better to have
a bitter happiness than...
a gray, dull life.
Perhaps,
I thought it all up later.
But then he approached me and said:
"Come with me."
And I did,
and never regretted it.
Never.
We had a lot of sorrow,
a lot of fear, and a lot of shame.
But I never regretted it,
and I never envied anyone.
It's just our fate, our life,
that's how we are.
And if we haven't had our misfortunes,
we wouldn't have been better off.
It would have been worse.
Because in that case, there wouldn't
have been any happiness.
And there wouldn't have been
any hope.
I love your eyes, my darling friend,
Their play, so passionate and
bright'ning,
When a sudden stare up you send,
And like a heaven-blown lightning,
It'd take in all from end to end.
But there's more that I admire:
Your eyes when they're downcast
In bursts of love-inspired fire,
And through the eyelash goes fast
A somber, dull call of desire...
The EndMOSFILM
Second Artists' Association
ALISSA FREINDLIKH
ALEXANDER KAIDANOVSKY
ANATOLY SOLONITSYN
NIKOLAI GRINKO
in
STALKER
Screenplay by Arkady STRUGATSKY
and Boris STRUGATSKY
based upon the story
"Roadside Picnic"
Directed by
Andrei TARKOVSKY
Director of Photography
Alexander KNYAZHINSKY
Production Designer
Andrei TARKOVSKY
Music by
Eduard ARTEMYEV
Director L. TARKOVSKAYA
Verses by F.I. TIUTCHEV
Ar.A. TARKOVSKY
Sound by V. SHARUN
Conductor E. KHACHATURYAN
English Subtitles by
T. Kameneva
STALKER
"What was it?
A meteorite?
A visit of inhabitants
of the cosmic abyss?
One way or another,
our small country
has seen the birth of a miracle -
the Zone.
We immediately sent troops there.
They haven't come back.
Then we surrounded the Zone
with police cordons...
Perhaps, that was the right thing to
do. Though, I don't know..."
From an interview with Nobel Prize
winner, Professor Wallace.
Why did you take my watch?
Where are you going, I'm asking you?
You gave me your word
and I believed you.
All right, you're not thinking about
yourself, but what about us?
Did you think about your child?
She's just getting used to you,
and you start it again!
You've made an old woman of me.
You've ruined my life.
Not so loud, you'll wake up
Monkey.
I can't wait for you forever.
I'm going to die!
You wanted to start working!
You've been promised
a normal human work!
I'll be back soon.
You'll be back to prison!
Though this time you'll get
ten years, not five!
And for ten years you will have
neither your Zone, nor anything!
And I'll be dead in the meantime.
Oh God, for me it's prison
everywhere!
- Let me go!
- No!
Let go, I said!
Go!
And may you rot there!
Be damned the day
when I met you, bastard!
God himself has cursed you
by giving you this child!
And me too, because of you, jerk!
My dear,
our world is hopelessly boring.
Therefore, there can be no telepathy,
or apparitions, or flying saucers,
nothing like that.
The world is ruled by cast-iron laws,
and it's insufferably boring.
Alas, those laws are never violated.
They don't know how to be violated.
So don't even hope for a UFO,
that would have been too interesting.
And how about the Bermuda Triangle?
You're not going to deny...
I am. There is no Bermuda Triangle.
There's only Triangle ABC that equals
Triangle A-prim, B-prim, C-prim.
Do you feel the boredom
contained in this assertion?
To live in the Middle Ages was
interesting.
Every home had its house-spirit,
and every church had its God.
People were young!
Now every fourth is an old person.
It's so boring, my angel.
But you said that the Zone
was the product of a superior
civilization...
It must be boring, too,
all those laws, triangles,
and no house spirits,
and no God, that's for certain.
Because if God is also
a triangle,
then I don't know what to think.
It's for me! Great!
Goodbye, my dear friend.
This lady was so kind as to agree
to go with us to the Zone.
She's a very courageous woman.
Her name is...
I beg