![]() ![]() A man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God but the woman is the glory of man. “If a woman does not cover her head, she should have her hair cut off and if it is a disgrace for a woman to have her hair cut or shaved off, she should cover her head. Inside the bare cathedral, an apprentice reads 1 Corinthians 11 while the mute girl Durochka, a “holy fool” with long blond hair, watches in fascination: He feels he cannot complete his commission to paint the cathedral because it would require an image of the Last Judgment to terrify the people. Observing these events, Rublev develops a populist and antinomian Orthodox theology. (Compare Natascha’s dance in War and Peace.) In several scenes, they are cruelly crushed by Russian nobles, Tatars, or a conspiracy of both. In several key scenes, the Russian folk are shown in authentic rituals or celebrations–enjoying a jester mocking the Boyar nobility, enacting the Passion of Christ, or engaging in a midnight pagan orgy. Back outside, we see the dead man’s bloody body. They discuss the project that will involve Rublev and become his masterpiece. The artist-monk Kirill walks past this execution and into the cool interior of a church, where he meets another icon-painter, Theophanes the Greek. The second third major scene opens with a man being tortured in the public square as someone cries out that he might be innocent. The balloon-ride appears to be a stunt that fails, whereas the bell is a spiritual and aesthetic success accomplished by the people, working together. The balloon and the bell have similar sizes, shapes, and trajectories. It closely resembles the great bell that is cast in the final scenes of the film–for the same cathedral–and raised from its subterranean mold across the river to the belfry. Although the balloon is anachronistic, it looks suitably medieval. Some people help him while others try to bring him down. In the opening scene, a man makes a solo hot-air balloon ride, rising next to an unfinished Orthodox cathedral and then across a river dotted by small boats. Tarkovsky seems content to present life in the confusing way that it actually unfolds. ![]() That task is easier in a written text, because narrators typically use names and may inform us when we have already encountered a given character. Maybe it was just me, but I found it challenging to keep track of individuals from one scene to another. Despite being the moral focus of the film, he is on screen not much more than three other monks. Tarkovsky uses many long takes, panoramic shots, and set-pieces in which the actors are positioned like figures on a stage or in a painting. ![]() The landscape often looks like an environmental catastrophe. The people are beset by Tatars, oppressive rulers, and plagues. The setting is Russia in the first decade of the 1400s. Here are some notes that don’t duplicate anything I can find in English on the Internet. In the Guardian, Steve Rose called Andrei Rublev by Andrei Tarkovsky (1966) “the best arthouse film of all time.” When I had a day alone recently, I watched its three hours. ![]()
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