It's impossible to discuss the concept of "pure cinema" without a nod to the great Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky - from Ivan's Childhood to The Sacrifice, his was a career in which the exploration of the possibilities of the medium was paramount. The Mirror, Tarvovsky's seventh and most personal film, is perhaps his most unconventionally structured. It weaves poetry written by Tarkovsky and read by his father around a dream-like montage of imagery relating to the director's childhood memories. The Tree Of Life's similar approach is by comparison handled in a much more straight forward manner. The Mirror's triumph as a work of pure cinema is perhaps best illustrated in comparisons with Modernist stream of consciousnes literature, a style which itself shatters the conventions of the novel and by all accounts should be unfilmable. British author Will Self described it as the most beautiful film ever made - it's certainly a contender.
