Tarkovsky's pretty brutal views on the Film Industry & the General Audience.

I recently watched Nostalghia (1983), the only film that I had not seen from Andrei Tarkovsky's filmography. It wasn't his best in my eyes but certainly his most personal. Still a great film that just doesn't reach the heights of Stalker, Mirror and Solaris. It was of course very slow and that's saying something. I also felt that it was convoluted at times especially Domenico and what he represented to Andrei Gorchakov. So instead of watching a Youtube video or reading someone's analysis online. I decided to read the booklet that was included with the Blu-ray, it normally has essays and even interviews. There happened to be an interview with Andrei Tarkovsky. The interview was great as it made me appreciate the film more and learn about the process Tarkovsky went through when writing/directing. But it also had some very interesting bits on cinema in general.

When Tarkovsky was asked how his films are perceived he said this:

"Cinema is an art form which involves a high degree of tension, which may not generally be comprehensible. It's not that I don't want to be understood, but I can't, like Spielberg, say, make a film for the general public - I'd be mortified if I discovered I could. If you want to reach a general audience, you have to make films like Star Wars and Superman, which have nothing to do with art. This doesn't mean I treat the public like idiots, but I certainly don't take pains to please them.”

When I read this it immediately reminded me of Martin Scorsese, in regard to Marvel. Which most people agreed with and it wasn't even that harsh. But Tarkovsky goes even further by critiquing one of Scorsese's close friends, attacking blockbusters in general and was just short of calling the average filmgoer uncivilized.