# Andrei Rublyov (1969)

### reviewed by
David Arnold

Andrei Rublev (1969, Andrei Tarkovsky)

A retrospective review by David M. Arnold

Andrei Tarkovsky might very well have been the most gifted filmmaker in the short 100-year history of the medium. Tarkovsky is the other of the two Soviet filmmakers apt to be familiar to American film dilletantes (the first being Sergei Eisenstein). With "Andrei Rublev", Tarkovsky elevates filmmaking to an Art that requires as much intellectual investment on the part of the observer as does the poetry of T.S. Eliot or the novels of James Joyce. And, he produced the this, as well as the bulk of his film output, in the Soviet Union during the late '60's and '70's under a political regime that, although not the most repressive, was still notorious for suppression of creative art. The greatest irony is that "Andrei Rublev", a decidedly uncommercial film made on an epic scale, could ONLY have been produced by a subsidized film industry within a centrally controlled economy not driven by the profit motive. It could not have been made in Hollywood.

Andrei Rublev was a Russian historic figure who flourished during the end of the 14th century. Rublev was the most important medieval Russian painter of religious icons and frescos. He is considered the father of the first native Russian style of iconography. Tarkovsky uses Rublev as the central figure in his long, meditative reflection on the the meanings of Life, Faith and Art.

The film has no real plot and no protagonist: Rublev (played by Anatoli Solonitsyn, who portrayed Dr. Sartorius in Tarkovsky's brilliant sci-fi film, "Solaris") is more an observer than a participant. The first scene in the film is a prologue featuring an improbable event. A group of peasants construct a crude hot air balloon and one of them takes flight in it. We see the earth from the balloonist's perspective, until the balloon ruptures and crashes, killing its passenger. Then, the film unfolds as a series of vignettes representing historic events in Rublev's lifetime. He is a monk. He meets Theophanes the Greek (Nikolai Sergeyev), the renown Byzantine iconographer and becomes his pupil. He is commissioned to paint the Cathedral in Vladimir. He encounters a summer solstice worshipping group of pagans and witnesses their persecution. He has just completed the cathedral in Vladimir when the town is viciously sacked by the Tatars. His entourage of assistants and helpers is scattered. He endures famine. He grapples with his conscience, and for a time renounces painting and speaking. He is finally reconciled to his responsibility to his art as the custodian of a God-given talent. At this point, the film shifts from black and white into full color and we are presented with an epilogue of photographs of Rublev's actual art.

"Andrei Rublev" is very realistic and frank about the value placed on life in Russia during the middle ages. We see inhumanity in the form of arrogant noblemen and the Tatar invaders. We see men being tortured and we see brutality to animals. There were several scenes that made me wince; I especially dislike seeing animals being mistreated, whether or not through the use of special effects (I suspect in some cases these were not effects). Tarkovsky was explicit in portraying this evil to underscore Rublev's internal struggle.

The lack of a definite story arc and the brutal scenes of peasant life mean that this film is not for everyone. It is certainly not idle entertainment, Tarkovsky expects the observer to be an active participant. He provides a series of images and leaves it to the viewer to tie it all together, and a complete understanding of the film requires multiple viewings. The film is recommended for Tarkovsky's brilliant cinematic technique, for his long, complex and lyrical tracking shots. Like Steven Spielberg, Tarkovsky is not encumbered by a sense of the Proscenium Arch. His shots put you right in the middle of the action.

Production on "Andrei Rublev" started in 1966, and the film was re-cut in 1969. The Soviet authorities didn't quite know what to make of such a personal and spiritual work, so it sat on the shelf until its premier in 1971. "Andrei Rublev" is available in its original, uncut form on DVD from the Criterion Collection.

Essay copyright (C) 1999 David M. Arnold. All rights reserved.

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