Mirror, Mirror On the Wall. . .

This was an amazing film. Although I may not understand what was going on, I loved the artistic side to this film. The poetry throughout the movie were actual poems written by Andrey Tarkovsky's father, Arseny Tarkovsky. There were also beautiful scenic shots. I also believe there was a lot of symbolism. Water seemed to show up in almost every scene, whether it be in the form of rain, milk, or just plain water. Water is usually seen as purification but in Mirror it seemed like he was trying to say that no one can be cleansed or purified when this world around us is so filthy. My favorite scene of this is when the man is pouring the water over a woman's head. She swooshes her hair around in the water and then pulls it out but the walls behind her are black and dirty looking. Water falls over the walls but it does not clean it off. Also in this part if you look closely as the camera pans across the wall you can see a face. At first I thought it was a person's but then I realized it looked like a cat's. Earlier in the movie, there was a black cat drinking the spilled milk of the children and later on there's another grey and white cat. Spilled milk also appears several times. "Don't cry over spilled milk." Although no one is actually seen crying over the milk, there are times when the characters have been crying or will start crying after the milk scenes.
As for how the film was put together, I began to notice that something in one scene would appear the next scene. The art book showed itself several times and appeared to be a transition. The wind also was a reoccurring transition. So were the mirrors. All of these I have come to realize are from the poem "And This I Dreamt, And This I Dream" by Tarkovsky's father:

And this I dreamt, and this I dream,
And some time this I will dream again,
And all will be repeated, all be re-embodied,
You will dream everything I have seen in dream.

To one side from ourselves, to one side from the world
Wave follows wave to break on the shore,
On each wave is a star, a person, a bird,
Dreams, reality, death - on wave after wave.

No need for a date: I was, I am, and I will be,
Life is a wonder of wonders, and to wonder
I dedicate myself, on my knees, like an orphan,
Alone - among mirrors - fenced in by reflections:
Cities and seas, iridescent, intensified.
A mother in tears takes a child on her lap.

The wind rolled across the fields and the trees like a wave. There were waves of water pouring down the walls in a few scenes. These were all around times when someone or something died., like when the mother was killing the rooster. Waves of water were coming off the walls behind her.
There was also a bird that the little red-headed boy caught and that the narrator had on his bed.
There were mirrors surrounding the narrator and his wife when they were talking about what they should do with their son, Ignat.
I also realized that certain scenes when referring to past or newsreels were in black and white while most of the rest was in color.
I really enjoyed this film and would watch it again if it hadn't made me so nauseous the first time. I believe the panning shots were a little too fast since there was so much going on in the background.