A.K.A.: Andrey
Rublyov
Country: U.S.S.R.
Genre(s): Drama /
Epic
Director: Andrey
Tarkovsky
Cast: Anatoliy
Solonitsyn / Nikolay Burlyaev / Ivan Lapikov
Plot
Russian painter and
monk Andrei Rublev struggles to reconcile his religious faith with his creative
gifts and the horrors of life in the Middle Ages.
What I Liked
Director Andrey
Tarkovsky gives us an epic portrait of the fickle and sometimes torturous
nature of creative genius with this strange but fascinating fictionalization of
the life of a Russian Saint. Though it
lacks conventional dramatic structure, the movie manages to keep the viewers’
attention with a mysterious and melancholy tone. Shot in grainy black and white, the use of
barren lightness, enchanting darkness, and haunted grey tones somehow captures
a strange beauty underlying a grim Russia made cold by death, superstition, and
struggle. The film’s protagonist, Andrei
Rublev travels through this world as a sensitive observer, grasping through the
darkness to grab hold of that beauty but unable to capture it. He witnesses the pain of his people, the depravity
of man, and begins to wonder if man has betrayed God or vice versa. Anatoliy Solonitsyn gives a moving
performance as the painter monk, subtly portraying the burdens and guilt which
living presents for Rublev.
Rublev’s struggle has
accurately been seen by observers as a self-portrait by director Tarkovsky, the
fifteenth century artist’s dismay at the state of Russia and his fellow Russians
filling in for the twentieth century director’s own feelings about the Soviet
Union and his fellow Soviets. Naturally,
the Soviet censors did not appreciate Tarkovsky’s analogy. They correctly took the film’s unconventional
storytelling, obscure subject, unclear motives, and religious symbolism as a
potential threat to their control and long delayed its release. When it finally was released in the U.S.S.R.,
it was in a badly butchered version. I
have a love for art of dissent, so naturally that history endeared the film to
me somewhat.
What I Didn’t Like
A strange movie to say the least, this movie’s
unconventional story can prove a challenge.
While there is clearly meaning to the madness and something of a plot is
still discernible, one’s attention span is forced to focus on mood and
metaphor, rather than story. In some
ways, this is a refreshing perspective.
After all, does real life actually confine itself to the rules of
storytelling? No. Rather, the human mind fashion stories out of
the formless reality. Thus Tarkovsky
presents us with a much more true-to-life depiction than we want to
admit. Nevertheless, that doesn’t make
the movie any easier to take in, particularly at over three hours long.
Most Memorable Scene
The final quarter or
so of the film temporarily departs from Rublev and focusses on the tale of a
teenage boy who escapes the plague by convincing the Prince’s henchmen that he
is a master bell maker. When he takes
the job of making a bell for the Prince, knowing that the results will
determine his fate and those of his people, we are pulling for his bluff to
somehow magically work. Watching the boy
and the others uncover the bell after it is forged and then waiting to hear if
it actually tolls or not is a rare experience of classic, movie-going suspense
in the film. The moment also doubles as
a metaphoric coda for a film largely about faith.
My Rating: 4 out of 5
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