In the practice of explaining historical events on the screen, for an artist, a sense of history is far more important than historical knowledge. This has been proved by Eisenstein in his masterpiece "Alexander Nevsky". The reality of "Alexander Nevsky" is not only impressive because of the scenes, props, and costumes in the film, but more importantly, the film is full of patriotism and full of practical significance. When watching Tarkovsky’s film "Andrei Rublev", contemporary audiences can also feel that the creators of the film, based on the exact experience of history, sing praises of life with passion and patriotism. The immortal national spirit and unfailing creativity of the Russian people in the Rublev era.
Andrei Tarkovsky once expounded his idea of the director of "Andrei Rublev" in this way: he touched Andrei Rublev, the great Russian icon painter of the 15th century. In an image, he and his collaborators tried to reveal the moral and spiritual strength of the nation. Even if the Russian nation is in an extremely tragic situation of being insulted and damaged, it can create an unparalleled culture.
The strength of a person, just like the strength of a nation, is displayed in the process of confrontation with hostile forces. In this film about the life activities and creations of this famous icon painter in Russian history, those cruel historical conditions and environments-Tatar invasion, infighting of the royal family, the city being ransacked, and the lives being sacked, Plague, famine-the principle significance of the screen reproduction of all these is not to show the dark side of historical facts, but to affirm the strong and unyielding spirit of the Russian people and their inexhaustible and inexhaustible creativity. In the film, Andrei Rublev and his followers (icon painter, stonemason, wandering artist, aeronaut, and Boriska, the leader who cast the big clock) are always a kind of inner creation The impulse inspired. Through their actions, the director praised the Russian people's yearning for freedom and their unquenchable creative passion.
In this film, Andrei Tarkovsky’s director seems to have a watercolor mural style, while the protagonist of the film Rublev is a master of watercolor murals. When the film is shown, the audience's feeling is not that they watch the murals along the long gallery, but that the murals automatically flash past the audience's eyes one by one. In a picture of the Tatar invasion of Russia, the lower half of the screen shows Tatar cavalry sprinting along the city wall. On the side, the priest in charge of the church key is being tortured, burned by the lit resin, and a Russian soldier is dead. Under the saber of the Tatars, the statue of Faufan was displayed on the top of the screen. He seemed to be watching the insulted Russian land, while several people in the middle of the screen were praying devoutly, hopelessly waiting for the miracle to happen.
"Andrei Rublev" draws the audience into the inner space of the film with its rhythmic power, and guides them to participate in the dramatic conflict. The audience walked in the muddy wilderness with Andrei Rublev, sitting in the shadow of the birch trees, they cast the big clock with Boriska, and studied the clock with Andrei Rublev On the mysterious sheet music.
In terms of style, "Andrei Rublev" is a historical film. It is about the distant past. But judging from the film's narrative style and the level of film language, it is a very modern work.
The distant history has become close-this is the theme of the film. The film's drama, lens modeling, handling of characters and events, and the performance of actors are all subject to this theme. In this film, the director did not use deliberate antique means to express the sense of historical distance, but used the rich means of film art to create the illusion of time, thus revealing the profound meaning of the work. The extraordinary free movement of the famous photographer Vajim Yusoff creates an open space for the characters in the film. In the beautiful exterior composition, the horizon, forests, wilderness, rivers, mountains, lakes... the sky and the earth are connected to form a magnificent art space, where the passionate surging-the changes of the people's destiny are displayed. The audience can also see the revival of the woods in spring, the gurgling small rivers, and the fog in the forest. The photographer used beautiful brushstrokes to outline the form of a naked man floating on the river; two snow-white swans floated down from the church spire; and the flickering flames of the festive night, the mysterious fog, that The disturbing melody, the uncontrollable passion of the magic night of love and fire. Vadim Yusov’s camera narrates the story of ancient Russia in sublime poetic language.
The characters in the film are always in motion, they are eternal travelers, wandering around the ends of the world all year round. The film shows the roads the protagonists have walked on the Russian land, foreshadowing people's uncontrollable yearning for a certain purpose. Icon painter Andrei Rublev walked on this long road. His creation blended into the spirit of the people and showed people's yearning for truth, goodness and beauty. The film’s creators have narrowed the distance between contemporary audiences and historical figures through this path taken by the protagonists. The audience seems to be infected by the passion of the artist, deeply feel the inheritance of the national historical destiny, realize that they are the heirs and continuations of Russian culture for many centuries, and are a link in the long chain of history.
The characteristic of Tarkovsky's director is that he attaches a certain style to a living person, and blends this style into the character and experience of the character, so as to produce a vivid sense of reality. In this film, the director uses the image of the protagonist Andrei Rublev to express the social and spiritual life of ancient Russia in multiple aspects and levels. The image of Rublev, which was created by the famous actor A. Solonitsyn with his outstanding performance, foreshadows the awakening of the Russian nation that is about to be completely liberated from the shackles of the Tatars.
Solonitsyn is a thinking actor. He played a role in almost all the films Tarkovsky made in the Soviet Union. Solonitsyn is good at presenting the protagonist's thought process on the screen and attracting the audience to his thoughts on the image. His performance is very restrained, and there is little passion and impulse in his image creation. Some critics thought his performance was boring. However, what is striking is that if there is a good idea of the play and an excellent director, Solonitsyn can often successfully create a personality image full of spiritual life, and can see the deep consciousness of the protagonist’s personality. This kind of performance The intensity is beyond the reach of ordinary actors.
Solonitsyn's performance characteristics are exactly in line with Tarkovsky's directorial style. Tarkovsky's film structure is multi-layered and transparent like crystals. In this structure, every element is arranged properly, compactly and indispensably, as if through a mathematical operation, every link is very detailed. In this film, most of the protagonist's image is not made by the actor's expressions and movements. To shape, but to outline the protagonist Rublev’s attitude and feelings towards the people and things around him. Solonitsyn's restrained performance style is precisely suitable for expressing Rublev's secret inner activities. For example, in the face of drunken beatings by the peasants and the brutal suppression of the royal guards, he did not immediately "react". The audience only understood his pain in his heart and understood him in the dialogue between him and Faufan. An understanding of the meaning of the original goodness of human nature. In the argument with Faufan, Solonitsyn's Rublev seemed to be a free man who could not break free from the shackles of religious creeds. For him, the pursuit of truth is very important, but truth cannot exist without love for people.
Solonitsyn successfully demonstrated the complex and sometimes contradictory ideological struggles and emotional scorching of icon painter Andrei Rublev. He is always in an ambivalence of sensible decisions and the impact of passion. Rublev of Solonitsyn was a quiet and taciturn monk who enriched his creative imagination with the inspiration he captured from his observation of the world around him. Sometimes he was silent because of pessimism and disappointment, but then he felt more deeply the inseparable relationship between himself and the people. His "Trinity" icon painting, like a bright star shining in the deep night sky, brings hope to desperate people.
Driven by the plot, the philosophical significance of the film has been developed due to the human shock of the plot and the poetic and innovative narration of the plot. In the narrative segment of casting the bell, despair and sorrow, censure and victory are harmoniously integrated; the deep and free layout of the camera when showing the mass scene fully expresses the magnificent and passionate creation of the Russian people.
History textbooks can narrate history, but the spirit of the times and the passion of the times can only be conveyed by works of art. Tarkovsky exactly felt the spirit and passion of the times in "Andrei Rublev", which is the guarantee of the success of his work.
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