WARNING: Contains spoilers

Italy, as viewed from the eyes of the Russian master, is something special. Nostalgia (1983) represented a departure and an extension for Andrei Tarkovsky’s cinematic approach. It was the first film to be produced outside of his homeland, originally with funding from MosFilm, but then via European finance after MosFilm pulled out. Tarkovsky was working with all new people, he was a stranger in a strange land and he found himself longing for Mother Russia.

Tarkovsky's sixth film as director, Nostalgia (1983) is a departure in many ways from his previous work. It is his first film abroad, but paradoxically it is his most patriotic film as well. Often regarded as one of his weaker films, but if the viewer is careful enough she or he may also find one of his most emotionally satisfying works.

Written and presented by Mike Dawson. Quotations read by Michael Storer.

August 1979 saw the release of Tarkovsky’s fifth feature film as director, premiering in the Moscow Film Festival some four years after the release of his previous film Mirror (1975). One can be forgiven for thinking that in this interim period Tarkovsky was biding his time, enjoying a well earned rest perhaps or simply waiting for the right project to be formed in his mind before proceeding.

1979 Andrei Tarkovsky released his fifth feature film as director, Stalker (Сталкер). The production is often thought to be responsible for the great director's eventual death, but the resultant film is an unparalleled science fiction masterpiece which brings to mind three of Tarkovsky's favourite films, films that belong to another genre entirely.

Written and presented by Mike Dawson.

During the course of a man or woman’s life there are certain films which will forever be burnt into our consciousness, films which are not necessarily the greatest works of art or fiction, which are not necessarily the most entertaining or spectacular examples of spectacle; but films which boast a quality which evades conventional description, a quality which transcends the critical, eludes the analytical; a quality which affects us deeply and how we view every film from here onwards.

For the 100th episode of Left Field Cinema, a special extended examination of Andrei Tarkovsky's greatest masterwork, the 1975 feature film, Mirror. A miracle of a film by the fact of its very existence, a film which may well change the way you perceive the physical boundaries of cinema, a paradoxically personal yet universal film that will haunt you for years to come. Mirror is here examined in relation to my own memories of the film and my memories of cinema in general.

1972, and the first of two cinematic adaptations of the novel Solaris by Polish author Stanislaw Lem was first released. This was Tarkovsky’s third film, it is the most widely known of all his works and in fact is the one most cinephiles watch first out of his seven features.

The first adaptation of Stanislaw Lem's novel, produced in 1972, it was Tarkovsky's third feature film and his first attempt at directing an anti-science fiction film.

Continuing the exploration of the works of Andrei Tarkovsky, this episode examines his second feature film as director, the frustrating but impressive historical epic about Russia's greatest iconographer.