The Steamroller and the Violin (Katok i skripka) (1961)

Complete: Andrei Tarkovsky

“Too much imagination.” So says the methodical music teacher of Sasha (Igor Fomchenko), the cherub-cheeked young violinist whose transient friendship with older steamroller operator Sergey (Vladimir Zamansky) forms the heart of Tarkovsky’s diploma film for VGIK. The boy’s head is indeed in the clouds, though not in a distractable way. An early scene in which Sasha views the hurly-burly of Moscow (pedestrians scampering, vehicles racing) through the fragmenting perspective of mirrors in a storefront display window hints at his raw levels of observance and engagement. Art is in the boy’s bones; discipline will come with time.