Andrei Tarkovsky’s final film The Sacrifice is a fitting epitaph for a great artist. While it’s not an easy movie to get through, nearly every frame is piece of art, the script is thoughtful, and the performances are universally excellent.
The story itself is a fairly simple one. It covers twenty-four hours as a Swedish family deals with the prospect of nuclear war. Sixty something world-weary retired professor, Alexander (Erland Josephson lives on a remote island off Sweden’s Baltic coast with his younger English wife Adelaide (Susan Fleetwood, sister of Fleetwood Mac’s Mick), teenage daughter Marta (Filippa Franzen) and a young son, known simply as Gossen or “Little Man” (Tommy Kjellvqist). Alexander dotes on the boy, hoping to instill in him a sense of spiritual purpose in a world that has lost its way.
The Sacrifice opens on Alexander’s birthday, prior to the announcement of World War III. Alexander and Little Man are planting a tree, a symbol of their aim to make the world a better place. During this event, they run into their mailman Otto (Allan Edwall), who enjoys quoting Nietzsche and discussing philosophy with Alexander. Both he and the retired professor are struck with visions at different times in the movie, just two of the unexplained and potentially supernatural events that pervade the picture. That evening, Otto comes to Alexander’s birthday party, presenting him with an ancient map, yet another symbol of man’s contradictory knowledge. Also at the gathering is Alexander’s son-in-law Victor (Sven Wollter), their live-in maid Julia (Valérie Mairesse), and an Icelandic woman named Maria (Gudún S. Gísladóttir) who also works in the house. Maria represents society’s outsiders, she belongs there, but she’s not particularly familiar to her employers, because they haven’t taken the time to get to know her.
Once the news of impending doom reaches the family, The Sacrifice goes haywire. The colors change, everything becomes washed out, and nearly pale. It’s almost as if nuclear winter has already set in. Victor, a doctor, quickly gives the women sedatives to calm them, while the men turn to alcohol. Julia refuses to wake up Little Man from his nap, hoping that if annihilation does suddenly arrive, it will happen while the boy is asleep. Though a professed atheist, Alexander alls to his knees and recites the Lord’s Prayer. He desperately tries to make a deal with god: “I will give Thee all I have. I’ll give up my family, whom I love. I’ll destroy my home, and give up Little Man. I’ll be mute and never speak another word to anyone. I will relinquish everything that binds me to life, if only Thou dost restore everything as it was before, as it was this morning.” Salvation comes in the form of love from Maria, who may or may not be a witch.
The Sacrifice was shot by cinematographer Sven Nykvist, who was behind the camera for many of Ingmar Bergman’s most famous films, and so was no stranger to cinema as religious quest. No two people will likely see this film the same way, but it is one that should be felt first and analyzed later. Tarkovsky forces the viewer to engage fully with what they’re watching and care about the characters.
The widescreen, 1.66:1 transfer of The Sacrifice is superb. The 1080p image displays a remarkable depth of field, with intricate details and realistic textures. The production team deals with the shifting image styles beautifully, adjusting the tones in order to best represent Nykvist’s intentions There were hardly any instances of scratches or marks on the film, and only twice did I notice any splotchy backgrounds. Same goes for some slight edge enhancement, which isn’t readily noticeable most of the time. Really, this is an impressive disc, for a fine film.
The original Swedish soundtrack is given a two-channel mono mix that is surprisingly warm. There is very good use of ambient noise and volume levels to create a realistic sounding landscape even within the limited speaker range. The few scenes where the sound effects grow loud have the appropriate heft, making the viewer feel like a part of the action.
The optional English subtitles are well done and easy to read.
There are no special features on the Blu-ray disc, but the package includes a DVD of the excellent documentary Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky (SD, 1:37:33), a production of the Swedish Film Institute that features insightful interviews, clips, and behind the scenes footage of the director at work on The Sacrifice, strung together with excerpts from Tarkovsky’s book on film theory, Sculpting in Time.) On this disc, you’ll also find two stills galleries—one for The Sacrifice and one for Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky—as well as a collection of trailers for other Kino-Lorber titles.
