casually cruel

“The world has changed because you are made of ivory and gold. The curves of your lips rewrite history.”

Akira Kurosawa & Andrei Tarkovsky in USSR (1974)

Tarkovsky was sitting in the corner of the screening room watching Solaris with me, but he got up as soon as the film was over, and looked at me with a shy smile. I said to him, “It’s very good. It’s a frightening movie.“ He seemed embarrassed, but smiled happily. Then the two of us went to a film union restaurant and toasted with Vodka.

Tarkovsky, who does not usually drink, got completely drunk and cut off the speakers at the restaurant, then began singing the theme of Seven Samurai at the top of his lungs. I joined in, eager to keep up.