Andrei Rublev (1966) Andrey Rublyov (original title)

Director:

Andrei Tarkovsky

Writers:

Andrei Tarkovsky
Andrey Konchalovskiy

Release Date:

1973 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | Drama | History

Plot:

The story of the 15th century Russian icon painter, Andrei Rublev.

Plot Keywords:

Painter | 15th Century | Icon | Russian | Invasion

Awards:

3 wins

Cast

Anatoliy Solonitsyn	...	Andrei Rublyov
Ivan Lapikov	...	Kirill
Nikolay Grinko	...	Danil Chorny
Nikolai Sergeyev	...	Theophanes the Greek
Irma Raush	...	Idiot girl (Durochka)
Nikolay Burlyaev	...	Boriska
Yuriy Nazarov	...	The Grand Prince / The Lesser Prince
Yuriy Nikulin	...	Monk Patrikey
Rolan Bykov	...	The jester
Nikolai Grabbe	...	Stepan
Mikhail Kononov	...	Foma
Stepan Krylov	...	Head Bell-founder
Irina Miroshnichenko	...	Mary Magdalene
Bolot Beyshenaliyev	...	Tatar Khan
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
K. Aleksandrov
S. Bardin
E. Borisovsky
I. Bykov
Igor Donskoy	...	Christ
Nikolai Glazkov	...	Efim
Vladimir Guskov		(as Vova Guskov)
Nikolay Kutuzov		(as N. Kutuzov)
I. Loskoy
B. Matysik
Anatoli Obukhov
Tamara Ogorodnikova	...	Mother of Jesus
Dmitriy Orlovskiy	...	Old Stonemason
G. Pokorsky
P. Radolitskaya
Muratbek Ryskulov		(as M. Ryskulov)
G. Sachevsko
Nelly Snegina	...	Marfa (as N. Snegina)
Aleksandr Titov
Vladimir Titov		(as Volodya Titov)
Vyacheslav Tsaryov		(as Slava Tsarev)
A. Umuraliyev
Vasili Vasilyev		(as Vasya Vasilyev)
Vladimir Volkov
Zinaida Vorkul
N. Vykov

Directed by
Andrei Tarkovsky

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Andrey Konchalovskiy		(as Andrey Mikhalkov-Konchalovskiy)
Andrei Tarkovsky

Produced by
Tamara Ogorodnikova	....	producer (as T. Ogorodnikova)

Original Music by
Vyacheslav Ovchinnikov

Cinematography by
Vadim Yusov

Film Editing by
Lyudmila Feiginova
Olga Shevkunenko		(as O. Shevkunenko)
Tatyana Yegorycheva		(as T. Yegorychyova)

Production Design by
Yevgeni Chernyayev
Ippolit Novoderyozhkin
Sergei Voronkov

Costume Design by
Maya Abar-Baranovskaya		(as M. Abar-Baranovskaya)
Lidiya Novi

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Bagrat Oganesyan	....	assistant director (as B. Oganesyan)

Sound Department
Inna Zelentsova	....	sound

Special Effects by
Pavel Safonov	....	special effects

Music Department
Vyacheslav Ovchinnikov	....	conductor

Production Companies

• Mosfilm

Distributors

• Columbia Pictures (1973) (USA) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• Asociace Ceských Filmových Klubu (ACFK) (19??) (Czech Republic) (theatrical)
• Sovexportfilm (19??) (Argentina) (theatrical)
• Svensk Filmindustri (SF) (1973) (Sweden) (theatrical)
• Another World Entertainment (2008) (Denmark) (DVD)
• Artificial Eye (2002) (UK) (DVD)
• Cifrovoy Element (2010) (Russia) (DVD) (Blu-ray)
• Continental Home Vídeo (Brazil) (DVD)
• Criterion Collection, The (1994) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• Criterion Collection, The (1999) (USA) (DVD)
• Empresa Hispanoamericana de Video (EHV) (19??) (Argentina) (VHS)
• Fox Lorber (1997) (USA) (VHS)
• General Video (2006) (Italy) (DVD)
• Moskwood Media (19??) (Netherlands) (VHS)
• Moskwood Media (2003) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• RUSCICO (2004) (worldwide) (DVD)
• Xenon Entertainment Group (1993) (USA) (VHS)

Other Companies

• Kinostudiya "Mosfilm"  production unit

Also Known As:

"Andrey Rublyov" - Soviet Union (original title)

Runtime:

