Monica Pollini

Nostalghia Monica Pollini

Of the things that have stimulated me most, I would mention "dynamic photography", something I'd never seen before then. It involves modifying the lighting within a sequence plan, not for naturalistic reasons - like switching on a light, which clearly changes the lighting - but to add emotion to the image, to suggest emotional changes. In the months before shooting, Tarkovskij told me, "I'd like to make changes in the lighting within the same sequence. Up to a point, I've already hinted at this kind of photography in Stalker, but not in any consistent way". It was one of Andrej's few specific requests, and we worked on it before shooting started. We discovered the technical answers that would make shooting easy, and procured all the necessary equipment. As a rule, we don't exploit the time factor in shooting, because we try to shoot sequences without any differences from a photographic point of view, to make it easier to edit photographically coherent frames. Tarkovskij, however, maintained that it was extremely interesting to exploit the time factor of the sequence plan, within which, by modulating the lighting, he modulated the emotions and significance of the sequence, thereby adding value. He wanted changes that did not necessarily follow any external process or physical action.