Andrei Rublev (1966)

Average rating

(69%)

Starring:	Anatoly Solonitsyn \| Ivan Lapikov \| Nikolai Grinko
Director:	Andrei Tarkovsky
Studio:	ARTIFICIAL EYE
Run time:	185 mins
Genres:	Drama \| World Cinema
Languages:	Russian
Subtitles:	Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish
Released:	January 21, 2002

Director Andrei Tarkovsky's second film, ANDREI RUBLEV, is a massive and sweeping retelling of the life of the 15th-century Russian icon painter and perhaps the first great Russian artist. Unfolding in a free-flowing series of eight episodes, ANDREI RUBLEV follows the painter (Anatoli Solonitsyn) as he faces unbearable violence, endless attacks by the crude and malicious Tartars, and, eventually, a crippling crisis of faith. A moving mosaic of time, spirituality, dreams, history, culture, and politics, Tarkovsky's masterpiece was immediately condemned by the Russian authorities, who waited years before giving it an official release. Despite this, the film endures as a wrenching testament to Tarkovsky's unique vision of the power of art and the duty of the artist. The film follows Rublev as he traverses the wretched earth of Russia in the Middle Ages, encountering jesters, fools, other artists, and the masses who eventually restore his faith in life and art. Tarkovsky's signature elliptical style, matched with stunning cinematography and breathtaking (and often nonnarrative) editing, creates a film unlike any other. Neither strict biography nor historical epic, ANDREI RUBLEV is the visual depiction of the mystical capacity for art to transform the struggles and joys of the human into the divine.

Radio Times

Divided into eight episodes and majestically photographed by Vadim Yusov, this is a remarkable study of the artist Andrei Rublev's struggle to create works of inspirational power and outstanding beauty, overcoming both his own doubts, and the poverty and cruelty of his time. Anatoly Solonitsin plays the 15th-century icon painter as a sort of wandering mystic who takes a vow of silence in protest at conditions in Russia under the Tartars. Director Andrei Tarkovsky includes too much impenetrable symbolism, but the battle, the balloon flight, the snow crucifixion, the casting of the bell and the colour montage from Rublev's work are stunning.

Highest rated reviews

11 out of 12 people found the following review helpful:

Rated 5.0 stars
Russian Classic

A Customer from London, England, 29th July, 2004

This film is quite simply, superb. It's quite heavy going in parts, as it's a proper epic, but it's visually stunning. The eponymous hero is an icon painter in 13th Century (I think) Russia, and the film follows some of the episodes in his life. Rublev is played as a Christ-like figure, which is pretty typically Russian: but I don't think I'm really qualified to expound on the allegorical interpretation of the film. But whether I understood it entirely or not, the scale, beauty and grandeur of the film took my breath away.

Read all highest rated reviews

2 out of 2 people found the following review helpful:

Rated 5.0 stars
One of the world's great masterpieces

Savage from from London, England, 10th November, 2008

A man clings to a church tower and, while below him the Tartar hordes attack the remaining handful of peasants, he soars skywards on his primitive hot air balloon, and then, soon afterwards, plunges back to earth. As an opening for a film, this is just about unbeatable, its epic quality and symbolism providing the perfect introduction to Tarkovsky's largely fictionalised series of episodes in the life of Russia's greatest icon painter. Learning acceptance of others and of the nature of his talent and, climactically, of the desperate need for faith in a vicious world, he transcends his time as surely as Tarkovsky will. Each part is complete in itself, but, put together, they form the most fantastic portrait of an artist we are ever likely to see. One word of warning, though. My discs had a French dubbed version as the default setting. You need to go into the 'Dubbing' menu and then the 'Subtitles' menu to get a version without voiceover and with English subtitles.

Read all highest rated reviews

1 out of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Rated 5.0 stars
Excellent

Yorick from , 5th March, 2009

This is a great work of art and should be seen. However, note that this particular DVD is a slightly cut-down version. E.g., the notorious burning cow and stabbed horse shots aren't in it. As it happens I didn't particularly want to see a cow on fire or a horse being stabbed, and the fact that they were in it in the first place overshadowed the genius of the rest of the film in some quarters, but it makes me nervous wondering what else might have been cut. Just from reading about the film I suspect portions of Andrei's dialogues with Theophanes and Danila have been edited too. Tarkovsky was apparently quite happy with this version, and what I have seen here unquestionably constitutes a masterpiece; and for all I know this cut is better. But be aware that there is a longer version, I think available from Criterion.

Read all highest rated reviews

Most recent reviews

Check out...

Subscribers who liked this DVD also liked...

Ivan's Childhood

Pauline A La Plage

Weekend