The Steamroller and the Violin
It’s striking to watch Andrei Tarkovsky’s diploma film, “The Steamroller and the Violin,” in light of the artist he became in feature-length masterpieces such as “Andrei Rublev,” “The Mirror,” and “The Sacrifice.” Typically, we think of student films as the ones that will be the most experimental, but in fact, Tarkovsky’s wonderful story of friendship is the most conventional film he made. In that respect, it’s probably the most accessible entry point for anyone interested in Tarkovsky’s films.
Watching the film for the first time in many years, however, I was struck immediately by how Tarkovsky did experiment with film language, and finding new ways to tell a linear story; in this case, the unlikely friendship of Sasha, a boy who loves playing the violin, and Sergey, a steamroller driver who helps him when bullies keep him from his lessons one day. They spend the day together after Sasha’s lesson: Sergey lets him drive the steamroller; they get lunch; Sergey tries to fix Sasha’s violin case; Sasha even helps another boy who is bullied. By the end, each one of them has had a profound impact on the other that transcends their age difference.
This is a simple story by Tarkovsky and his co-scenarist, Andrey Konchalovskiy, one that doesn’t reach for the “big themes” of Tarkovsky’s professional films, but still finds something to say that’s very elemental in life. It ends in a melancholy way, but through the director’s use of what he called, “poetic linkages,” Sasha and Sergey are allowed a moment of happiness akin to the ones they had in their day together. It’s a beautiful conclusion to a film that, though not as important as what Tarkovsky put to film later, is one that in the end, Tarkovsky never strayed too far from.
