Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. The debut feature by the great Andrei Tarkovsky, Ivan’s Childhood is a poetic journey through the shards and shadows of one boy’s war-ravaged youth. Konchalovsky was a friend and fellow student of Tarkovsky at the State Institute of Cinematography (VGIK), and thus Burlyayev was also cast for the role of Ivan. On the walls are scratched the last messages of doomed prisoners of the Germans. His camera moves, coming to rest in multiple set ups, effectively stitching together three or more shots within one take. Galtsev is reluctant, but when he eventually makes the call, he is told by Lieutenant-Colonel Gryaznov to give the boy pencil and paper to make his report, which will be given the highest priority, and to treat him well. Source: Film Alliance Prod Co: Mosfilm Dir: Andrei Tarkovsky Scr: Vladimir Bogomolov, Michael Papava from the story by Bogomolov Phot: Vadim Yusov Art Dir: V. Chernyaev Mus: Vyacheslav Ovchinnikov. We first meet him in a dream sequence, emphasizing his youth and innocence, but then we quickly dive into his reality, a grim world full of swamps, raining gunfire, and stale interrogation rooms which transform into rooms of torture. Her powerlessness and reluctance to fight back says even more. The tragedy of the film is almost made more tragic when we see the Allies win, ending the war. His role in the war, after all, requires more of an ability to be unseen than to use force against the enemy. [13], Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, San Francisco International Film Festival, List of submissions to the 36th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film, List of Soviet submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, "Discussion on the criticism of Ivan's Childhood", https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/ivans_childhood, "Ivan's Childhood, film review: 'The most lyrical war movie ever made pristinely restored, A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ivan%27s_Childhood&oldid=1011826299, Articles containing Russian-language text, Articles with unsourced statements from September 2018, Articles with Russian-language sources (ru), Wikipedia articles with BIBSYS identifiers, Wikipedia articles with CANTIC identifiers, Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers, Wikipedia articles with WorldCat-VIAF identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 13 March 2021, at 01:39. The script was based on a novella by Vladimir Bogomolov but was reworked by Tarkovsky and his friend Andrei Mikhalkov-Konchalovsky (later an important Russian director in his own right, mostly known for 1979’s Siberiade). Ivan's Childhood is a lyrical war movie, an emotional, poetic experience. And considering we’ve already spent time in a kid’s imagination, this all feels somewhat dream-like. At the same time, we follow a soldier pestering the only female soldier we see in the entire film. He disappears through the swampy forest. When the group was surrounded, they put him on a plane. So we know that Ivan must have lost something, not just because only something drastic could place him in the middle of an active war, but because our first image of him is as a laughing, joyful boy literally flying through a forrest. By not cutting, Tarkovsky shows a small but meaningful arc for Masha’s character (the woman). The final image is of a dead tree on the beach. Ivan's Childhood has an approval rating of 100% on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 24 reviews, and an average rating of 8.91/10.The website's critical consensus states, "Ostensibly an atypical Tarkovsky work (less than 100 minutes! But there was one saving grace — he was loved by his comrades and commanding officer, and thus shielded from the fiercest battles. By today’s standards, such an effect might be shrugged off as another jump scare, but here it’s so unexpected and yet so perfect for the tone of the film. It is not the most sophisticated Andrei Tarkovsky movie, nor the most moving or artistic, but it has an elegant simplicity to it. Within one shot that lasts almost a minute, Tarkovsky creates the following images: Those are effectively four separate shots. Much of the film is set in a room where the officers await orders and talk, while Ivan awaits his next mission. Ivan's Childhood (Ива́ново де́тство, sometimes called My Name Is Ivan in the Anglosphere), is a 1962 Soviet film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky.It is based on the 1957 short story Ivan by Vladimir Bogomolov.. A subplot involves Captain Kholin and his aggressive advances towards a pretty army nurse, Masha, and Galtsev's own undeclared and probably shared feelings for her. There’s another moment in which the Soviets inspect the dead bodies of Joseph Goebbels and his family. ( Log Out /  It seems like a Russian adaptation. It won him critical acclaim and made him internationally known. Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. Suddenly, I found myself standing at the door of a room the keys of which had, until then, never been given to me. It attracted the attention of many intellectuals, including Ingmar Bergman who said, "My discovery of Tarkovsky's first film was like a miracle. "[4], Ivan's Childhood was Tarkovsky's first feature film. She’s been through this before, and she will go through it again. Ivan’s Childhood is only the third Tarkovsky film to arrive on Blu-ray in North America, following Criterion’s excellent version of Solaris and a pretty good release of The Sacrifice from Kino, both in 2011. Ivan’s Childhood feels like a surprisingly modern film. Cast: Kolya Burlyaev, I Tarkoskaya, Valentin zubkov, Y. Zharikov. The notable similarity between Ivan’s Childhood and the aforesaid two films is that it is also based on a work of literature. It’s a beautiful location, the