The Steamroller and the Violin

Dir: Andrei Tarkovsky

1961

*****

After the skillful adaptation of Ernest Hemmingway’s The Killers and There Will Be No Leave Today – a film commissioned by Soviet Television to mark the annual celebration of the anniversary of the Capitulation of Nazi Germany - Andrei Tarkovsky’s third student film during his time at the State Institute of Cinematography (VGIK) was his final diploma film. Has any diploma film ever been as good as this before or since? It’s the first time we really see what is inside Tarkovsky’s mind; what makes him tick and what he wants to project to the audience. The colours are bold and following his two previous films he really shows that he really can do it all. The screenplay was co-written by Tarkovsky and Andrei Konchalovsky. The film tells the story of the unlikely friendship. Sasha (Igor Fomchenko) is a boy who lives with his mother (Marina Adzhubei) and his sister in an old house in Moscow. He is learning to play the violin. Every morning he has to cross the yard to go to the music school, trying to avoid the children who are always bullying and harassing him. On this particular day, Sergey (Vladimir Zamansky), the operator of a steamroller, witnesses the abuse and tells them to leave Sasha alone. At the music school he plays beautifully, but his teacher, who is more interested in form and order, is stifling his creativity with a metronome. On his way back home Sasha meets Sergey again, who allows him to help him on the steamroller. The two have lunch together and face a number of adventures as they walk around Moscow. They watch a wrecking ball demolishing a decrepit building, revealing one of the Seven Sisters in the background. Sergey tells stories about the war, and Sasha play the violin for his new friend. They part with the plan to see a film together, but the plans are foiled by Sasha's mother. Sasha attempts to sneak out of the apartment, and in the final scene we see Sasha running after the steamroller in a dream like sequence. There is a wonderful otherworldliness to the film and a tender feeling of friendship. Sadly it’s the sort of thing that wouldn’t be made nowadays, innocents of friendship be damned. It’s a great story of contrast, the man and boy being clearly different from one another; one who has mastered the violin and the other the steamroller, and it’s a wonderful reminder that we can all, whoever we are, become friends and find things in common. Tarkovsky and Konchalovsky worked on the script for more than six months in 1959 and 1960. Tarkovsky wanted the film to be a poetic film, based on mood and atmosphere, not on sharp conflicts or traditional dramaturgy. Apart from a couple of minor scenes, two scenes from the first script versions were not included in the final shooting script. First, a scene showing a rehearsal for the May Day parade showing tanks rolling along the street. In the final shooting script this scene is left out in favour of the demolition scene. This scene was intended to reference the war experience of Sergey. The second change involved the final scene of the film. In an earlier variant Sasha waits for Sergey to arrive at work. Sergey ignores Sasha, until Sasha climbs on the steamroller. An alarm clock rings, revealing this to be a dream. For the role of the operator of the steamroller, Sergey, Tarkovsky cast Vladimir Zamansky, an actor at the Sovremennik Theatre. For the role of Sasha he cast Igor Fomchenko, a seven-year-old music school student. Although Tarkovsky was at this time only an unknown film student, he wanted to hire the well-known Sergey Urusevsky as cinematographer. Urusevsky turned down the offer, which was a bit of luck, because Tarkovsky hired Vadim Yusov, who would also be the cameraman for Tarkovsky's Ivan's Childhood and Andrei Rublev. Although the film was Tarkovsky's diploma film, it was produced at the Mosfilm studio at the production unit for children's films. The film was completed in 1960. For his diploma film, Tarkovsky earned the grade of excellent, the highest possible distinction.