Top Ranked Films of Andrey Tarkovskiy

Andrey Tarkovskiy (1932–1986)

With 7 titles in the top 1000, Russian Tarkovskiy is 22nd in overall points with 21,663, while his more reknowned forefather in Russian cinema, Sergei Eisenstein, also with 7 titles, is 37th with 18,094.



These are all the films of Tarkovskiy’s films that made the top 1000 in our 2011 update of the Top Ranked 1000 Films on the Net, all polls.

1. Solaris (1972) #115
2. Andrei Rublev (1966) #238
3. Stalker (1979) #301
4. Mirror, The (1976) #307
5. Sacrifice, The (1986) #470
6. Nostalghia (1983) #577
7. Ivan's Childhood (1962) Russia, bw#579

Tarkovskiy is a mixed-bag at best. I liked Andrei Rublev, The Mirror, and Ivan’s Childhood. I did not like Solaris, Stalker, Sacrifice – in fact, avoid his S films. I haven’t seen Nostalghia. His films move like molasses, usually have almost no action, other than his first, Ivan’s Childhood, a very good WW2 film and perhaps his most accessible film for the masses – for me it was easily the best Tarkovsky I’ve seen. It follows a Russian youth's adventures working as a scout for the army during WW2, while the nation was occupied by the German army.

Andrei Rublev is a historical bio-epic, and The Mirror is one of his more abstract films, the most artful of that group for me. Stalker and Solaris were boring borderline science-fiction that don’t really belong as part of that genre, both were totally plotless and unengrossing. The Sacrifice is a Bergman-esque descent into peronal hell that does feature one long unforgettable scene near the end, which couldn’t come soon enough for me – who needs long, slow angst in a film? Yes, let’s put the audience into the hellish persona of a character for two hours..

Nearly all the films on this list won some awards, see the 20 overall awards here

See the full list of top ranked 100 directors here: Top Ranked 100 Directors, 2011 Edition