In a film noir documentary on Youtube I watched, James Elroy lists it as one of his favourite noirs. I can see why it appeals to a writer as the story criss crosses temporally as well as the double crosses in the story.
Speaking of Tarkovsky. I've always had Stalker, Solaris and Mirror down as the best. I remember reading a comment online somewhere back when I was big into Tarkovsky, avoid the three S's. So avoid Stalker, Solaris and the Sacrifice. Leaving Ivan's Childhood, Andrei Rublev, Mirror and Nostalghia. I like Rublev and Mirror and the other two are decent but I don't see what's to avoid about Stalker and Solaris. Though this might come from repeat exposure to them as I tried to watch Solaris with my sister and we got halfway through, just as they get into space, before she said she wanted to watch something else. I love certain scenes, the Space Baby, floating in front of the Bruegel, the Return of the Son ending, and the Bach music, but something tells me despite having a Solaris mouse mat, it's probably not the best Tarkovsky. Though every Tarkovsky I've seen I've preferred to later Russian films that seem to come from the same sort of long take angle.