Tempo di viaggio

The Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky, along with screenwriter Tonino Guerra, embarks on a journey through various places in southern and central Italy in search of locations for the film Nostalghia (1983). Tempo di viaggio, blending documentary and poetic styles, guides the viewer through the creative process of a great master of cinema and his relationship with his collaborator and friend. Speaking in Russian and Italian, respectively, their conversations, amid architectural beauties and landscapes rich in history, range from Guerra’s dialectal poetry to directors admired by Tarkovsky, such as Bresson, Antonioni, and Dovzhenko. In addition to Guerra’s home, the journey covers the Amalfi Coast, the Baroque cathedrals of Lecce, Piero della Francesca’s fresco of the Madonna del Parto in Monterchi, and the Tuscan town of Bagno Vignoni. The latter, still far from mass tourism, with its thermal pool in the town square immersed in an archaic and decaying atmosphere, profoundly impressed Tarkovsky, becoming not only the central location of the film but also the spiritual symbol of Nostalghia. The film was presented posthumously, after Tarkovsky’s death, in the Un Certain Regard section of the 48th Cannes Film Festival in 1995.