Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4599 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

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.

Stay With It
If you want to understand medieval Russia, this is a superb place to start. It is as if someone had gotten hold of a wayback machine and taken their cinematographer with them back to the 15th century. Andrei Tarkovski obviously owed some debts to Bergman and to Eisenstein, but he surpasses both masters in conveying medieval atmosphere. This is in part due to the fact that the film is highly accurate, historically. Tarkovski sticks to the primary texts in his depiction of Rublev, and his era. This in no way meant to imply that the film is some sort of academic exercise, only that it falls within the boundaries of the great tradition of Russian realism.

Andrei Rublev is considered by most experts (including James Billington in his marvelous book, The Icon and the Axe) to be the greatest icon-painter and muralist in Russian history. He painted his masterpiece, "Old Testament Trinity," for the monks of the monastery of St Sergius in 1425. One can view some of his most glorious creations by visiting the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg and the National Museum (Tret'iakov) in Moscow. Icons still hold great importance to the believers in Russian Orthodox Catholicism. Visit any church service in Moscow or Saint Petersburg and you will see believers lighting candles and praying before various icons. To understand the essence of this faith and properly appreciate it's depth, view Tartovski's film and read Dr. Billington's books.

As an aside, I see that Tarkovski's dense, multi-layered sci-fi classic Solaris is soon to be re-released in a restored DVD format. The recent Hollywood remake has its merits, but can't stand up to the original in terms of texture and complexity. I'm looking forward to the release, as the overall quality of the current VHS print is muddy. The sound quality is also poor. Hopefully, these issues will be addressed in the new format.

BK

Incomparable masterpiece of cinematography
It is difficult not to burst into a flow of hyperbole, but it is equally difficult to convey the impact this film has on the imagination. From my first viewing, when I was perplexed and confused by it, to watching it now again and again - and it takes time and preparedness to do so - it has never ceased to be fascinating. The recurring images, from the water cleansing itself through its own flow to the silent appearance of the icons, the moments of unbearable brutality, of emotional frankness, the motive of human failure, forsakeness and reawakening of hope give this film a richness and depth that provokes a calm joy in the viewer. It's a poetic experience. It's defies words, which is what Tarkovsky always wanted his films to do. Quite literally, the bible of modern film.