Widely regarded as Tarkovsky's finest film, Andrei Rublev charts the life of the great icon painter through a turbulent period of 15th Century Russian history, a period marked by endless fighting between rival Princes and Tatar invasions. Made on an epic scale, it does not flinch from portraying the savagery of the time, from which, almost inexplicably, the serenity of Rublev's art arose. The great set-pieces - the sack of Vladimir, the casting of the bell, the pagan ceremonies of St. John's night and the Russian crucifixion are tours-de-force of visceral film-making.
Directed by
Andrei Tarkovsky
Written by
Andrei Konchalovsky; Andrei Tarkovsky.
Starring
Anatoli Solonitsyn (Andrei Rublyov); Ivan Lapikov (Kirill); Nikolai Grinko (Danil Chorny); Nikolai Sergeyev (Theophanes the Greek); Irma Raush (Idiot girl (Durochka)); Nikolai Burlyayev (Boriska); Yuri Nazarov (The Grand Prince / The Lesser Prince); Yuri Nikulin (Monk Patrikey); Rolan Bykov (The jester); Nikolai Grabbe (Stepan); Mikhail Kononov (Foma); Stepan Krylov (Head Bell-founder); Stepan Krylov (Head Bell-founder); Irina Miroshnichenko (Mary Magdalene); Bolot Bejshenaliyev (Tatar Khan). Please contact SFC to add other cast members and characters.
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I struggled through this one
Mark Banks (United Kingdom)
Opinion: Limited Recommendation
Some time ago I gave up my quest to tick off literally every film featured on the lists on this website and instead decided I would only watch the remaining few that, by their description and/or trailer, held some modicum of appeal to me. Andrei Rublev was not initially one of those films. However, when it came up once more, this time on the Catholic Herald's Top-100 film's list, I thought it was a film I really should finally get around to seeing - after all I had been wrong about more than just a few films on previous occasions. As you will see from my headline to this post though, this time was not one of the times my perception was proved wrong; I really did struggle to get through watching this film. The primary reason for this was the lack of a continual narrative - the film is divided up into chapters marking the eventful years of Andrei's life, sometimes they jump a couple of years, others up to 11 years from one chapter to the next. The other main reason was the absence of exploring Andrei's character in any truly balanced way; the only hint he had a lighter and more cheerful side to his personality was when he refused to paint a certain picture because he didn't want to condemn and frighten people; I would've liked to have seen that side of his character expanded upon. Unfortunately, the rest of the time he just came across as rather 'flat'. On the positive side the cinematography was very good and the scale of the film, especially in the second half, was impressive. Scenes such as the pagan lake ceremony, and the raid of the Vladimir complex were captivating to a degree. Overall though, and I'm sad to say it, I think by continually approving 'high-art' films such as Andrei Rublev, we show as a community how out of touch we are with what appeals to at least two sections of society we should most be trying to reach: the unlearned, and the young.
