{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"A child at war: Ivan's Childhood (1962)","description":"James and Thomas begin a sub-series on the filmography of Andrei Tarkovsky (whose religious films Andrei Rublev and The Sacrifice they already discussed as part of the Vatican Film List). His first film, Ivan\u2019s Childhood, depicts a young boy, Ivan, who acts as a scout for the Russian army during World War II. Made precocious \u2013 and profoundly damaged \u2013 by his wartime experience, Ivan is a fascinating and tragic figure brought to life in a remarkable performance by Nikolai Burlyayev. Tarkovsky begins his career with a film that is understandably more conventional than the rest of his oeuvre \u2013 but still plenty unconventional, and in fact serving as a test run for Tarkovsky\u2019s poetic convictions. James and Thomas discuss the director\u2019s views on \u201cpoetic links\u201d in cinema expressed in his book Sculpting in Time and instantiated in this film\u2019s dream sequences and evocative landscapes. Tarkovsky believed that poetry comes about when the objective beauty of reality is filtered through the artist\u2019s subjectivity, connected to his own personal associations and feelings, such that the authenticity and density of life somehow appear on screen, in a way that is truly poetic and allows the viewer to take part in the aesthetic experience of the artist. SIGN UP for Catholic Culture's newsletter: https:\/\/www.catholicculture.org\/newsletters DONATE to make this show possible! http:\/\/catholicculture.org\/donate\/audio Music is The Duskwhales, \u201cTake It Back\u201d, used with permission. https:\/\/theduskwhales.bandcamp.com ","author_name":"Criteria: The Catholic Film Podcast","author_url":"http:\/\/catholicculture.org\/criteria","html":"