had always wanted to enter and where he was moving and fully at ease. Tarkovsky is for me the greatest, the one who invented a new language, true to the nature of film, as it captures life as a reflection, life as a dream." -Ingmar Bergman

How do I begin to describe Tarkovsky to those unfamiliar with him? Fortunately, guestbook comments and more guestbook comments from The Andrei Tarkovsky Page at skywalking.com allow me to express, at least somewhat, the otherwise inexpressible.

Some words of caution however: the strong (and often superlative) words in these quotes may create impossibly high expectations. A second, deeper caution is that while it's wonderful for this Tarkovski fan to find he is not alone, that there are many others, we are still a minority (recalling vegetarianism and social/political views and..?) and Tarkovsky's world will be comprehensible only to those whose ears are ready to hear, whose eyes are ready to see, and most importantly, whose heart and soul are willing to come out, vulnerably, with child-like innocence and optimism and a heart filled with a love and longing for Nature and our Common Humanity and Life...