Andrei Rublev - Criterion Collection

Starring:Anatoli Solonitsyn, Ivan Lapikov, Nikolai Grinko, Nikolai Sergeyev, Irma Raush, Nikolai Burlyayev, Yuri Nazarov, Yuri Nikulin, Rolan Bykov, Nikolai Grabbe, Mikhail Kononov, Stepan Krylov (II), Stepan Krylov, Irina Miroshnichenko, Bolot Bejshenaliyev, A. Umuraliyev, B. Matysik, P. Radolitskaya, E. Borisovsky, Muratbek Ryskulov
Director: Andrei Tarkovsky
Studio: Criterion
Product Type: DVD

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At last, the complete version of Andrei Tarkovski's 1966 masterpiece about the great 15th century Russian icon painter (a film suppressed by the Soviet Union and unseen until 1971) is available. It's a complex and demanding narrative about the responsibility of the artist to participate in history rather than documenting it from a safe distance. A landmark in Russian cinema, Andrei Rublev is a beautifully lyrical black-and-white film about harmony and soulful expression. As the late filmmaker says in a supplementary interview, each generation must experience life for itself; it cannot simply absorb what has preceded it. In fact, a whole host of supplements accompanies the film in this Criterion Collection release. Stick with it; it's worth the effort. --Bill Desowitz

Description

Immediately suppressed by the Soviets in 1966, Andrei Tarkovsky's epic masterpiece is a sweeping medieval tale of Russia's greatest icon painter. Too experimental, too frightening, too violent, and too politically complicated to be released officially, Andrei Rublev has existed only in shortened, censored versions until the Criterion Collection created this complete 205-minute director's cut special edition, now available for the first time on DVD.

Customer Reviews:

Dreary, hard to watch. .......2007-04-07

Given high acclaims this film has collected over time, I was glad to pick up a VHS copy at my local library sale. Began to watch it last night. I was able to sit thru the part 1. When the tape ended, I was actually glad. I felt a sense of acomplishment in finishing the part 1! The movie is DREARY to the max. People portrayed are irrational, lost, uncommunicative, and subject to random and cruel violence by soldiers and rulers. In some way, this movie reminded me of the dreary winter (lasting 6 months!) I spent in Russia a couple of years ago...

To me, the movie reflects the psychological breakdown that happened after the decades long terror policy of Soviet state (1920-1956). For survivors, nothing made any sense anymore, except perhaps fear and evil, as people in this dreary film reflects. People have been already destroyed in their souls. They are psychologically shattered beyond repair and only occasional readings of the Bible verses give them any sense of permanence in their chaotic daily experience.

Maybe that is the real meaning of this movie. To really reflect what happened to people's psyche after Lenin and Stalin's UNLIMITED TERROR, they found a parallel in Mongol's devastation and oppression of medieval Russia. In both cases, people were left shattered, helpless, irrational, withdrawn, and autistic.

Tarkovsky's Archetypal Imagery.......2007-02-19

I suppose it's a tribute, to the profound strength, of Tarkovsky's Imagery, that they stayed in my mind, for about 3, or 4 years. During this span of time, various images, from the movie "Andrei Rublev" would keep rising from the depths of my psyche. Some stressful event would occur, in my life, and images, from that strange movie, that I had seen, would automatically arise.

I just happened to run across a showing of "Andrei Rublev", on one of those "artsy" cable channels, given to foreign films... I think it was "The Sundance Channel". Through the years, I had forgotten the name of the movie. It was just, recently, within the last month, that I really started to search for the movie.

One of the outstanding images captures the sheer terror, and helplessness, of being in Medieval Russia, during the invasion of Tator, or Mongol Tribes (this distinction is not clear).

The images unwind, in dreamlike fashion, and Tarkovsky leaves us to our own inner meanings. There is the eternal battle, of good v.s. evil. There is the misery of the downtrodden, then, the triumph of the human spirit. In the end, I think we gain a new appreciation, of the human need, for ritual, and iconic imagery, found in all civilizations. Upon these images we infuse our hopes, our dreams, and the very future of humanity.

