Андрей Рублёв: Эпическая драма Андрея Тарковского

1966 film by Andrei Tarkovsky

Andrei Rublev (Андрей Рублёв) is a 1966 Soviet epic biographical historical drama film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky who co wrote it with Andrei Konchalovsky. The film was re edited from the 1966 film titled The Passion According to Andrei by Tarkovsky which was censored during the first decade of the Brezhnev era in the Soviet Union. The film is loosely based on the life of Andrei Rublev, a 15th century Russian icon painter. The film features Anatoly Solonitsyn, Nikolai Grinko, Ivan Lapikov, lt=Nikolai Sergeyev, Nikolai Burlyayev and Tarkovsky's wife Irma Raush. Savva Yamshchikov, a famous Russian restorer and art historian, was a scientific consultant of the film. Andrei Rublev is set against the background of Russia in the early 15th century. Although the film is only loosely based on the life of Andrei Rublev, it seeks to depict a realistic portrait of medieval Russia. Tarkovsky sought to create a film that shows the artist as "a world historic figure" and "Christianity as an axiom of Russia's historical identity" during a turbulent period of Russian history. In addition to treating the artist as "a world historic figure," Tarkovsky also sought to detail and investigate the intersection between faith and artistry. In his book "Sculpting in Time," Tarkovsky writes: "It is a mistake to talk about the artist 'looking for' his subject. In fact the subject grows within him like a fruit, and begins to demand expression. It is like childbirth . The poet has nothing to be proud of: he is not master of the situation, but a servant. Creative work is his only possible form of existence, and his every work is like a deed he has no power to annul. For him to be aware that a sequence of such deeds is due and right, that it lies in the very nature of things, he has to have faith in the idea, for only faith interlocks the system of images," In "Andrei Rublev," Tarkovsky depicts the philosophy that faith is necessary for art, thereby commenting on the deserved role of faith in the secular, atheist society he was in at the time of the film's creation. Due to the film's themes, including artistic freedom, religion, political ambiguity, and autodidacticism, it was not released domestically in the Soviet Union under the doctrine of state atheism until years after it was completed, except for a single 1966 screening in Moscow. A version of the film was shown at the 1969 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the FIPRESCI prize. In 1971, a censored version of the film was released in the Soviet Union. The film was further cut for commercial reasons upon its U. S. release through Columbia Pictures in 1973. As a result, several versions of the film exist. Although these issues with censorship obscured and truncated the film for many years following its release, the film was soon recognized by many western critics and film directors as a highly original and accomplished work. Even more since being restored to its original version, Andrei Rublev has come to be regarded as one of the greatest films of all time, and has often been ranked highly in both the Sight & Sound critics' and directors' polls.

Andrei Rublev has a prologue and an epilogue only loosely related to the main film. The main film is divided into seven episodes dealing, directly or symbolically, with transitional moments in the life of the great icon painter. The background is 15th century Russia, a turbulent period characterized by fighting between rival princes and the Tatar invasions.

A hot air balloon is tethered to the spire of a church next to a river, with a man named Yefim suspended from it in a harness. Despite interference from an ignorant mob who arrive from the river, the balloon is successfully released. Yefim is overwhelmed and delighted by the view from above and the sensation of flying, but he cannot prevent a crash landing shortly after. He is the first of several creative characters, representing the daring escapist, whose hopes are easily crushed. After the crash, a horse is seen rolling on its back by a pond.

Andrei, Daniil and Kirill are wandering monks and religious icon painters, looking for work. The three represent different creative characters. Andrei is the observer, a humanist who searches for the good in people and wants his art to inspire and not frighten. Daniil is withdrawn and resigned, bent less on creativity than on self realization. Kirill lacks talent as a painter, yet still strives to achieve prominence. He is jealous, self righteous, very intelligent and perceptive. The three have just left the Andronikov Monastery, where they have lived for many years, heading to Moscow. During a heavy rain shower they seek shelter in a barn, where a group of villagers is being entertained by a jester. The jester, or skomorokh, is a bitterly sarcastic enemy of the state, the Boyars, and the Church, who earns a living with his scathing and obscene social commentary. He lightly mocks the monks as they come in. Kirill voices his disapproval of jesters and leaves unnoticed. Shortly after, a group of soldiers arrive and arrest the skomorokh, knocking him unconscious and smashing his musical instrument. During a momentary break in the rain, Kirill returns and induces his fellow monks to leave.

