Excellent, Without a doubt!!

best movie i've ever seen.

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Tarkovsky's magnum opus. Made way back in 1966, the visuals are still awe inspiring. An epic retelling of the life of the painter-monk set in turbulent medieval Russia. Tarkovsky paints Rublev as almost an Christ-like figure who repents for the sins mankind commits and uses themes of artistic freedom, religion, art under authoritarian regime. Controversial at the time of it's release, a strong spiritual movie from the atheistic USSR, today this is an undisputed Masterpiece. Arguably the Russian Auteur's best work.

Andrei Rublev is a celebrated 15th century Russian icon painter. This is a series of vignettes related to his biography. Honestly, I wouldn't have watched it if not for its inclusion in the top 250 list. It's definitely an academic necessity for any film fans. The first part has an adventurer test riding a hot air balloon while a superstitious mob rush to stop him. It's surreal and sets the tone of this movie as an ongoing tragedy. The second part is just as tragic. Andrei and his friends are traveling. They take shelter in a village where they are entertained by a jester. Soldiers arrest him for his dissident material. The third part is where I faded. While the first two parts laid down the tone, it doesn't explain our main characters. By the third part, I lose the thread to these characters. I'm not connecting with them. The movie gets epic in part five. It's definitely big and I think a horse gets killed for real. There are some eye-opening scenes and true devastation. Overall, this movie gives a general feel of the era. It lays out the never-ending Russian tragic sensibility. The missing part is that I lose the characters. I don't feel for them. If Russian cinema is your thing, this one is a must.

This was my second attempt at viewing the movie. I made about an hour into it the first time and turned it off out of sheer boredom. This second go round was no different, but in a concession to my stricture about watching an entire film in order to review and rate it, I soldiered on through a number of sittings. Personally, I can appreciate a reviewer like 'Snoopy' on this board who makes a solid case for why the film is considered a masterpiece, but it's not enough to sway me to change my opinion or see something I might have missed in the first place. The picture and story line are somewhat dense, with little continuity among it's chapters, unless one is forced to make a connection. The one concession I'll make is that director Andrei Tarkovsky did provide an epic overview to his work, but that was more than offset by such indefensible scenes that included a burning cow, a horse falling off a set of stairs, and vicious dogs fighting each other for scraps of food. Maybe it's just something about this particular Russian film maker; I found Tarkovsky's 1979 film "Stalker" to be equally tedious and incoherent, the three minute difference in total run time it's only advantage.

In 1966 Andrei Tarkovsky directed Andrei Rublev, also known as The Passion according to Andrei. The film loosely depicts the life of Andrei Rublev, an early 15th century monk who is renowned as Russia's greatest creator of religious icons and frescoes. Tarkovsky used this historical figure to anchor the film in one of Russia's most tragic period, making Andrei Rublev not only a witness of his Time but also depicting the artist's creation process, the importance of his faith, the Loss of it and more importantly how the two (Art and Faith) can help go through event you can't really grasp or even understand. The complexity of the film as well as the political implications explain why Andreï Rublev was not released in an atheist USSR until 1971 and in a censored version mind you.The film starts with a prologue where we see a man call Yefim taking off from the roof of a church in a hot air balloon and escaping a mob trying to prevent the Take-off. Yefim seems highly exited and delighted by the sight he experiences from the air; but as the air balloon crashes, we understand that elevation in this obscurantist time is not going to be easy. We fall before we reach enlightenment. This is our Human Condition, this is what Life is about and the shot of a Horse lolling in the grass by a river bank epitomizes Life, its struggle and its beauty. This prologue summarizes metaphorically the seven chapters that follow narrating the trepidations of Andrei Rublev looking for elevation and falling back into his Human condition.For Andrei Rublev, Faith and Art are intimately linked, he paints religious icons and frescoes because he believes this is his priesthood the only way he can transmit his Faith to the people. Losing his Faith in Humanity might imply losing his Faith in God and so in Art. It's only when Andrei witnesses the casting of a bell that his life turns around. He meets the character of Boriska,the bell caster, another creative character a reminiscence of young Andrei and when Andrei sees the young Boriska collapsing on the ground of fatigue and breaking into tears, he takes him in his arms to comfort him and break his vow of silence. He understands he is not alone struggling with the concept of artistic creation and Faith as both (the young Boriska and the older Andrei) brought people so much joy. An artist with a vision can create and eventually echoes god's power of creation by using his or her technical skills but more importantly his or her heart and Faith.The "tour de force" of Andrei Tarkovsky is to use the same creative process than the one of his film's protagonist. By putting his heart and soul in the core of his cinematographic technique he transcends the genre and the medium. We understand that "in cinema it is necessary not to explain, but to act upon the viewer's feelings, and the emotion which is awoken is what provokes thought". To this respect Andrei Rublev is a film to experience and I humbly suggest we experience it with our heart and soul.