Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5113 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-01-21
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Number of discs: 2
• Formats: Black & White, Colour, PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: Italian, Russian, Tatar
• Subtitled in: English, French, German, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese, Hebrew, Swedish, Arabic, Russian
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 185 minutes

Special Features
Wide Screen
Russian
Region 2
Dolby Digital 5.1 Russian
Dolby Digital 5.1
Filmographies
Stills Gallery
Interview With Tarkovskys Sister Marina Tarkovskaya
Interview With Actor Yuri Nazarov
Theophanes The Greek Andrei Rublev And Behind The Scenes Featurettes
Tarkovshy Trailers
Arabic\Chinese\Dutch\English\French\German\Hebrew\Italian\Japanese\Portuguese\Russian\Spanish\Swedish

Synopsis
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.

Customer Reviews

NB this is the shorter version
If picture quality is your main concern, then this is the edition for you, as the image is splendid, a restored version the sharpness of which adds considerably to the majesty and impact of Tarkovsky's masterpiece. Purchasers ought to be aware however that the director's Soviet masters took exception to the sex and violence in the director's original and this, a cut down version, is the result. For this edition originally the BBFC have also very kindly lopped out a few more seconds - because of a horse falling down some stairs (though I have heard it may have been accidently reinserted for the DVD release). It's still a great film, of course, but I'd argue it ultimately lacks a dimension originally intended, in the process making the film much more static and contemplative than the director conceived. The 'red cover' version, also on sale here on Amazon I see, offers 15 mins more, albeit with a picture which is less impressive.

Region Free
Despite being an American release, this DVD is actually region free, meaning it will play on any UK [or other] machine. As for it being NTSC, all European DVD players are capable of playing both PAL and NTSC formats, so that shouldn't concern potential buyers either.

As for the film itself, it's brilliant as long as you've got the attention span. Make sure you're properly awake and in the right mood before you settle down to watch it for the first time. After that it makes a great movie to fall asleep to.

More than just an historical epic
Like all of Tarkovsky's films, "Andrei Rublev" stays with the viewer long after it ends and it fully warrants repeat viewings. The film is a semi-biographical account of the life of the mediaeval Russian icon painter Andrei Rublev. It is filmed as a series of discrete episodes, most of which see Rublev as merely a spectator to various events, rather than the central focus of the viewer's attention. Each episode provides the viewer with a deep insight into the life and politics of Russia in the early 15th Century, which were heavily influenced by the monastic, religious vision of life ,coexisting uneasily alongside extreme barbarity, personified by the Tartar hordes. However "Andrei Rublev" is much more than just a Russian historical epic. Each scene is sculpted exquisitely by Tarkovsky creating a haunting ,melancholy ,yet uplifting film that is a work of art of supreme quality. The sack of Vladimir and the Bell Casting scenes are particularly memorable and the cinematography throughout "Andrei Rublev" is exceptional. The film is ultimately a tribute to the indefatigability of the human spirit, battered and bruised by acts of brutality, cruelty and injustice throughout life's journey , but capable of sublime acts of creation, love and forgiveness which transcend the baseness of the material world and the inevitabilty and omnipresence of sin.