Kirill arrives at the workshop of master painter Theophanes the Greek, who is working on a new icon of Jesus Christ. Theophanes is portrayed as a complex character: humanistic and God fearing in his views yet somewhat cynical and disillusioned with other people, regarding his art more as a craft and a chore. His young apprentices have all run away to the town square, where a wrongly convicted criminal is about to be tortured and executed. Kirill talks to Theophanes, who is impressed by the monk's understanding and erudition and invites him to work as his apprentice on the decoration of the Cathedral of the Annunciation in Moscow. Kirill eventually accepts, on the condition that Theophanes will personally tender the offer in the Andronikov Monastery, in front of all the fraternity and Andrei Rublev. Andrei has become renowned for his icon painting in the outside world, an admiration shared by Kirill and Theophanes. A messenger from Theophanes subsequently arrives at the Andronikov Monastery, but hires Andrei instead of Kirill. Daniil refuses to accompany Andrei and reproaches him for accepting Theophanes' offer without considering his fellows, but soon repents of his temper and tearfully wishes Andrei well when the younger monk comes to say goodbye to his friend. Kirill is jealous of Andrei and, in a fit of anger, decides to leave the monastery for the secular world, throwing accusations of greed in the face of his fellow monks, who also dismiss him. Kirill's dog tries to follow him into the countryside, but he savagely beats it with his walking stick and leaves it for dead.

Andrei leaves for Moscow with his young apprentice Foma. While walking in the woods, Andrei and Foma have a conversation about Foma's flaws, in particular lying. While Foma has talent as an artist, he is less interested in the deeper meaning of his work and more concerned with the practical aspects of the job, like perfecting his use of unstable azure pigment. They encounter Theophanes in the forest, and the old master sends Foma away, unimpressed by his attitude to art. As he leaves, the apprentice finds a dead swan and fantasizes about having a bird's eye view. In the forest, Andrei and Theophanes argue about religion, while Foma cleans his master's paint brushes. Theophanes argues that the ignorance of the Russian people is due to stupidity, while Andrei says that he doesn't understand how he can be a painter and maintain such views. This section contains a Passion Play, or a reenactment of Christ's Crucifixion, on a snow covered hillside which plays out as Andrei recounts the events of Christ's death and expresses his belief that the men who crucified him were obeying God's will and loved him.

Camping for the night on a riverbank, Andrei and Foma are collecting firewood for their traveling party when Andrei hears the distant sounds of celebration further upstream in the woods. Going to investigate, he comes upon a large group of naked pagans who are conducting a lit torch ritual for Kupala Night. Andrei, intrigued and excited by the behaviour of the pagans, is caught spying on a couple making love. He is imprisoned, his arms tied to a crossbeam in a mockery of Jesus' crucifixion, and threatened with drowning in the morning. A woman named Marfa, dressed only in a fur coat, approaches Andrei, who responds with hostility. After lamenting that her people are persecuted for their beliefs, she drops her coat, kisses Andrei and then frees him. Andrei runs away and gets lost in the dense woods, only finding his group the next morning. As they leave on their boats, they see a group of soldiers pursuing several of the pagans, including Marfa. Her lover is captured, but she escapes into the river, swimming right by Andrei's boat. He and his fellow monks look away in shame.

Andrei and Daniil are working on the decoration of a church in Vladimir, but the project has stalled for two months. Andrei confides to Daniil that the task disgusts him and that he is unable to paint a subject such as the Last Judgement, as he doesn't want to terrify people into submission. He comes to the conclusion that he has lost the ease of mind that an artist needs for his work. A messenger, Patrikei (Yuri Nikulin), arrives with word from the Bishop, who is furious, to say they have until autumn to finish the job. Foma, impatient and wanting to work, leaves Andrei's group and takes an offer to paint in a smaller, less prestigious church. Elsewhere, stone carvers and decorators of Andrei's party have finished adorning the mansion of the Grand Duke. To their indignation, the Duke is dissatisfied with their work and tries to make them do it again. The artisans refuse, and leave promising that their new client, the Duke's brother, will have a more splendid house than the one they have just finished. In the forest they are waylaid and blinded by the Grand Duke's henchmen, leaving them incapable of practicing their craft. Back at the church, Andrei is dismayed by the news of the attack on the artisans and angrily throws paint on one of the walls. Sergei (Vladimir Titov), a young apprentice who escaped the assault unharmed, reads a random section of the bible aloud, at Daniil's request, concerning women. A young woman, Durochka (Irma Raush), whose name identifies her as a holy fool, or Yurodivy, wanders in to take shelter from the rain and is upset by the sight of the paint on the wall. Her feeble mindedness and innocence inspires in Andrei the idea to paint a feast.

