Refocus: The Films of Andrei Tarkovsky - (Refocus: The International Directors) by Sergey Toymentsev

About the Book

This book provides a fresh look at the director's legacy, with critical essays by both world-famous and early-career film scholars.

Book Synopsis

Despite an output of only 7 feature films in 20 years, Andrei Tarkovsky has had a profound influence on international cinema. Famous for their spiritual depth and incredible visual beauty, his films have gained cult status among cineastes and are often included in ranking polls and charts dedicated to the 'best movies ever made.' Beginning with the late 1980s, Tarkovsky's highly complex cinema has continuously attracted scholarly attention by generating countless hermeneutic challenges and possibilities for film critics.
This book provides a fresh look at the director's legacy, with critical essays by both world-famous and early-career film scholars. It examines Tarkovsky's cinematic techniques and his treatment of genre, landscape and sound and offers highly original interpretations of his oeuvre in the context of film aesthetics, psychoanalysis, philosophy, cultural studies and art history.

Review Quotes

ReFocus: The Films of Andrei Tarkovsky is an excellent new item in "ReFocus: The International Directors Series," [...] a valuable collection that succeeds at avoiding deifying Tarkovskii and presents new theoretical perspectives on his work.--Zoran Samardzija, Columbia College Chicago "Canadian Slavonic Papers"

Provides a number of novel perspectives for the prospective reader, and accomplishes the aim set out within the introduction 'to emphasize the urgency of a more sober appreciation of Tarkovsky's films as well as inspire further critical inquiry and debate' (8). The Films of Andrei Tarkovsky should, therefore, serve as a welcome critical companion to other texts in this area.--James L. Shelton "Studies in European Cinema"

This collection is a very successful attempt to update English-language literature on the great Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky by applying current theoretical approaches in the humanities to his work. [...] a well-rounded volume that nicely complements existing scholarship and can serve a variety of purposes.--Maria Belodubrovskaya, University of Chicago "Studies in Russian and Soviet Cinema"

About the Author

Sergey Toymentsev is Assistant Professor of Russian in the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at Saint Louis University. He is the editor of ReFocus: The Films of Andrei Tarkovsky (2021).