"Ivan's Childhood"-the prototype of Tasmanian style

I believe that some fans who have watched "Ivan's Childhood" will think of similar Chinese films "Xiaobing Zhangga", "Sparkling Red Star", "Ji Feather Letter" and so on. They are so similar in terms of film type and character setting. But the difference in film style and theme appeal is amazing and even embarrassing. Although Ivan was a Soviet investigator, Tarkovsky did not beautify the image of the Soviet army he was in, and the image of the Nazi army who committed heinous crimes did not appear in the film at all. The director always focused on the vivid images of the characters in the background of the war, without any more ideological considerations. In contrast to the domestic film "Little Soldier Zhang Ga", it is not difficult to see that the creators were affected by the social environment at the time, which caused the film to break away from the path of accusing war and calling for peace. On the contrary, the topic that people are more talked about is the fact that the soldier Zhang Ga is attacking the Japanese army. The heroic performance and glorious image, I don't know whether this will make the children love war or the soldiers will lay down their weapons. Talking about a film naturally cannot be separated from the historical background of the creation of the film. Any film will inevitably conform to the political, economic, and cultural environment of the time. But it's worth thinking about why "Ivan's Childhood" was able to be released under the domestic resistance of the Soviet Union and was unanimously recognized and praised by the international community? Why did the Soviets know that Tarkovsky would make films that contradicted the ideological education of the time and still allowed the crew to shoot? Why would mainstream Western culture accept such an anti-war film from a hostile ideological country?
After thinking about these issues, I feel more strongly about the power that the film itself brings to people and the director's ingenious way of expressing themes. A cruel war story, a boy who lost his family on a journey of vengeance enduring grief and anger; a beautiful dream, an innocent teenager rushing to the vast sea. Reality and poetry, like a pair of twin brothers, constantly appear in Tarkovsky's films, one after the other, endless. The two are mutual cause and effect, and both exist because of the other's existence. Tarkovsky’s poetic expression runs through all his works throughout his director career, becoming the most important clue and content for studying tower aesthetics.
"Ivan's Childhood" is strictly Tarkovsky's debut, and there are some differences from the later films, but his personal style has been determined.
Most of the pictures in the tower-style works are very neat and ingeniously structured, directly acting on the theme. The series of pictures is in the first half of the film. Ivan stands in the ruins of his home, unwilling to leave for a long time. The broken wood foreground in the central radial composition surrounds the young Ivan group, trapping Ivan tightly on the lower right side of the screen. The high contrast of black and white adds to the dignity of the screen. The planks were like countless sharp knives stab Ivan, and Ivan had no choice but to face up and break through the obstacles.
The use of mirroring seems to have become a common hobby of generations of filmmakers, and Tarkovsky's works have also repeatedly appeared in mirroring scenes. The scene is located in the second half of the film. Galtzef discourages Ivan from going to the military academy to study, but Ivan is opposed and questioned. There are three figures in the picture, two in the mirror. Ivan’s figure one after the other, Ivan in the mirror faces Galtsef, who is overwhelmed by Ivan’s aggressive aura, so that I don’t dare to look directly at Ivan; Ivan at the front of the screen is more like Communicating with the audience and questioning the meaning of war. The light at the end of the corridor is the only light source, and the background is extremely simple, with only fences, mirrors and door openings, making Ivan's main image more prominent.
The black and white tone did not affect the beauty of the film in the slightest. In addition to the unique lighting design, the clever treatment of large areas of color blocks also played a vital role. A scene in the birch forest in the film fully reflects this. The use of black and white film shields a lot of visual interference, and the high contrast of black and white enhances the visibility of the picture. The processing of the low camera makes the birch forest appear brighter, and the beauty of Martha is more prominent. On the other hand, in other parts of the film, darkness fills every corner of the screen, and light is hard to breathe. And all the light and beauty gathered in the birch forest, although the light in it was very short, beautiful and so impractical. The cold war reality and Ivan’s dream are a set of contrasts, and the love in the birch forest and Ivan’s dreams constitute another set of contrasts, one is the illusion in reality, and the other is the reality in the illusion.
The application of film negatives in this film is equally stunning. In Ivan's third dream, Ivan and the little girl are frolicking in a truck. The woods that appeared in the background are presented with negative effects, which is undoubtedly an important footnote to Ivan's dream.
Among the many differences between "Ivan's Childhood" and Tarkovsky's later works, the use of long shots is one of the more prominent aspects. In this film, the director did not use too many long shots in order to maintain the continuity of the narrative to continue the contextual meaning. Two impressive long shots appeared on both ends of the film. The first appeared in Ivan’s first dream, Ivan seemed to have wings and flew down from the mountain; the second appeared in the last dream, Ivan. Struggling to run to the sea. Although the former appears in the dream, it signifies the end of the dream. Ivan seems to have fallen from the sky, unable to control his speed. The empty ground and the sudden speed and slowness make it uneasy. The latter is more like announcing farewell to reality. Under the premise that the dreamer's identity is ambiguous, Ivan puts down all the burdens and rushes to the boundary of dreams and reality. Although the long shot did not appear many times in the film, it has become an indispensable content and important clue in Tarkovsky's works.
The poetry in reality comes from discovery and re-recognition and re-interpretation. Tarkovsky is undoubtedly at the forefront of this road.

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