Call for Contributions to Edited Volume: THE ELEMENTS AND FILM MUSIC
Robert Bird’s study of Andrei Tarkovsky’s cinema, published in 2008, was given a significant yet ambiguous subtitle: Elements of Cinema. Looking for the key to understanding the famous director’s films, the author took as guides “four traditional elements of matter, each captured through the distinct elements of cinema that conditioned Tarkovsky's work, from 'system' and 'imagination' to 'screen', 'image', 'story' and 'shot'”. Images of the elements, with their culturally defined symbolism – Earth as a vessel for nostalgia, water as the universal element of art and a medium of representation – became the building blocks of the unique atmosphere of Tarkovsky's films.