While the Grand Duke is away in Lithuania, his power hungry younger brother forms an allegiance with a group of Tatars and raids Vladimir. The invasion of the combined armed forces, their men on horseback, results in great carnage and the burning of the city. One scene shows a horse falling from a flight of stairs. Foma escapes the chaos in the city and goes into the nearby countryside, but as he is crossing a river he is killed by an arrow. The Tatars force their way into the barricaded church, now fully decorated with Andrei's paintings, where the majority of the citizens have taken refuge. Showing no mercy, the Tatars massacre the people and burn all the painted wooden altarpieces. Andrei, who is also in the church, saves Durochka from being raped by a Russian soldier by killing him with an axe. The bishop's messenger Patrikei is also present; he is tortured, but refuses to reveal the location of the city's gold. Eventually the Tatars kill him by pouring hot liquid metal from a melted crucifix into his mouth. In the aftermath only Andrei and Durochka are left alive in the church. Andrei imagines a conversation with the dead Theophanes the Greek, lamenting the loss of his work and the cruelty of mankind, while Durochka distractedly plaits the hair of a dead woman. Andrei decides to give up painting and takes a vow of silence to atone for his killing of another man.

This episode concerns young Boriska, whose father, an expert bellmaker, has recently died in a plague. He secures a commission for a bell from the Grand Duke, claiming that he has peerless technical knowledge learned at his father's deathbed. On site, Boriska constantly contradicts and challenges his father's old team of workmen, having his own way in choosing the location of the pit, the selection of the proper clay, the building of the mold, the firing of the furnaces and finally the hoisting of the bell. One worker who refuses his orders is flogged in punishment. Beneath his bold demeanour, Boriska is increasingly bothered by self doubt. He notices Andrei among the crowd of spectators. During the bell making, Andrei is confronted by the skomorokh from the first sequence, who has endured imprisonment and torture and suspects Andrei of having denounced him. Kirill, the true culprit, arrives and intervenes on behalf of the silent Andrei. Later he privately confesses to Andrei that his sinful envy dissipated once he heard Andrei had abandoned painting. He pleads with Andrei to cease wasting his God given artistic talent, but receives no response. The successful progress of the bell sends Boriska into a state of stunned, detached disbelief. He gives fewer orders and lets the work crew take over; as the furnaces are opened and the molten metal pours into the mould, he privately asks God for help. After completion, the bell is hoisted into its tower and blessed by a priest. The Grand Duke attends the ceremony, having threatened to execute Boriska and the work crew if the bell fails to ring. It is overheard that he recently beheaded his own brother for the raid on Vladimir. In the tense moments as the bell is set in motion, Durochka is seen walking through the crowd, leading a horse and preceded by a child which is, presumably, hers. The bell rings perfectly, and she smiles. Boriska, meanwhile, has collapsed. He admits afterward to Andrei that his father never actually told him his bell casting secret. Andrei, impressed by the effect the successful ringing has had on the rejoicing crowd, realizes the joy that his own art might bring. He comforts Boriska, breaking his vow of silence and telling the boy that they should carry on their work together: "You'll cast bells. I'll paint icons." Andrei then sees Durochka, her child and the horse walk off across a muddy field in the distance.

The epilogue is the only part of the film in color and shows time aged, but still vibrant, details of several of Andrei Rublev's actual icons. The icons are shown in the following order: Enthroned Christ, Twelve Apostles, The Annunciation, Twelve Apostles, Jesus entering Jerusalem, Birth of Christ, Enthroned Christ, Transfiguration of Jesus, Resurrection of Lazarus, The Annunciation, Resurrection of Lazarus, Birth of Christ, Trinity, Archangel Michael, Paul the Apostle, The Redeemer. The final scene crossfades from the icons and shows four horses standing by a river in thunder and rain.

In 1961, while working on his first feature film Ivan's Childhood, Tarkovsky made a proposal to Mosfilm for a film on the life of Russia's greatest icon painter, Andrei Rublev. The contract was signed in 1962 and the first treatment was approved in December 1963. Tarkovsky and his co screenwriter Andrei Konchalovsky worked for more than two years on the script, studying medieval writings and chronicles and books on medieval history and art. In April 1964 the script was approved and Tarkovsky began working on the film. Tarkovsky did not intend the film to be a historical or a biographical film about Andrei Rublev. Instead, he was motivated by the idea of showing the connection between a creative character's personality and the times through which he lives. He wanted to show an artist's maturing and the development of his talent. He chose Andrei Rublev for his importance in the history of Russian culture.

