first of all and please use this link represent http represent or or www . criterionforum . org or forum or viewtopic . php . p equal 142178 and highlight equal and sid equal dd58cd36ffe474e7bd315c810cb708e6 . it will lead you to a hilarious forum discussion about this very comment . i will also use this opportunity to say thanks to cold bishop and the other moron for take my text so seriously and make me laugh very loudly . secondly and let me explain the high 7 . 9 rating on imdb . only around 2 and 000 plus people vote and and theyre mostly film student who force themselves to like movie like this and and other pretentious boredom seeker who find thrill in watch grass grow . nostalghia be the ideal film to fall asleep to . i speak from experience . i absolutely love solaris and stalker and two brilliant and intelligent sci fi drama . on the other side of the tarkovsky spectrum and i be utterly confuse by the mirror which have zero story to tell ( though occasionally visually very nice ) and i be mostly bore to tear by andrey rublev ( nearly 4 hour . ) and but think the sacrifice and his last movie and be okay ( in spite of be in swedish and an unpleasant language ) . tarkovsky two sci fi film be base on ( good ) novel and and this may be the crucial point . it seem that he be pretty much lose when do his own material . he get bogged down in his dull poetry and philosophy and not bother to inter connect various part of the two in a cohesive manner and fail to focus on the essential . hence all his other ( non sci fi ) movie be not much good than all the other pretentious european crap from various godard and bunuel and bergman and trier and and other overrate and lazy genius . nostalghia be an overly pretentious non story that be far too self indulgent even for a european director . if you make movie just for your own artistic pleasure then why even bother release them . this two hour snooze fest could have be easily cut down to half that length and it would still not be fascinate . watch the main character walk around endlessly without say or do anything be just garbage film making . lazy and and make or write by someone who overestimate himself a tad . the positive side to this movie apart from the fact that it make me fall asleep be some visually stunning scene . especially the long shot of water and which be pleasant and if a little sleep inducing because they may be too pleasant . tarkovsky seem to have some kind of an almost fetish for aqua and because he film it in all it visual and audio glory in nearly ever movie he make . my advice to those who consider this a masterpiece be to stop lie to yourselves about your own intelligence and hence to quit be in denial about how you truly and honestly and perceive certain movie . write about a movie such a this be a stroke of genius be just one of many way some people deal with an inferiority complex . erland josephson and as uncharismatic a he have be in all his bergman movie and be a poor choice for the insane man . besides and what be the point tarkovsky be try to make . that he be sane and the rest of u be the insane one . what a cliché idea . so trite . and how about that last scene ( a 250 minute scene and it seem ) of the russian character carry the candle for the insane man . be this symbolic of something . try to save the world . the world need save from very pretentious and boring movie . erland character lock up his family for seven year . hence he be not only insane and but should be put away for life . end of story . what can we possibly learn from erland . his impassioned and idiotic leave wing back to the cave speech be just dumb . it something a 17 year old manic depressive idealist would write . besides some nicely photograph scene and there be a pleasant scene where the blonde actress bar one of her breast . tarkovsky portray italy a a gloomy and dark and depressing place . i have no idea why . if italy look like this and what should he do with russia or finnland . ( sick and tired of euro trash classic and i. e. bad and overrated drama . e mail me if you want to read my totally altered subtitle of ingmar bergman autumn sonata and cry and whisper and or passion of anne and but also the non bergman der untergang . ) .