Konterr Brilliant and touching

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Siflutter It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Cheryl A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

MisterWhiplash The Steamroller and the Violin is a nice little film that gains its underlying traction from being about two people who connect on a human level among others in this small Russian village who are mean (i.e. bullies) or just impersonal (a music teacher) or images of destruction and decay (a wrecking ball demolishing a building). There's even a few moments in the 43 minute running time where its 20-something director Andrei Tarkovsky displays some of the brilliance that one would see later on in his career. One such scene, a memorable one if maybe a little too short and strange, is where the boy Sasha (Fomchenko) is looking at a broken or cracked mirror in a store window and we see a kaleidoscope of images, of Sashaa, of his surroundings, of fragments of things and objects, and it comes closest to something out of Vertov in terms of the splicing and dissection of an image.The problem though in looking at this film today is context. If one can look outside the fact that one of the great directors of world cinema made this as a student film to get his diploma- not a true-blue revelation of his genius but a foreshadowing of his technical skill and sensitivity to actors- then one can see it as a decent little movie about unlikely friendship between a blue collar worker and a lonely little kid who each have their own knack at something. I'm sure if I saw a fellow student filmmaker make something like this when I went to college I would be impressed, but only because I was taking this and this person's previous work, a super-short adaptation of the Killers, as his only creative output.In being more critical, while the story isn't bad the performances are only average at best, with Fomchenko and Zamansky as the duo being only engaging enough as to not get too bored. It's mostly due to seeing some creative direction and little moments of beauty like the Steamroller listening to the Violin, so to speak, that one is really drawn in to the emotion going on. It's a minor work that doesn't say a whole lot that is truly great about Tarkovsky (or, for that matter, his co-writer and future director Konchalovsky), and seeing it once is enough... then again, seeing that last shot, the over-head of the boy coming up to the steamroller and riding away with Sergei in a moment of bliss, is a truly amazing image to be looked at repeatedly.

Benoît A. Racine (benoit-3) I am not a Tarkovsky fan and I feel rather proud that I've not spent the boring hours needed to take in his whole oeuvre. But I like this little film for itself, without reference to his later works. To me, it is full of the sounds, sights, terrors and illuminations of the days of childhood. While on some political level, the little violinist's situation may be a metaphor for the artist in Soviet society who is both persecuted and envied, to me it simply expresses the reality of childhood bullying. The child's encounters with his violin teacher, with a little girl, with a roadway worker and with his mother are all realistic and plausible. I love the realism of the situation of a fatherless child striving for male bonding and constrained by the feminine and orderly influences in his life to renounce it. And I can also see the extremely well-crafted photography, lighting and composition, the interplay of rain and sunlight and the almost ethereal primary colours of the film as the basic components of a lonely seven-year-old's day as transcended by imagination and poetry. Anyone who has spent his childhood in a moderately ancient and relatively unpolluted urban landscape, who has been singled out from his peers because of a special talent or status and who has on occasion taken refuge in daydreams can identify with this film.

Bryan Hargrave I consider myself fortunate that this was my first venture into Soviet cinema. The fact that this was director Tarkovsky's graduate student film makes it all the more remarkable.With a minimalist approach to dialog, Tarkovsky relies on imagery to communicate emotions and feelings, and he does so well. It's still a period piece, with obvious salutes to the "Worker's Paradise" but this is not propaganda. Rather, it is a beautiful tale of a brief friendship. Two people from different worlds are borough together, and are torn apart due to circumstances beyond their control, but you get the impression that they'll be wealthier for the experience. Highly recommended! 10/10

Ben Parker The central conflict of this four-reeler is that the little boy's mother prefers him to maintain interest in his violin, but his new friend encourages him to be more interested in a steamroller. Its the old conflict between high pursuits and simple pleasures, or art vs working function. The little boy, of course, would like to have his cake and eat it too.The images are Tarkovsky, but the plot is de Sica. In his film school graduation film, the young Tarkovsky goes for beauty through simplicity - which according to John Ford was another word for sentiment.This is mainly of value for the few pretty pictures it contains - but those few pictures are pretty pretty - so that value is fairly high. The images of the steamroller reflected in the pond, and the water dropping in it, are very fine indeed. As is the shot where the carcas of an old building is knocked down by a wrecking ball in the foreground, to reveal a brand a brand new building in the background, in its place in the frame. The final sequence is also nice.Then again, you could just run a google image search for the film and you'll come up with some screen-captures from the film which will provide you with the same enjoyment - but with much less trouble (this is a definire rarity).2/5. Looks nice, but not very deep.