An Antti Keisala Comment: He That Dwelleth in the Secret Place of the Most High.......2007-01-01

I have spent my time watching films, and along the way moulded a way of thinking about cinema; it has become a way of enriching my life more than just in the function of entertainment and passing time; indeed, it has driven me to discover things about myself and about the surrounding world, and it has urged me to create my own film cosmologies to make sense. And each time I come full circle, it all ends here, in this film. And it all starts here.

Considering you are here reading about a Tarkovsky film, it's likely that you might already know this and that. You might know the common words to describe his work such as 'transcendental', 'spiritual' and such. My own logic of film, sort of a chain of irrationalities, is a mix of some Kabbalah, Kierkegaard and Nietzsche, with all sorts of things meshing and clashing in between. So I think of cinema in highly subjective terms, truth be told; I dare say these writings are most likely useless to most, but I guess there is an urge in each of us to participate in creating ourselves. This I shall elaborate further in time.

In common language things like spirituality mean not much, but in subjective worlds they become uplifting terms, something that brings a strange, abstract clarity to your thoughts. But when we put these feelings and theories to words, the words themselves seem meaningless and unable to contain any of the original thought. The words themselves become graveyards of thought. Yet the fascinating and rewarding paradox is that half the fun in watching cinema is thinking and rewinding them and writing about them afterwards.

So is it any wonder that I begin my task, whatever that may be, from the film that in itself transcends all description, in my weary words? What is so fascinating about Tarkovsky is that he reaches so far, goes so beyond us in images that we cannot no longer comprehend the emotions in a way that would be comprehensive to another human being. His films, and especially this one, then 'Mirror', 'Nostalghia' and then 'Solaris' (in this order) transcend any possible way to categorise them, but they open infinite possibilities not only to the film at hand but to life itself: existential cinema so profoundly it makes the word itself useless.

And there is the question why to write? I am, as many people are, building a whole life, a 'visual' personality upon the best of cinema, so in a way watching films isn't only about being the viewer--it is also about being actively involved in the process of viewing, and in many ways we become so enchanted in the film that we find a place from within, from a character or a situation. And in Tarkovsky's world we find a place for ourselves in the camera, which slowly unfolds all sorts of cosmic doors (another graveyard of a word). And it doesn't only move, it lingers. And it lingers all the way to our souls. (I use the plural to make you a participant as well)

I don't think we can share too much of an experience, especially when they become as deep as they can. Thus a film looks never the same to two pairs of eyes, as I also think that a film seems different every single time we watch it again. So it is with 'Rublev': it has changed just as I have changed, and it has become more of a mirror into my soul than anything else. This is one of the functions of a great film, that they become so integral to our lives that we take it as being part of ourselves. Perhaps, I have none other a function or motif to give for my writings, I could say that I could handle these comments as a diary, a way to reveal something of an anonymous self in virtual space through an experience that might be completely incomprehensible to some, yet familiar to others.

And I believe in an abstract place in our minds which I call visual cognition. I use it to describe a sort of an empty space in the borders of our conscious mind, a white space, infinitely expansive, to which the greatest films can lead us, giving us a broader visual imagination in all ways imaginable. And this film is one of those. In fact, as any other self-respecting Amazon and IMDb user, I too have all sorts of lists and categories to enrich my life with, and as the most precious of them, a sort of a best of list, which I call 'Nero-Antico', or 'The Cinematic Sublime'. This film is on that list, obviously. I don't know any deeper experiences in cinematic realms.

As for the DVD, Criterion bodes for excellence, and this release really must have been a revelation; but please do consider that this is a 1999 release, a 200 minutes long film on a single disk. And most importantly, it's not anamorphic. So basically you have a few choices, at least until the dream of every Tarkovsky fan comes true, an Andrei Rublev DVD box-set. Highbrow fantasy, you say. Comedy, at least.

So, your choices. If you're not already aware, there are several versions of the film that have been travelling the world for the last 40 years. The two versions nowadays are the version 180 and 200 minutes in length. This edition at hand is the only edition that gives you the longer version and offers you a chance to look at the film as it was in 1966, three years before it was trimmed down by Tarkovsky into the three-hour shape it nowadays embraces the DVD editions. So basically you aren't buying exactly the same film if you opt for the R2 Artificial Eye release; the AE is the three-hour version, although anamorphic. The jury is out whether it is that much better a transfer.

