Andrei Rublev
Happy to be bringing you another people’s pick today, it’s been a while, but I am hoping to make them more regular as they are my favorites! My brother in law, Mark, inspires me so much with how he relates to and observes film… he is a true student of the medium! I love to hear about what he is watching and talking movies with him. To take it a step further and get his help on this weeks newsletter was so nice— I hope you enjoy his thoughtful answers as much as I did :-)
Andrei Rublev tells the story of a 15th century Russian painter of Christian icons through a series of vignettes that he is at the center of or just passes through. Tarkovsky crafts a portrait of a brilliant artist, creating as his religious practice, contributing his talent to the elevation of public spaces of worship. You see the prevailing themes of the time, in all their darkness— violence, greed, envy, “sins”— sprawled out in grand scenes. Rublev’s sensibilities stand apart from this, and yet he gets mired in it all the same. This movie is really hard to describe, there is a subtlety to the performances that requires a kind of “feeling along” with the characters.
It is a challenging film, and I think Mark has a better handle on it… read on.
A Question & Answer with filmmaker Mark Perry
What makes Andrei Rublev stand out as a favorite film?
I often consider geniuses to be people who’s ideas I can’t fathom. David Lynch comes to mind as a cinematic genius. His film Lost Highway and series Twin Peaks: The Return seem to be ungodly achievements in cinematic art and the ideas seem so foreign, so inspired but somehow intuitive. Yet, Lynch has some base in film that I understand. His edits, performances, shot composition, and some of the tools he uses to create his haunting tone I can see how he achieved. But Andrei Tarkovsky is something different. As someone who thinks they have “some” knowledge about movies, Tarkovsky seems to be from another world. I watch his films captivated in quiet disbelief, my analysis flowing out hours later after coming back to reality. I chose Andrei Rublev to talk about in particular because of my total lack of understanding of it. It was so incredible, I needed someone else to see it so I could talk at them for hours about how much it made me feel.
What do you find visually compelling about it?
What isn’t visually compelling about Andrei Rublev? First of all, the set pieces in this film are breathtaking. The most notable being the creation of a massive bell which takes up the back quarter of the film. It is an astonishing, ever-evolving, functional contraption that bests even the oil rig in There Will Be Blood. Secondly, this film was only the director’s second feature and it lays the foundation for Tarkovsky’s dreamlike feel that would persist through the rest of his films. The camera is constantly flowing, the locations are often barren and laden with fog, and sometimes are wholly kinetic. It’s nearly impossible to describe but it feels uncanny, like a memory. On a film technique level, I don’t think I’ll ever understand how this feeling was achieved. As Ingmar Bergman said, “Tarkovsky is for me the greatest, the one who invented a new language, true to the nature of film, as it captures life as a reflection, life as a dream.” And who am I to disagree?
Is there a memory you connect to watching it?
Hopefully my parents don’t read this. Half my life I’ve been overcoming a painful breakup with Christianity. There are so many negatives I could come up with, but as an artist particularly I found it to be a restriction to run from. I remember seeing this film and feeling like I had truly seen something divine. I remember my world being rocked realizing that Tarkovsky was a deeply religious man who made his movies for the sole purpose of spiritual enlightenment (especially after seeing Stalker and assuming it was a grand atheistic statement). My thinking about the film continued for days and my resentment towards Christianity began to chip away. I was fascinated that someone would make an outwardly religious film that didn’t pander nor fall to the aesthetics of U.S. evangelical culture that I associate with Christianity. It was a film made with the true intention of what I thought creating art should be.
How does watching movies inform your own art making practice?
I find when I watch movies, I pick them apart. I understand them, copy and file their ideas away in my brain to influence the movies I want to make one day. But this film is something different entirely. I simply let it wash over me and take me in its power. It achieves a pure sense of divinity, harkening back to the time when art was meant to spiritually enlighten the creators and those who bore witness. While most art I consume impacts what art I make and want to make in a direct way, Andrei Rublev is a permanent fixture in my head that tells me: I can make whatever I want. There are hundreds of movies that have inspired and changed my perspective on film itself but less than a handful of movies that have changed my life.
As it was set in the middle ages, and mostly humble folk, garments in the film were mostly plain. The hood, seen on Rublev and the other monks though, was the most distinct piece of clothing in the film. I kinda liked it in the same way I seem to gravitate towards funny hats in antique shops. As someone who doesn’t have many hooded garments, I also liked the idea of having something detachable in the same vein as the mid-century examples below.
I had some great wool remnants, beautiful and really thick and cozy, but only enough to make some sort of accessory out of, so it was perfect for this project. I looked at an old pattern to get the gist of the shape to cut out, but did a lot of guessing, trying it on, trimming and resewing. Not quite sure what kind of collar I wanted the hood on, I made it fully round, and then cut away at it as I went… I ended up with a kinda funky shape, a bit like upside down cat ears compared to Rublev’s rabbit ears hanging down, which I think will work both tucked into a coat or making a statement outside of it. If I decide it’s too much of a statement for me when it’s time to wear it out, I can always trim it down and round it out ;). It was funny to put it on today, in the heat of a Tennessee August, but gets the ball rolling on some Fall/Winter sewing ideas.
Big thank you to Mark for his recommendation and to you for reading along! Watch something *medieval-y* and maybe you will join me in this detachable hood look.
You have been wanting a hood like this forever! I can definitely see you wearing it come winter! ❤️