Andrei Rublev (1966)

Original title

Андрей Рублёв

Directed by

Andrei Tarkovsky

Genre

biographical film, art film, historical film

Country

Soviet Union

Runtime

3h 05m

Rated

R

Rating

7.9 of 10 from 956 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This film follows the life of a 15th-century Russian icon painter during a turbulent period in medieval Russia. It focuses on his artistic struggles and his observations of the suffering and violence around him.

slow-burnmeditativebleakunsettlingvisually lushcerebralepicsomber

What happens

Andrei Rublev (Russian: Андрей Рублёв, romanized: Andrey Rublyov) is a 1966 Soviet epic biographical historical drama film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky who co-wrote it with Andrei Konchalovsky. The film was re-edited from the 1966 film titled The Passion According to Andrei by Tarkovsky which was censored during the first decade of the Brezhnev era in the Soviet Union. The film is loosely based on the life of Andrei Rublev, a 15th-century Russian icon painter. The film features Anatoly Solonitsyn, Nikolai Grinko, Ivan Lapikov, Nikolai Sergeyev, Nikolai Burlyayev and Tarkovsky's wife Irma Raush. Savva Yamshchikov, a famous Russian restorer and art historian, was a scientific consultant for the film. Andrei Rublev is set against the background of Russia in the early 15th century. Although the film is only loosely based on Rublev's life, it seeks to depict a realistic portrait of medieval Russia. Tarkovsky sought to create a film that shows the artist as "a world-historic figure" and "Christianity as an axiom of Russia's historical identity" during a turbulent period of Russian history. In addition to treating the artist as "a world-historic figure," Tarkovsky also sought to detail and investigate the intersection between faith and artistry. In his book Sculpting in Time, Tarkovsky writes: "It is a mistake to talk about the artist 'looking for' his subject. In fact the subject grows within him like a fruit, and begins to demand expression. It is like childbirth... The poet has nothing to be proud of: he is not master of the situation, but a servant. Creative work is his only possible form of existence, and his every work is like a deed he has no power to annul. For him to be aware that a sequence of such deeds is due and right, that it lies in the very nature of things, he has to have faith in the idea, for only faith interlocks the system of images." In Andrei Rublev, Tarkovsky depicts the philosophy that faith is necessary for art, thereby commenting on the deserved role of faith in the secular, atheist society he was in at the time of the film's creation. Due to the film's themes, including artistic freedom, religion, political ambiguity, and autodidacticism, it was not released domestically in the Soviet Union under the doctrine of state atheism until years after it was completed, except for a single 1966 screening in Moscow. A version of the film was shown at the 1969 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the FIPRESCI prize. In 1971, a censored version of the film was released in the Soviet Union. The film was further cut for commercial reasons upon its U.S. release through Columbia Pictures in 1973. As a result, several versions of the film exist. Although issues with censorship obscured and truncated the film for many years following its release, the film was soon recognized by many western critics and film directors as a highly original and accomplished work. Even more since being restored to its original version, Andrei Rublev has come to be regarded as one of the greatest films of all time, and has often been ranked highly in both the Sight & Sound critics' and directors' polls. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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