Andrei Rublyov | Andrei Rublev | Страсти по Андрею | Андрей Рублев (1966)

Synopsis

Using long, mobile shots to invest his stark, brooding landscapes with an almost mystical power, Russian master Andrei Tarkovsky has been a direct influence on such major contemporary filmmakers as Béla Tarr, Theo Angelopoulos, Alexander Sokurov, and Nuri Bilge Ceylan.

Unreleased in the Soviet Union for years after its completion due to its advocacy of artistic freedom and deeply felt spirituality, Andrei Rublev, a sprawling historical epic of a medieval Russia riven by civil wars and the pillages of invading Tatar armies, was the crystallization of Tarkovsky's distinctive style.



Following the famed 15th-century icon painter through the brutal yet beautiful world that gives him the inspiration for his art, Tarkovsky makes the past as mysterious and otherworldly as the speculative futures of his later sci-fi masterpieces Solaris and Stalker, an ethereal land of both terror and revelation.

Because of the films's religious themes and political ambiguity, Andrei Rublev was unreleased in the atheistic and authoritarian Soviet Union for years after it was completed, except for a single screening in Moscow.



A cut 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 release in the US in 1973. Because of this several versions of the film exist. Today Andrei Rublev is widely regarded as a masterpiece and one of Tarkovsky's best works. (Wikipedia)



Cinematography: Vadim Yusov

Cast: Anatoli Solonitsyn, Ivan Lapikov, Nikolai Grinko, Nikolai Sergeyev, Irma Raush, Nikolai Burlyayev, Yuri Nazarov, Yuri Nikulin, Rolan Bykov, Mikhail Kononov, Stepan Krylov, Irina Miroshnichenko, Bolot Bejshenaliyev

Read about this film

Country: Soviet Union
Language: Russian | Italian
Color: Black and White | Color
Runtime: 205 min.