Andrei Rublev

By Geoff Richards, 2005 May 5 at 19:00

I went to see this film last night. It's long, dark, and complicated, but a brilliant work of art.

Last night I watched the film Andrei Rublev, made in 1966 by the Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky. It's a fictional account of the life of a real historical figure: the Russian monk and icon painter Andrei Rublev.

A black and white photograph showing men sitting on horses and wearing fur hats. A young man is in front of them and appears to be standing on lower ground. A rope or chain crosses the frame and goes into the distance through the horses.

Thanks to the Leeds Film Festival guys for showing this as part of their new ‘Leeds Film Quarter’ programme.

The film is quite dark, and at just over 3 hours long it's a challenge to watch. Having had a tiring day I found myself almost dozing off a few times, but every time I shook myself awake I thought “wow, I'm not sure what's going on here, but it's a beautiful shot.”

The whole film is stuffed full of stunning cinematography and memorable imagery. For some reason a bit that stuck in my mind was a shot of a flask of milk (I think) draining away into a river. And the whole of the last part, about the making of a very large church bell, got my hackerish side interested.

The whole film is in black and white, until right at the end when, to some wonderful choral music, it fades into colour and the camera pans teasingly over some of the real Rublev's paintings.

Painting in which three figures are seated around a white table, on which rests a gold cup containing something red. The figures have haloes and golden wings, and are holding what look like long thin red staves. They are dressed in robes in creamy white and dark blue. Part of the central figure's robe is red.

Here are a couple of more detailed analyses of the film by people who seem to know what they're talking about:

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