Elevation and emptiness: the dialogues of Andrej Rublëv and Stalker

Abstract

The dialogues of two films by Andrei Tarkovskij, Andrej Rublëv and Stalker, are analyzed using a network model in which the nodes are the characters and the branches are the dialogic interactions between them. The thickness of the branches, understood as the quantity of dialogue that runs along them, is considered as a parameter characterizing the relevance of the characters they connect and their relationships. The analysis shows, in Andrej Rublëv, the centrality of the character Kirill while the protagonist, often relegated to peripheral areas of dialogic networks, appears as a silent witness to events external to him. In Stalker the centrality of the figure of the Writer emerges, a character who, more than any other member of the triad of protagonists, undertakes a path of inner growth.