Nostalghia - 1983 - 7/10

Joint Italian/Russian film of Russian poet living in Italy, researching a book on an obscure Russian composer.
He daydreams about the wife he left behind. Or is she dead?
He and his translator ponder the village idiot, a rambling old man and his dog.
Rain pours most of the time, everything seems shrouded in fog.
The beautiful blonde Italian translator wants to bear a baby. Maybe. Perhaps she laments an abortion.
Multiple meanings abound, as do veiled narratives.
Positive reviewers noted one needs to watch this numerous times to appreciate. Negative reviews point out how dull and ponderous this seems.
This is not one I “enjoyed,” and I struggle to “appreciate” it.
Thirty years ago, I paid good money to see arthouse fare, only to exit afterward thinking myself shallow and stupid.
Now, older and more jaded, I still consider myself shallow, struggling to penetrate the obliqueness of Tarkovsky’s vision.