Stalker
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| Poster Origin : | France |
| Poster Size : | French Grande / 120 x 160cm |
| Poster Size : | French Petite / 40 x 60cm |
| Poster Artist : | Jean-Michel Folon |
| Poster Year : | 1979 |
| Poster Version : | First Release |
| Poster Printer: | S E Lalande-Courbet, FR |
| Film Origin : | Russia / USSR |
| Film Director : | Andrei Tarkovsky |
| Film Year : | 1979 |
Tarkovsky simulates hypnosis and meditation with relaxing, contemplative scenes, and Folon’s trademark soft watercolour washes reflect the film’s serene personality and gentle pacing. Perhaps the golden colours relate materially to riches or spiritually to God, to completeness, as Taoist symbolism suggests (and to which Tarkovsky’s work purportedly alludes).
The half hidden dog implies something clandestine and alluring. The Room through the doorway is the mythical place where one’s truest innermost desires can be met. In the film the dog appears as a wandering free entity, unnoticed by the men, a metaphor that possibly represents a form of God, a pure faith, and it is suggested that the inside of the Room may only exist for those with unhindered belief. Although no light shines from the doorway each figure casts a lengthy shadow, perhaps symbolic of a divine light. The three figures stand among the bizarre frozen hillocks outside of the Room in one of the film’s most iconic visuals, but here the men are tiny, dwarfed by the overwhelming magnitude of the decision each must make in this unearthly place.
Incidentally, the hand drawn title excludes the central counter shapes in the ‘A’ and ‘R’ glyphs, which is a feature of stencil lettering, like the markings found on military paraphernalia - a symbol of the film’s oppressive society.