Andrei Rublev

“You’ll be casting bells and I’ll be painting icons” I’m on a Tarkovsky run this week and it’s great. First of all the language barrier was by far the craziest till now. My native language is German so I already have to watch Tarkovsky films with English subtitles, but the old Russian language combined with all the Christian words completely flashed me. I had to search up so many words while watching. But honestly I even liked that because it forced me to think much more about every dialogue and dive way deeper into the themes instead of just following the story. What I love about Andrei Rublev is how it’s built up through many different episodes. Every sequence explores another theme about art, religion or humanity, and together they slowly build Andrei’s journey. I’m a huge fan of movies structured like this because every chapter feels unique while still serving one bigger message. Starting with the prologue, we see a man flying over the world in his homemade balloon before crashing down. I interpreted this as showing how far people are willing to go to reach the limits of their art. They’re willing to risk literally everything just to create something new, and that’s something we keep seeing throughout the whole film. Then comes the jester sequence. He’s entertaining the people until Andrei and the other monks arrive, and shortly after he’s taken away by the authorities. Right from the beginning Tarkovsky shows how art gets suppressed by people in power because free expression is dangerous. Then Andrei meets Theophanes the Greek. This was probably one of my favorite scenes even though it was also one of the hardest for me to fully understand. I’ll definitely rewatch this film just for this conversation because there’s so much to unpack. Theophanes argues that humanity is full of sin and that the world is never gonna change. Andrei completely disagrees. He believes people are much more complicated than that. Good people can do horrible things, bad people can still do good things, and there isn’t one right answer. I love how Tarkovsky never tells us who’s actually right. Then comes the Witch Sabbath, probably my favorite sequence in the whole film. This is the first time Andrei really starts questioning both his religion and his art. During the night he discovers the pagan ritual and instead of running away his curiosity as an artist pulls him right into it. He wants to understand something completely different from his own beliefs. He gets captured, tied up and made fun of until one of the women secretly frees him. She completely questions his religion. Andrei tells her she’s sinful for running around naked, but she asks him if love is really sinful because all she’s doing is loving. I think this scene perfectly shows the duality between religion and love, and neither side is presented as completely right or wrong. Then Andrei arrives at the church he’s supposed to paint, but instead of finding faith and hope he finds hunger, poverty and violence. Once again he starts questioning everything. How is he supposed to paint Heaven when everyone around him is already living in Hell? Then comes the Grand Duke sequence. Andrei is supposed to paint Hell, but he refuses. He asks himself why he should make people fear even more when their everyday lives are already full of fear. This perfectly shows the difference between him and Theophanes. Both are incredible artists but both have completely different ideas about what art should do. Theophanes believes art should remind people of God’s judgement, while Andrei believes art should give people hope. By the end of the first part Andrei is completely lost. He’s stuck in an identity crisis and doesn’t know where to go anymore. The second part starts incredibly strong. One thing I loved is that the film isn’t only about Andrei but also about Russia itself during the 15th century. The Tatar invasion is one of the most horrifying sequences I’ve ever seen, but what makes it even worse is that the Russian prince helps them destroy his own people. Russia itself is divided. My favorite quote from this whole sequence was, “Why, folks? We are Russians too.” I think this one line perfectly sums up everything Tarkovsky wanted to say here. At the end we realize they’re destroying the exact town where Andrei painted the church. Everyone hides inside the church. Of course that could simply be because it’s the safest building, but I also interpreted it symbolically. People hide beneath their religion because they believe it’ll save them. In the end even that isn’t enough. One of my favorite shots in the whole film is when snow starts falling inside the destroyed church. I interpreted this as the barrier between the sacred world and the outside world being completely destroyed. A church is supposed to protect people from the evil outside, but now even that can’t do its job anymore. After Andrei kills a man to save someone else he reaches the absolute lowest point in his life. Even though he saved another person, he still has to live with that sin forever. That’s why he chooses a life of silence. The 1412 chapter perfectly shows what starvation can do to people. The mute girl accepts the Tatar’s offer to become his eighth wife in exchange for food, clothes and safety. Even after Andrei tries to stop her she refuses and even spits in his face. I don’t think Tarkovsky wants us to hate her. I think he’s simply showing that once people are pushed to their absolute limit they stop thinking about ideals and only think about survival. Then comes 1423, which for me has the strongest message in the whole film. The entire chapter asks one simple question: Does art need safety or does it need guts? Boriska is the complete opposite of Andrei. He’s just a young boy who claims his father taught him everything about casting bells, but in the end we find out he never actually knew the secret. So you basically have a boy with almost no knowledge creating art, while Andrei, a master with years of experience, creates nothing. The whole time Andrei keeps watching Boriska because I think he sees himself in him. Boriska risks literally everything for his art without knowing if it’ll work. When the bell finally rings he completely breaks down and admits he never knew the secret. Everything he achieved came from courage and faith. I think that’s the exact moment Andrei finally finds his answer. Art doesn’t need certainty. It needs courage. Sometimes you simply have to create without knowing if it’ll work, and that’s exactly what inspires Andrei to paint again. The final color sequence was the perfect ending. After spending more than three hours in black and white, Tarkovsky finally shows Rublev’s actual paintings in full color. After everything we’ve seen, all the suffering, doubt and destruction, the one thing that survives is art. Andrei Rublev is so much more than just a film about religion. It’s a film about art, faith, history, politics, guilt and what it actually means to create something. Religion is a huge part of it, but it’s only one piece of a much bigger picture. This was honestly such a crazy experience and I loved every second of it. I already know this is one of those films that only gets better with every rewatch.