Tarkovsky cast Anatoly Solonitsyn for the role of Andrei Rublev. At this time Solonitsyn was an unknown actor at a theater in Sverdlovsk. According to Tarkovsky everybody had a different image of the historical figure of Andrei Rublev, thus casting an unknown actor who would not remind viewers of other roles was his favoured approach. Solonitsyn, who had read the film script in the film magazine Iskusstvo Kino, was very enthusiastic about the role, traveled to Moscow at his own expense to meet Tarkovsky and even declared that no one could play this role better than him. Tarkovsky felt the same, saying that "with Solonitsyn I simply got lucky". For the role of Andrei Rublev he required "a face with great expressive power in which one could see a demoniacal single mindedness". To Tarkovsky, Solonitsyn provided the right physical appearance and the talent of showing complex psychological processes. Solonitsyn would continue to work with the director, appearing in Solaris, Mirror, and Stalker, and in the title role of Tarkovsky's 1976 stage production of Hamlet in Moscow's Lenkom Theatre. Before his death from cancer in 1982, Solonitsyn was also intended to play protagonist Andrei Gorchakov in Tarkovsky's 1983 Italian Russian co production Nostalghia, and to star in a project titled The Witch which Tarkovsky would significantly alter into his final production, The Sacrifice.

According to Johnson, filming did not begin until April 1965, one year after approval of the script, with J. Hoberman reporting an earlier date of September 1964 for the start of filming in his film essay for the Criterion collection release of the film. The initial budget was 1.6 million Rbls, but it was cut several times to one million roubles (In comparison, Sergei Bondarchuk's War and Peace had a budget of eight and half million roubles). As a result of the budget restrictions several scenes from the script were cut, including an opening scene showing the Battle of Kulikovo. Other scenes that were cut from the script are a hunting scene, where the younger brother of the Grand Duke hunts swans, and a scene showing peasants helping Durochka giving birth to her Russian Tatar child. Tarkovsky chose to shoot the main film in black and white and the epilogue, showing some of Rublev's icons, in color. In an interview he motivated his choice with the claim that in everyday life one does not consciously notice colors. Consequently, Rublev's life is in black and white, whereas his art is in color. The film was thus able to express the co dependence of an artist's art and his personal life. In a 1969 interview, Tarkovsky stated that the flying man in the prologue is "the symbol of daring, in the sense that creation requires from man the complete offering of his being. Whether one wishes to fly before it has become possible, or cast a bell without having learned how to do it, or paint an icon – all these acts demand that, for the price of his creation, man should die, dissolve himself in his work, give himself entirely." The color sequence of Rublev's icons begins with showing only selected details, climaxing in Rublev's most famous icon, The Trinity. One reason for including this color finale was, according to Tarkovsky, to give the viewer some rest and to allow him to detach himself from Rublev's life and to reflect. The film finally ends with the image of horses at river in the rain. To Tarkovsky horses symbolized life, and including horses in the final scene (and in many other scenes in the film) meant that life was the source of all of Rublev's art. After Tarkovsky completed this first version, it would be five years before the film was widely released in the Soviet Union. The ministry's demands for cuts first resulted in a 190 minute version. Despite Tarkovsky's objections expressed in a letter to Alexey Romanov, the chairman of Goskino, the ministry demanded further cuts, and Tarkovsky trimmed the length to 186 minutes. Robert Bird in his analysis of the comparison of the first cut of the film to the final Tarkovsky cut of the edited film summarized the editing process stating: "The most conspicuous cuts were the most graphic shots of the stonemasons' gouged out eyes, the burning cow, and the horse being lanced (although its horrific fall remained). Four embedded scenes of flashbacks or fantasies were also cut completely: Foma's fantasy of flight in episode two, Andrei's reminiscence of the three monks under a rain soaked oak tree in episode four, the younger prince's fantasy of humiliating the Grand Duke in episode five, and Boriska's recollection of the bellfounding in episode seven. All in all, I have counted thirty six shots which were completely deleted in the 185 minute version of Andrei Rublev, and about eighty five which were considerably abbreviated, including nine very long takes which are split each into two or more parts. The total number of shots went from 403 to 390, with the average shot length dropping from 31" to 28". The only sequence which remained inviolable was the Epilogue in color."

