Andrei Tarkovsky, Andrei Rublev (USSR, 1966; 183 minutes)

‘For us the story of Rublev is really the story of a “taught” or imposed concept which burns up in the atmosphere of living reality to rise again from the ashes as a fresh and newly discovered truth.’ So wrote Andrei Tarkovsky (1932–1986) about Andrei Rublev in his book Sculpting in Time, in which he set down his memories and thoughts on cinema. Little is known about the real Andrei Rublev (c.1360/70–c.1430), perhaps the most renowned Russian icon painter. Only a single icon can be credited to him with certainty: the famous Old Testament Trinity, which depicts the three angels who visited Abraham in Genesis 18.1–8. Some sparse contemporary sources record that Rublev collaborated in the decoration of, among others, the Cathedral of the Annunciation in the Moscow Kremlin (1405), the Cathedral of the Dormition in Vladimir (1408), and the Cathedral at Andronikov Monastery (c.1410s). Tarkovsky was not deterred by this paucity of details. He wanted the film to be ‘contemporary not only in the completely contemporary resonance of its main issue’. The director did not mean to persuade the viewers that the action was taking place in the fifteenth century, and he intended to mix (at least in his view) the ‘neutrality of interiors and of costumes’ with their ‘utter authenticity’ – neutrality which, added to contemporary speech, would ‘help us to speak of what is most important without getting distracted’. What is ‘most important’ is not only the role of the artist, but the fact that during Rublev’s lifetime Russia was entering the beginning of the end of almost two hundred years of Tatar domination as well, something which is also very much present in the film.

The most explicit quotation from painting in the film is, it has been pointed out, by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c.1525/30–1569). Both Tarkovksy and Bruegel use active backgrounds within a full frame: the foreground action may become subordinated to what is occurring in the background, or it may turn into a background through the emergence of a new foreground. This is very much present in the ‘Russian Calvary’ sequence, with its crucifixion scene (the working title of the film was The Passion According to Andrei, as a possible allusion to Tarkovsky’s favourite composer, J. S. Bach [1685–1750], and also possibly to confirm the film as ‘national epic’, given the fact that, according to legend, Christ’s disciple St Andrew had visited Russia). What is particularly interesting about this sequence is that the inscription on the board which is nailed to the Cross reads ‘Jesus Christ, the Crucifixion of Our Lord’ – which does not correspond to the Gospel, but to the inscriptions on Orthodox icons of the event. In short, this cinematic ‘vision’ is of the traditional representation of the crucifixion as icon. Further details, such as the strange-looking angels and the uncharacteristically melodramatic acting, seem to confirm the genesis of this sequence as being in the spirit of icon-painting: here it is the film director who substitutes ‘the test of different representational models’ for the simple copy of established models, experiencing them ‘as his own life and as tests of vision’ in order ‘to give rise to a true image’. This spirit may well be present in the whole film. The opening quotation from Tarkovsky in this commentary sums it up. The whole narrative leads the viewer to the final scenes of the film, which show close-ups of Rublev’s icons. Tarkovsky chose to shoot these last ten minutes in colour (the last scene in black-and-white shows, surely not by chance, a close-up of the flickering embers of a fire, which again reminds us of the director’s quotation). The icons are The Old Testament Trinity, The Transfiguration, The Entry into Jerusalem, The Nativity, The Raising of Lazarus, The Baptism of Christ, The Annunciation, and The Saviour in the Wood.

 

Part of the Medieval Film Club, for more information go to the website.

This screening is open to all and free to attend. No booking required.

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