Andrei Tarkovsky

If you watch only one film … the greatest movies by the greatest directors

Some directors come with such huge back catalogues that it can be hard to know where to start. Enter our film critics, who suggest the best routes in to the works of some of our most prolific film-makers

Peter Bradshaw, Simran Hans, Catherine Bray and Danny Leigh

09, Jul, 2022 @11:00 AM

Andrei Konchalovsky: ‘I’m very glad I failed in Hollywood’

The Russian director is back in the spotlight with the Bafta-nominated Dear Comrades! Now 83, Konchalovsky raises a cocktail glass and celebrates his freedom to call the shots

Andrew Pulver

08, Apr, 2021 @3:00 PM

I've never seen … Solaris

Tarkovsky’s mysterious epic – a response to the ‘phoniness’ of 2001: A Space Odyssey – draws you into its melancholic dreamworld superbly

Nick Shave

01, May, 2020 @3:34 PM

Nithurst Farm review – if Tarkovsky had a farm

The Russian director’s sci-fi classic Stalker is the unlikely inspiration for this playful, intriguing family home in the South Downs

Rowan Moore

26, Oct, 2019 @4:00 PM

‘What is Solaris?’: sci-fi classic gets gender-flipped for mainstage adaptation

David Greig and Matthew Lutton take on the somewhat impregnable cult story, which premieres in Australia before transferring to Scotland

Van Badham

25, Jun, 2019 @6:00 PM

Europe in 25 films: the critics’ choice

The must-see movies that have defined a century of European cinema, as chosen by the Observer’s film writers

Mark Kermode Observer chief film critic, Simran Hans, Wendy Ide, Guy Lodge and Jonathan Romney

10, Feb, 2019 @10:00 AM

Andrei Tarkovsky's Polaroid photographs to be auctioned

Haunting images shot by Solaris director in Russia and Italy to be sold at Bonhams and could fetch up to £500,000

Maev Kennedy

16, Aug, 2016 @3:07 PM

My morning with Anton Yelchin: 'I have an overabundance of emotion'

In an interview conducted at Cannes last year to promote the acclaimed drama Green Room, the actor was in expansive mood, talking of his kinship with Russian literature, revulsion for Nazis – and his favourite punk rockers

John Bleasdale

06, Jul, 2016 @10:47 AM

Ivan's Childhood review – audacious, coldly lucid postwar Russian classic

Tarkovsky’s debut boasts one of the greatest openings in film history in the story of a scarred boy who knows nothing but war, existing as an army scout

Peter Bradshaw

19, May, 2016 @9:45 PM

Andrei Tarkovsky: it's time to immerse yourself in the work of a true auteur

The Russian director’s debut is the perfect place to start to gain an appreciation of a film-maker of extraordinary influence and cinematic vision

John Patterson

16, May, 2016 @8:00 AM

Radiant State by Peter Higgins review – an exceptional fantasy

This triumphant conclusion to the Wolfhound Century trilogy channels the violence, mythology and poetry of Russian history

Francis Spufford

03, Jun, 2015 @3:00 PM

Top 10 biopics

Cinema has always liked telling a good life story, and all kinds of biography – from the humblest to the starriest – have been given a filmic going-over. The Guardian and Observer's critics pick the 10 best in a very crowded field

12, Dec, 2013 @7:40 AM