Tarkovsky

[version]

The traps were one of the most intriguing aspects for me. I don't remember seeing any of them at all. You're just told they're there and you have to have a stalker help you navigate. Always wondered what they were; whether they were physical, psychological, something alien.

 

[IdleRich]

It's more explicit in the book... can tell you if it won't spoil it.

 

[version]

Don't tell me. I prefer the mystery.

 

[IdleRich]

I figured so. In fairness the book and the film are so different they are best viewed as totally separate artifacts. The concept of the Zone is amazing though and we have to thank the Strugatskys for that... certainly I would read more of their stuff.
Edit; it's artifact not artefact isn't It? Autocorrect is making me look stupid.

 

[luka]

The book is very slight. I read it recently and it made no impression whatsoever

 

[IdleRich]

I don't agree... their conceptualizing of the Zone as something utterly alien and inexplicable is very effective. The story bolted on to that is less memorable - except for a few points - though, you can see why Tarkovsky threw that in the bin and kept the Zone stuff.

 

[version]

Which other books and films feature a "Zone"? GR's an obvious one. Annihilation has "The Shimmer".

 

[IdleRich]

Read my mind, there is a list of such in the wiki article on Roadside Picnic... this (also based on the book) sounds interesting but out of reach appropriately enough.

A 1977 Czechoslovak TV miniseries Návštěva z Vesmíru (Visit from Space). After its TV premiere, all copies were destroyed by censors

 

[IdleRich]

I wanted to read Annihilation and I ordered a copy but, like half of the stuff I order here, it never showed up.

 

[linebaugh]

My DVD spreads the film across two discs. I remember watching it and feeling it could have ended when the first disc did. I'm glad it didn't as the whole thing's great, but still.

Does the split correlate with part 1 and 2? Around the hour mark 'PART 2- STALKER' is plastered on the screen, but I dont think they ever tell you that what you had seen up to that point was a part 1

 

[linebaugh]

The traps were one of the most intriguing aspects for me. I don't remember seeing any of them at all. You're just told they're there and you have to have a stalker help you navigate. Always wondered what they were; whether they were physical, psychological, something alien.

this is the closest we get to seeing the traps- the bird clipping out of reality. Still a quite a bit of unknown though

 

[linebaugh]

I wanted to read Annihilation and I ordered a copy but, like half of the stuff I order here, it never showed up.

Ive got Annihilation, havent gotten around to reading it, though I liked the film.

Weird trajectory for that story- Annihilation the movie is based on a book that was based on a movie based on another book.

 

[IdleRich]

There is a bit with a bird in a trap in the book - although it goes on to say how unusual that is cos mostly birds avoid The Zone.

 

[linebaugh]

It's more explicit in the book... can tell you if it won't spoil it.

you can tell me and version can avert his eyes

 

[IdleRich]

ok

SPOILER SPOILER VERSION DON'T READ ON SPOILER

It seems to be that the traps, which the Stalkers refer to colloquially as Bug Traps, while the scientists who study The Zone (from a safe distance) call them gravicoconcentrates, a name that describes the phenomenon and gives them some false sense of understanding it, and basically they are areas of super high gravity contained impossibly within certain boundaries. Anything that enters it gets literally squashed flat like in a cartoon (or that's how I envisage it) and can sometimes be seen there for years afterwards. They test for these things by throwing the nuts and bolts.
There are plenty of other things in The Zone though that they have to watch out for... happy ghosts, the hell slime, and the grinder (which it seems you can only get past by tricking someone else into it and then walking through while it's grinding them).

SPOILER OVER VERSION YOU CAN READ ON

 

[IdleRich]

You guys should watch Me Too though, it's kinda like the thuggish brother of this film with dialogue directly opposed to that of Tarkovsky such as "One time a queer came on to me so I killed him" or "I was a radio operator in the army - what of it? - nothing".

 

[luka]

Ive got Annihilation, havent gotten around to reading it, though I liked the film.

Weird trajectory for that story- Annihilation the movie is based on a book that was based on a movie based on another book.

The writing is startlingly bad. It makes you flinch in horror

 

[IdleRich]

Ive got Annihilation, havent gotten around to reading it, though I liked the film.

Weird trajectory for that story- Annihilation the movie is based on a book that was based on a movie based on another book.

Reminds me of the description of Arthur Lee as a black American rock star copying the moves of a British rock star (Jagger) who had copied it all from black US musicians.

 

[WashYourHands]

Which other books and films feature a "Zone"? GR's an obvious one. Annihilation has "The Shimmer".

Twin Peaks and its lodges. The nuclear test explosion becomes a zone where new fear and terror archetypes are born too.

 

[sus]

Which other books and films feature a "Zone"? GR's an obvious one. Annihilation has "The Shimmer".

Annihilation was straight-up an all-women's remake of Stalker in the same vein as Ghostbuster or Women in Black. I don't know why no one talks about this.

Instead of silent male bonding, it's like a long therapeutic group session. "Show me your scars," they say, swapping stories of gendered trauma around the campfire.