white birch trees feeling almost heavenly and out of this world. Ivan's Childhood was Tarkovsky's first feature film, shot two years after his diploma film The Steamroller and the Violin. Another soldier recites the method of execution for each person in the folder with no emotion, saying “hanged… shot… hanged… shot…” and then at the very end, a photo is dropped to the ground, falling through a bombed out portion of the building to the floor below. The film features a non-linear plot with frequent flashbacks. Mosfilm gave the screenplay to the young film director Eduard Abalov. The Soviets inspect them with mostly objectivity but still some sympathy. [3] Work on the film resumed in the same month. Galtsev finds a document showing that Ivan was caught and hanged by the Germans. The boy insists that he call "Number 51 at Headquarters" and report his presence. Bogomolov, unsatisfied with this ending, intervened and the screenplay was changed to reflect the source material. You’re made to think that this war will never end, at least based on the soldiers’ grim attitudes and because there seems to be little context about how far into World War II we are. In June 1961 the film project was given to Tarkovsky, who had applied for it after being told about Ivan's Childhood by cinematographer Vadim Yusov. When we follow Masha, we forget about Ivan, though the feeling that follows Ivan follows her as well. It’s not about who wins and loses, obviously, because we all lose. In an alternative, and perhaps unfairly minimized story-line in Ivan’s Childhood, a young and beautiful female nurse named Masha is forced to endure constant seduction attempts from her male superior, Captain Kholin. Ivan's Childhood tells the story of orphaned boy Ivan, whose parents were killed by the invading German forces, and his experiences during World War II. The story also takes you through the love triangle involving captain Kholin, Lieutenant Galtsev and Masha. ( Log Out /  During World War II, 12-year old Ivan works as a spy on the eastern front. Again, my interpretation may be off (this is only the second Tarkovsky film I’ve seen after his short film The Steamroller and the Violin of which I’m sure I probably didn’t understand all the subtext), but to me these are Tarkovsky’s feelings about the nature of war and its effects on just about everyone. We stay right here, right with her. Ivan’s Childhood (1962 USSR 97mins). I didn’t even mention this about the above scene, but you can tell from my description, that Ivan is nowhere to be seen. The transfer is up to Criterion’s usual standards, exhibiting a broad dynamic range with tons of shadow detail and plenty of delineation in the midrange. Later the war will kill him, like Ivan, somewhat unceremoniously. We’re stuck, like she is. Papava called his screenplay Second Life (Russian: Вторая жизнь, Vtoraya Zhizn). Ivan’s Childhood is a tragedy. Ivan’s Childhood had already been in development at Mosfilm but had been put on hold, so it came as a lucky break when the property was handed to Tarkovsky. He knows he could die in any moment in battle, but for now he doesn’t care. Ivan’s Childhood (in the US aka, My Name is Ivan, 1962) was the debut feature film of legendary Russian auteur Andrei Tarkovsky; and even in this first work, one can see many of the provocative and moody stylistic flourishes that would characterize his entire oeuvre. Because this comes after a depiction of him actually participating in the war, however, this re-enactment feels like the ravings of someone suffering from PTSD. The Soviets win, and yet the story just gets worse and worse. It is a universal truth that even during hard times the human emotions remain the same. Despite being an orphan, Ivan is cared for as a surrogate son by several high-ranking members of the Soviet army including the blithe Captain Kholin (Valentin Zubkov) and the stern Lt. Like Fear and Desire , it is a war film that deliberately transcends many of the genre’s conventions, but it does so with a grace and humility that prevent Tarkovsky’s occasional missteps from spoiling the experience. Co-written by Mikhail Papava, Andrei Konchalovsky and an uncredited Tarkovsky, it is based on Vladimir Bogomolov's 1957 short story Ivan (Russian: Иван). The unforgettable forest scene From Andrei Tarkovsky's Ivan's childhood harmonized with Alela Diane's The Rifle He comes across as much more mature than his other soldiers, many twice his age, but this composure is frightening considering kids shouldn’t act that way. They are both tired of war, but she’s tired of this male energy too. She is helped by a man across a trench she could easily handle on her own, he kisses her as she is suspended over the trench (like a grave), and then she hides from him as best she can, though he remains there over her shoulder. There are a few depictions of dead Nazis and their families. At age 12 he was forced to fight by fate. He is determined to avenge the death of his family and others, such as those killed at the Maly Trostenets extermination camp (which he mentions that he has seen). The film re-contextualizes Ivan’s childlike behavior, forcing us to examine the ways his youth, and eventually his life, have been stolen from him. It's about childhood and war, two aspects of life far apart but flung together in this world. As a photo, that kiss is striking. Ivan's Childhood review – audacious, coldly lucid postwar Russian classic Tarkovsky’s debut boasts one of the greatest openings in film history in the story of a scarred boy … Train compartment, I ’ m not sure await orders and talk, Ivan... — he was forced to fight back says even more of Socialist Realism at its core and their families that... Вторая жизнь, Vtoraya Zhizn ) his collaboration with cinematographer Vadim Yusov, who was to become greatest. 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