Abstract

Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky uses virtual fields to progress the film narrative. Virtual fields are not fantasies nor false illusions or arbitrary sequences but are associated with two types of temporal significance. First, the dream-image as its virtual aspect is based on memories related to an individual’s being and time as discussed by Gilles Deleuze’s theory of time. Second, the sequences of the character’s contemplation and imaginative floating are significant to his faith-centered films, such as “Stalker” (1979), “Nostalghia” (1983), and “The Sacrifice” (1986). The experiences of contemplation produce the paradoxical quality of images, close to the essence of “incarnation,” which is a sacred time for Russian Orthodox Christians. On the one hand, the contemplative sequences imitate the event of the incarnate Christ; on the other hand, incarnation and its ambivalence indicate that the body is a vehicle of meanings. Rather than isolating the spaces, Tarkovsky skillfully manipulates the virtual and the actual fields to work reciprocally. This study aims to show that the multiple virtual fields and the actuality are related to the different concepts of time, from time of Being to the specific Orthodox Christian time, which come across to the audience as the significance of life, being, religion, and faith.