Soviet Union:165 min (re-edited version) | Soviet Union:186 min (re-edited version) | UK:183 min (2004 re-release) | 205 min (original length) | UK:145 min (UK version) | Russia:183 min (Blu-ray)

Country:

Soviet Union

Language:

Russian | Italian | Tatar

Color:

Color (Sovcolor) | Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Argentina:13 | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | West Germany:12 | UK:12 (re-rating) (1991) | UK:15 (re-rating) (2004) | UK:AA (original rating) | Hong Kong:IIA | Iceland:16 | Portugal:M/12 | Australia:PG | Singapore:NC-16 | USA:Not Rated

Filming Locations:

Andronnikov Monastery, Moscow, Russia

Company:

Mosfilm

Trivia:

The movie was completed and shown to selected people in private screenings in the winter of 1966. The first official screening was in February 1969 in Moscow, followed by a screening at the Cannes film festival in May 1969. International distribution started in 1973.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: After Rublev comments that nothing is more terrible than snow falling in a temple, some of it lands on Durochka's hair and is clearly a white feather.

Quotes:

Andrei Rublyov:You just spoke of Jesus. Perhaps he was born and crucified to reconcile God and man. Jesus came from God, so he is all-powerful. And if He died on the cross it was predetermined and His crucifixion and death were God's will. That would have aroused hatred not in those that crucified him but in those that loved him if they had been near him at that moment...

Movie Connections:

Featured in "The Story of Film: An Odyssey: Episode #1.8" (2011)

The Pieta of Filmmaking

Andrei Rublev (alternately transliterated as Andrei Rublyov) is an epic film created by the Soviet-era director, Andrei Tarkovsky. It was financed and created during a brief cultural thaw in East-West relations, marked by the end of Kruschchev's reign. Within reason, the 205 minute director's cut represents exactly what Tarkovsky wanted in the movie. Unfortunately for Tarkovsky and for us, Kruschev was deposed shortly after filming began, and the 205 minute version was not seen until twenty five years after its creation. The Breszhnev-era censors first trimmed 15 minutes from it, then censors and marketers trimmed more. The shortest known version has been truncated to 145 minutes. Even more sadly, Tarkovsky was never again to get approval for the projects he really wanted to film, or an adequate budget to film the ones that did get approved.

Fortunately for us, this movie, recently rereleased in a DVD transferred from a pristine 35mm print, may now be viewed intact, and it is one of the great triumphs of mankind's stay on the planet. It is a masterpiece almost without flaw. The beautiful painterly images follow one another in breathtaking succession. At least three of the eight chapters, if taken individually, could stand alone as separate masterpieces.

The ostensible subject is the life of Andrei Rublev, a 15th century monk who is renowned as Russia's greatest creator of religious icons and frescoes. Rublev himself, however, is merely a useful device. Little is known about him, and most of the episodes in the movie come straight from Tarkovsky's imagination of what might have been. Sometimes one must ignore the facts to get to the truth.

The movie is not about one talented monk, but about Russia, and Rublev stands in as a useful symbol since he lived in a time when he could personally witness two of the key elements in the development of Russia's unique culture: the growing force of Byzantine Christianity, and the Mongol-Tatar invasions. In addition he was an artist and a thinker, and experienced first-hand the difficulty of following those paths in Russia. Rublev's own inner conflicts allow the filmmaker to illuminate thoughts on the pagan and the sacred, the nature of art, the relationship of the artist to the state, what it means to be Russian, and what it means to be human.

It is beautiful, mystical, and profound, but the truly inspiring aesthetics are matched with complete technical wizardry. I simply don't know how some of the shots were created. One I do understand, and stand in awe of, is a continuous single camera shot, just before the church door is breached by Tatar invaders, which involves action in several different locations at multiple elevations as well as the correct timing of hundreds of extras and horses. It makes the first scene of Touch of Evil look like a high school film project.

It is a difficult movie to follow. One might liken it to James Joyce's Finnegan's Wake as a work of genius so monumental and complex, and so disdainful of traditional narrative form, that it requires extensive thought and study to understand it. And even after studying it, watching it repeatedly, and reading Tarkovsky's own comments about it, one still finds it opaque in many ways.

Tarkovsky was free to create the work of art he wanted, without concern for profit. The original 205 minute cut was also free from outside censorship. He used this freedom to realize his personal artistic vision. There is no other movie like it, and there may never be. Score it 11 out of 10.