Tarkovsky, Stalker: Railroad Sequence: “Tarkovsky creates these disruptions in time by breaching the feeling of its normal rhythms. The sense of time’s universality is violated by personal memories that penetrate into past histories, creating ripples through the fabric of time. A sense of virtuality parallels one of actuality, and what is most personal becomes time-like and most universal. In effect, Mirror breaches the movement-image structure by implanting a time-image mesh (a mesh => “gaps”) at the heart of an infraction in the steady flow of time. The temporal disruptions result from the mélange of personal histories and time-memory elements that maintain the time-pressure differentialbetween shots, sometimes moving into flashbacks and sometimes into dreams.” –A Deleuzian Analysis of Tarkovsky’s Theory of “Time-Pressure, David George Menard.
This sequence from Tarkovsky’s Stalker still retains its power after many years and many views. It was one of my early inspirations to pick up a camera.
Fabian Astore 