Several scenes within the film depict violence, torture, and cruelty toward animals, which sparked controversy at the time of release. Most of these scenes took place during the raid of Vladimir, including one showing the blinding and the torture of a monk. The scenes involving cruelty toward animals were largely simulated. For example, during the Tatar raid of Vladimir a cow is set on fire. In reality the cow had an asbestos covered coat and was not physically harmed; however, one scene depicts the real death of a horse. The horse falls from a flight of stairs and is then stabbed by a spear. In a 1967 interview for Literaturnoe obozrenie, interviewer Aleksandr Lipkov suggested to Tarkovsky that "the cruelty in the film is shown precisely to shock and stun the viewers. And this may even repel them." In an attempt to downplay the cruelty Tarkovsky responded: "No, I don't agree. This does not hinder viewer perception. Moreover we did all this quite sensitively. I can name films that show much more cruel things, compared to which ours looks quite modest." In February 1967, Tarkovsky and Alexei Romanov complained that the film was not yet approved for a wide release but refused to cut further scenes from the film. When the film was released, Tarkovsky remarked in his diary that in the entire city not a single poster for the film could be seen but that all theaters were sold out.

In 1973, the film was shown on Soviet television in a 101 minute version that Tarkovsky did not authorize. Notable scenes that were cut from this version were the raid of the Tatars and the scene showing naked pagans. The epilogue showing details of Andrei Rublev's icons was in black and white as the Soviet Union had not yet fully transitioned to color TV. In 1987, when Andrei Rublev was once again shown on Soviet TV, the epilogue was once again in black and white, despite the Soviet Union having completely transitioned to color TV. Another difference from the original version of the film was the inclusion of a short explanatory note at the beginning of the film, detailing the life of Andrei Rublev and the historical background. When the film was released in the U. S. and other countries in 1973, the distributor Columbia Pictures cut it by an additional 20 minutes, making the film an incoherent mess in the eyes of many critics and leading to unfavorable reviews. Criterion's producer of the project stated that the video transfer was sourced from a film print that filmmaker Martin Scorsese had acquired while visiting Russia. Criterion released both the first and final cut of the film on DVD and Blu ray in September 2018.

Andrei Rublev has an approval rating of 95% on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 43 reviews, and an average rating of 8.9/10. The website's critical consensus states, "Andrei Rublev is a cerebral epic that filters challenging ideas through a grand scope forming a moving thesis on art, faith, and the sweep of history". J. Hoberman, a film critic for The Village Voice, summarized the early reception of the film in the film notes included in the Criterion DVD release of the film stating: "Two years later (in 1973), Rublev surfaced at the New York Film Festival, cut another 20 minutes by its American distributor, Columbia Pictures. Time (magazine) compared the movie unfavorably to Dr. Zhivago; those other New York reviewers who took note begged off explication, citing Rublev's apparent truncation." The film is referenced in Tarkovsky's two films that followed this one. It is first referenced in Solaris, made in 1972, by having an icon by Andrei Rublev being placed in the main character's room. It is next referenced by having a poster of the film being hung on a wall in Mirror, made in 1975. In 1995, The Vatican placed Andrei Rublev on their list of 45 "great films". The Village Voice ranked the film at number 112 in its Top 250 "Best Films of the Century" list in 1999, based on a poll of critics. The film was Voted at No. 77 on the list of "100 Greatest Films" by the prominent French magazine Cahiers du cinéma in 2008. In 2010, Andrei Rublev tied for second in a U. K. newspaper series of the "Greatest Films of All Time" as voted by critics from The Guardian and The Observer. Also in 2010, the film topped the list of The Guardian's 25 Best arthouse films of all time. Also in 2010, the Toronto International Film Festival released its "Essential 100" list of films in which Andrei Rublev also placed No. 87. In 2011, director Joanna Hogg listed it as a film that changed her life. In the 2012 Sight & Sound polls, it was ranked the 26th greatest film ever made in the critics' poll and 13th in the directors' poll. In the earlier 2002 version of the list the film ranked 35th among critics and 24th among directors. In Critics poll by the same magazine it ranked 11th and 24th in 1982 and 1992 respectively. In 2018 the film ranked at number 40 on the BBC's list of the 100 greatest foreign language films, as voted on by 209 film critics from 43 countries.