Andrei Rublev (1969)
Director: Andrei Tarkovsky
This Soviet-era Russian epic, which made Andrei Tarkovsky’s international reputation, dramatises episodes in the life and times of a medieval monk with a gift for painting icons. Uniquely among artist biopics, there are no scenes of the hero at the easel and we don’t see his work — in radiant colour after three hours of black-and-white — until the very end of the film. Indeed, Rublev (Anatoli Solonitsyn) tends to fade into the bearded, weatherbeaten crowd (for much of the running time he’s under a vow of silence) as various holy fools command attention. If Tarkovsky’s intense argument about God, talent and the human condition is as chilly as the steppes, the pre-CGI widescreen spectacle, depicting crowds of people and animals, is often breathtaking: the screen fills with Kurosawa-like action as Tartars sack a cathedral or a mad waif bosses a more experienced crew as they forge a church bell. Read Review