Tarkovsky’s ‘Andrei Rublev’

13 March 2021

In the grounds of the GTK Hotel in Suzdal is a dramatic monument to the film-maker Andrei Tarkovsky, and specifically to his film Andrei Rublev. The figure of Tarkovsky is looking across to this view –

Much of Andrei Rublev was filmed in and around Suzdal. The town, with its many ancient churches and monasteries, is designated a UNESCO World Heritage site and much of it is remarkably untouched by signs of modern development, which would have been even less in evidence when the film was made fifty-five years ago. In the film are several stunning aerial tracking shots over bare landscapes punctuated by walled settlements, including the identifiable Pokrovsky monastery, founded in 1364, shown here –

You can see within the walls a number of small log-built houses, where it used to be possible for visitors to stay, but I believe they are kept for the monastery’s own use now. It is actually a community of nuns, so technically a convent, but still called a monastery in Russia. These houses weren’t there at the time Andrei Rublev was filmed, but in various shots you can see the distinctive refectory building, (which in this photo is to the right of the church).

The film is constructed of imagined episodes in the life of the 15th-century monk who is probably the most renowned and beloved icon-painter of Russia. It’s hard to describe the film in terms of its narrative. Its power lies more in the effect it has on the senses and the emotions, alternating scenes of shocking violence with those of the poetic beauty of nature and human connection. After being wrung out by much horror and squalor, the viewer is swept up in the last episode which concerns the making of a gigantic bell, full of drama and jeopardy – followed by the surprising and calming coda, where the camera lingers over details of Rublev’s works.

“All art, of course, is intellectual, but for me, all the arts, and cinema even more so, must above all be emotional and act upon the heart.” – Andrei Tarkovsky

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The Andrei Tarkovsky Museum is in Yuryevets, Ivanovo region. In Soviet times and up to the opening of the museum in 1996, the building was a communal residence for several families. Tarkovsky and his mother lived here from 1941 to 1943, during the Great Patriotic War.