I have seen both versions, yet I do not own the shorter one. It isn't worse; in fact, it could be the version Tarkovsky was happier in the end, although this could the talk of a politician. It isn't about the quality of the film, but about the resources you have in your disposal. For North American buyers the Criterion shouldn't be that much of a brainer, and if you are a European seriously thinking of purcashing a Criterion Collection DVD, you are likely deeper into these things than where I'm coming from.

There isn't yet really a DVD release truly worthy of the film itself, so the definitive edition should be a possible Criterion re-issue. And of course even more so if it was to include both versions. But for now we must go with what's given.

Holy........2006-09-19

Like the review I just read, Tarkovskies' ANDRE RUBLEV is the movie that I keep coming back to over the years. It is my favorite film and has been until something as special comes along.
More than any filmmaker in any country, in any language, this movie has imparted and impressed it's viewpoint into my perception. I have incorporated it into my vision. I resonate with it... It plays me like a bell.
It is not an entertainment really though much of it is entertaining. This film transcends both entertainment and mere artistic success - the images and themes are so spiritually charged and archetypically strong that one may have the sense while watching it, that he or she is remembering half forgotten dreams.
Like the person whose review I just read, I often pause in simple wonder after a chapter just to let it ring.
The film chronicles the life and spiritual development of Russian artist, Icon painter
Andre Rublev. The epic unfolds in 6 chapters the last of which introduces another artist, a young Church bell maker. The chapter reveals aspects and components of the creative process both literally and in allegory ...one senses that the filmmaker Tarkovsy and the young bell-maker may have a great deal in common and that he may have written himself into this section....this last chapter "Spring" is shot through with a narrative vitality, an energetic quality to the expression that is simply colossal - there is a joy in the unfolding and discovery of this bell-makers own creative powers...all of which is witnessed by the aging jaded Andre Rublev who is, as a witness, transformed by what he sees, as will be anyone who has eyes to see and apprehend the naked wonder of this last chapter.

Andre Tarkovsky made this film in what used to be the USSR during a period of rigid and scrutinizing censorship. He used the artistic restraints and the hoops he had to jump through to a brilliant advantage carefully codifying individual artistic and spiritual themes into the chapters of this epic. The constraints seem to have served to discipline and streamline the narrative...the result is golden ...more truth per foot of film than any I can compare it to.
I saw it first on video in college in a russian art history class, later bought the dvd, and more recently attended a screening at Disney Studios that colleague was given the invite to but couldn't make. I brought someone who just didn't get it.
Tarkovsy is not for everyone though you should give yourself the benefit of the doubt because, if he IS for you, you may very well be changed and touched and rewarded again and again by this truly timeless gem.

The Long Journey of an Artist.......2006-08-03

Andrei Rublyov (1969) by Andrei Tarkovsky is my number 1 (shares with Tarkovsky's Zerkalo) film of all time. It is a pinnacle of film-making for me - one of few most visually beautiful films as well as one of the deepest films ever. The beauty of every frame is exquisite - I have to pause film very often just to admire it.There are only couple of more films that have touched me as profoundly as Andrei Rublyov did. I am always surprised to hear that it is very slow film - for Tarkovsky, it is very well paced, and I am never tired of its 3+ hours running time.

Film based on life of the 15-th century monk and icon painter Andrei Rublyov who wanders through the country torn by barbarism, and later by Tatar invaders. Tarkovsky explores several very important topics in his film: what is talent and how an Artist is responsible for it? The Man and God, the Artist and the Power.

The final 20 minutes of the film are the best and most inspiring I've seen in the cinema. For me, the last chapter of the film, "The Bell" is perhaps the greatest in its emotional impact piece of cinema ever made. I can't stay calm and collected when I see it. Boriska sobbing like a child after his Bell rings - and he is a child, a boy, lonely and lost; Andrei breaking his vows of silence, his words to Boriska of hope, of many roads they would walk together. Andrei's icons that we are finally allowed to behold and admire, their breathtaking divine beauty and serenity, their melodic lines and pure joyful colors, the faces of the saints and angels with their eternal mystery, quiet knowledge and sadness, looking inside themselves and inside our very souls; the music that literally takes you somewhere above this Earth, to the heights of such purity and beauty that you could hardly breath and where even the "swiftest birds" of pain and death can't reach you...

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