The Russian filmmaker, Andrei Tarkovsky (1932-1986) was particularly interested in the relationship between art and religious experience. His interest in art and religious experience is illustrated in his feature Andrei Rublev (1966), which is still considered to be one of the greatest achievement in the history of filmmaking. According to Tarkovsky, he believes that art should urge the viewers to question themselves “does ‘God’ exist." “Here this term denotes the core religious experience common to all spiritual efforts: an apprehension of the absolute, the infinite, of Truth or God. In discussing the artistic and thematic ambitions of Andrei Rublev I wish to elucidate the possibility of religious epiphany and, with it, Tarkovsky's own fundamentally Christian assessment of the role of art and artist.” (D’Sa)
Tarkovsky created a movie entitled, “Andrei Rublev” in 1969 that was based on a famous Russian icon painter in the 1400s. The movie is filled with symbols, one symbolizing another to the very end of the movie to methaporically and poetically explain the struggles in Russia. Yet, Andrei Rublev, the famous icon painter was featured in the movie, he had very little scenes. His character in the movie seem to symbolize how Russia copes and struggles through hardship of that time. (Dzenis)
The movie starts off with a man flying on a hot air balloon trying to escape an angry mob. As the man flies off the camera angle changes to a first person view of land, looking down on the land, it symbolizes “God’s” view of the land. Soon the balloon runs out of hot air and crashes like Icuras, the mob rushes in to inspect the wreckage. This little scene about the man flying above the mob and looking down with “God’s” view of the land is the metaphoric works of Andrei Tarkovsky. As confusing as it may sound explaining the scene, some critics commented that Tarkovsky’s work is poetic and artistic. (Gary)
Even though the movie does not recreate the actual events at that time time, there are scenes from the movie that are real. There are a couple of scenes of animal cruelty, where a cow and horse was accidentally killed in the process of making this film, so this movie is not recommended for animal lovers. For an example, a horse fell down a wooden stair case and blood gushing from its throat, crashing down from a wooden staircase, stumbling about in its death throes, followed by a Tatar warrior lancing it through the chest. There is also another scene where a cow was set on fire. The camera crew and director didn’t really mind the deaths of the animal because they kept on shooting the film as the animals die slowly. (Wu)
Near the end of the movie, Andrei Rublev vow to never speak because he lost his inspiration to paint. He stumbles across a group of people making a bell for a newly built church. The man in charge of making the bell was a boy whose father was a bell maker. The boy claims that he knows the secret to bell making. Day after day the boy worked with the crew to make the boy, since he is just a boy; many people had doubts about him knowing the secret to bell making. But at the end, the bell was completed and the bell rang. Even though it was a success the boy broke down into tears because he doesn’t know the secret of bell making, his father did not tell him the secret. Andrei Rublev went over to the sobbing boy and tried to comfort him. As he was trying to comfort the boy, Andrei Rublev broke his vow of silence and has gained confidence in painting his artwork once again. (Tarkovsky *video*)
The movie as a whole is very artistic and deep. Great use of symbols and metaphoric scenes, especially the hot air balloon scene. But as an opinion, I think the movie is very difficult and confusing to people whom first watches the movie. To non-believers and non-artistic people, “Andrei Rublev” is just a movie about art and war.