Sorry. Watched it again. Also - finished reading the book for a 3rd time a couple of weeks back. They are not even remotely the same. It helps to have read the book if you want a kind of easy template for the film...which is a difficult viewing...the first few times. Probably best if you don't approach the film thinking that it's an adaptation of the book.

Roadside picnic is a fabulous piece of speculative fiction. Powerfully original with a heart that counterbalances the tragedy of the stalker with the totally and completely alien absence of humanity that the roadside picnic represents.

Stalker is all tragedy, because the incomprehensible that Tarkovsky's stalker meets is essentially human.

So maybe not that different after all.

I love Stalker, the sepia monochromatic start contrast of the rail yards with the subdued green palette of the zone is a subtle colour reveal, not as in the face as in the Wizard Of Oz, but no less substantive. 

It's been a while since I've seen Stalker, so I think I might need to find the time for a rewatch. I can remember being enamoured with the long abstract shots.

The first time I saw it, I definitely had a sense of "this is ART so I'd better be virtuous and watch it" even though my eyes blinked and my head nodded a few times. But it's one of those that get better and better on subsequent viewings. 

I found it more than a bit glacial in pacing, unlike Andrei Rublev. Can't remember if I ever watched it all the way through.

I watched Andrei Rublev when I was too young. The extreme nonchalence of the brutality didn't encourage love in my heart. But, you're right. Andrei Rublev follows an easier path with a sense of timing that fits better with a conventional schedule. if you really want to love Tarkovsky, then Solaris is the easiest watch. It's also a brilliant film.

I just got a copy of Andrei Rublev from Jim, and although I REALLY don't want to, I'll watch it again. Just because...

To be 100% honest, Stalker would have been one of my least favourite films a few years ago. It grew on me. A bit like Moon in June grew on me until it's one of my fave LP tracks (or sides or whatever) even though it's Soft machine and not exactly what many people would like.

Andrei Rublev is one of the most brilliant films ever made in my estimation. It made me aware that the DP is (or rather, can be) more than a glorified technician.