The Phenomenon of Memory in Film--the Case of the' Mirror' Directed by Andriei Tarkovski

In this movie the plot is constructed by the thoughts of the narrator. They follow two patters. In the first case a current event is shown as connected with past occurrences. The narrator's mother talks with him on the phone and reminiscences about her former boss who recently died. In the second case two events are connected by spatio-temporal contiguity. The narrator's son is asked by an elderly woman to read something to her. While he sets himself about to do it, the woman disappears leaving a hot cup of tea behind. In each case the troubling question is what is real. In the telephone case it is highly improbable that the print house where the mother had worked could actually make the politically incriminating printing mistake. In the tea cup case it is unbelievable that a ghost of a woman would drink a cup of tea. Memory easily confuses fact and fiction, and creates a world that seems partly real and partly unreal.