The Sacrifice

this is no regular film. it sucked me in, seduced me, hypnotized me.
in the sacrifice, tarkovsky constantly places the camera, and therefore the viewer, far away from the subject. we see naturalistic yet still beautiful mise-en-scene and powerful, beaming lights. the takes are slow and long, providing no outside stimulation and demanding my full attention during the nearly 3-hour viewing, so it's not for everybody.
having only now seen his first and last films, i have a unique experience with the works of andrei tarkovsky. i can see in his final effort he chose to fully go his own way, not trying to please anybody but himself.
and i can't talk about the sacrifice without the haunting atmosphere, and if you know me or have read my reviews, you know i absolutely love it when a film can capture an entirely unique and addictive atmosphere, (tree of life, paris, texas, apocalypse now, etc.), and this is no exception. things move awfully too slow or too fast, making the whole experience very uncanny, unpleasant and impossible to look away from.
sound is used sparingly but effectively in the film also. and i don't mean that it's nearly a silent film, i mean that when tarkovsky chooses to put sound in a scene, he carefully composes, arranges and perfects each individual decibel to compliment the whole thing, and i couldn't get enough of it.
finally, i also have to mention how great and legendary of an ending this is. not just to a perfect film, but a perfect career overall & one that i will never forget, one that gets so absurd, surreal and philisophical i just couldn't help but laugh