Time, Tarkovsky And The Pandemic

SOURCES

MUSIC

Blue Wednesday, "Long Walk, Short Dock (ft Dillan Witherow)"


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The Nerdwriter is a series of video essays about art, culture, politics, philosophy and more.

[RhysticStudies]

"the days are long and the years are short"

[TheGaroStudios]

Nerdwriter and Tarkovsky? This is a good day

[benwasserman]

I love how all Nerdwriter needed to do to prove his point in this video was air a single, ongoing Tarkovsky clip. That's the most Tarkovsky thing one could do.

[generalfishcake]

Imagine if Tarkovsky filmed a fast food commercial.
The fry cook trying for 9 minutes to light the gas stove.
Fades to black.
"I'm lovin' it."

[bobmcdade]

In a depiction of a man trying to cross a courtyard without the flame of the candle he is holding going out, Tarkovsky manages to generate more tension than many films featuring a ticking clock and a nuclear weapon.

[Watupwitthat]

I’m at a shitty job where the hours drag and I see this video pop up in my spare time. Around five and a half minutes, the space above my mask is wet with tears.
I’m a film school grad who fell out of love with cinema during quarantine and this video reminded me the power of watching a movie. I still feel goosebumps on my arm. Thanks for reminding me of Tarkovsky and all your work.

[aparahnasen]

Tarkovsky to Nolan on 'time' : "Don't understand it, feel it."

[nightthought]

The path of that scene was heartrenchingly beautiful. The fear, hope, pain, control, and chaos all blended into this beautifully simple walk. Walking from one side to the other, like the chicken crossing the road. No meaning save what is imbued in it by the walker, the teller, and the viewer. Through a space once filled with life, now abandoned, filled with the detritus of a world that would rather it disappear, save the man and the candle.

[muthusid]

That Tarkovsky clip is making me choke up an cry and I’m not sure why. Maybe because I feel like I can relate with the character about so many projects in my life.

[Comicmischief]

Was a med student going into the pandemic, am a doctor heading out of it. This was spot on, and much needed. Thank you.

[ThenNow]

'Life swings like a pendulum backward and forward between pain and boredom.' -Schopenhauer

[HVAC_Sean]

I first saw that clip from "Nostalgia" in a puzzle game known as "The Witness." The game's inclusion of it, as an optional secret you could painstakingly find and view, as I interpreted it, was meant as a visual euphemism for the grueling feeling of having to start over. The whole game itself has no written instructions. No writing at all. Everything in the game is something you learn visually, audibly, and through trial-and-error, making it one of the most uniquely challenging puzzle games I've ever come across. Some of those puzzles were so involved, frustrating, and complicated that it really would feel as though that candle had blown out, and now you must walk all the way back; especially considering that every puzzle must be made with a carefully threaded, uninterrupted line that never crosses itself. That's about as far as the relevance of this game has with the clip, but I am very curious about what you would extract from The Witness. The game gave me a lot to ponder, during and after. It had me feeling insightful, empowered, and solemn all at once. It game me a new perspective, which is a major part of the game's mechanic. Perspective.

[thomaspappas]

"You become aware of the odd encounter you 're having with Time itself. You can feel the texture of it. It's presence. As if Time were not only a concept. But a substance streching out in front of you, expanding and contracting with every breath. It's beyond interest, beyond boredom."

~ So well put and articulated. Feeling time and not experiencing it must be one of the most rare and difficult things a human can do.

[agranero]

Tarkovsky wrote a book called Sculpting Time. You can see similar scenes in the rain over the breakfast scene on Solaris, and the scene of overpass in the same movies (filmed in Tokyo by the way). Sometimes he remember me of Yasujiro Ozu for instance showing the clothes hanged for drying for a long time on the front of the building in An Autumn Afternoon.

[Hanna-ojqj]

"You don't come out of a Tarkovsky film with the same perspective of time you had when you went in." Great content Nerdwriter! 🧡 Tarkovsky films inspired me to be present in the moment, that there's no need to rush. Even in the mundane, there are moments worth remembering of.

[OfficialMaxBox]

Wow, that was a very introspective way to start the day. Thank you, great video.

[gregevenden]

NerdWriter, for all the channels I've come across, delivers the best content bar none. Without exception, his video essays--each and every one--invites me to see the world anew. They make life better. Thank you for all you've done, Mr. Puschak.

[shaman]

"...the infinity beneath the normal rhythms of life." Just beautiful.

[perihelionstudios]

Kyle Kallgren, also an amazing scholar and video essayist, does a similar video on Tarkovksy's Nostalghia, and this is what he closes with: "And here I am, still listening to the orders of a maniac, convinced the world was about to end– even though the man was a fool, an abuser, cruel in his neglect. But when you do something long enough, you tend to forget why you started, and eventually it just becomes about the act itself, and the reason why you started becomes unimportant. And you keep going because you're in a constant present, and it's not about memory, or the past or the future, but just about doing the task before you, just about taking the next step, just about staying present in this moment of captured time, keeping the flame burning."
I thought that was some good insight to share here along with this video, as time feels as relative, transient, and persistent as ever. Keep the flame alive, Evan.

[worstenbroodje]

It's fitting that I'm watching this while I procrastinate what I should be doing.