Skip to main content

Painting Eternity: Andrei Rublev, At Eternity's Gate


Painting Eternity

On December 4, the Canadian Film Institute of which I am a longtime ambassador member presented a very special event—the screening of a fully restored version of Andrei Tarkovsky’s 205-minute masterwork Andrei Rublev, first seen in Moscow in December 1966 but suppressed by the Soviet authorities.  It was not shown internationally until 1969 (at the Cannes film festival), and not in North America until October 1973.  [Interestingly 1966 is also when Sergey Bondarchuk’s epic monumental 427-minute War and Peace was first released in the Soviet Union. Among my greatest films of all time it’s reviewed in my book The Best of Screenings & Meanings at pp. 29-30 and 168-169.]
            The setting for Andrei Rublev is the early 15th century Russian empire.  The titular central figure is a monk and renowned icon painter.  Beyond the monastery many of the scenes take place in and around the ancient city of Vladimir (200 kms east of Moscow), which had been the medieval capital.  Its Cathedral of the Assumption (Dormition) is where the grand princes were crowned.  Beyond striking black-and-white cinematography, the film is notable for its deeply religious imagery and allusions. (As master painter Theophanes the Greek says to Rublev: “If Jesus returned to earth, they would crucify him again.” That calls to mind Dostoevky’s famous parable of The Grand Inquisitor in The Brothers Karamazov.) There is much else: ribaldry, nudity in a pagan ceremony, rain-soaked mire, treacherous rivalries, extreme violence including torture and a massacre in the cathedral when the Tatars sack Vladimir. (This Mongol invasion actually occurred in 1238.) Scenes of that, and subsequently of the casting of an immense bell, are staged on an awesome scale in which Orthodox Christendom faces a constant struggle between good and evil.  It seems almost impossible that a movie so steeped in reverential religion was made in the officially atheist Cold War USSR.
            There’s actually very little painting shown in Andrei Rublev, until near the end when the screen resolves into a glorious montage, in colour, of rich iconography that has survived the ravages and vicissitudes of history. The icon painters were clearly aiming for the eternal, however compromised and ephemeral the imperial masters that employed them.  (Read more: https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/43-andrei-rublev-an-icon-emerges.)

At Eternity’s Gate (Switzerland/UK/France/U.S. https://www.ateternitysgate-film.com/)
The life and work of the late 19th century Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh continues to fascinate.
Last year’s Loving Vincent was an unusual exploration creating a story around him told entirely through oil-painted frames using his signature swirling brush technique.  This film, helmed by Julian Schnabel, a filmmaker who is also a painter, is a more conventional biopic of Van Gogh’s troubled later years. Van Gogh was a disturbed personality and social outcast. He famously cut off an ear and was committed several times to asylums. Unable to sell his paintings he survived through support from his brother Theo.  (Now considered masterworks worth hundreds of millions of dollars, those not in museums could only be afforded by billionaires.)
            Willem Dafoe throws himself into the role of the tormented Van Gogh (awarded best actor at the Venice film festival) although, in his mid-60s, he is old for the part of a man who died at age 37 in 1890. (Following a period of intense productivity in Auvers-sur-Oise, the untimely cause of death, from a gunshot wound to the stomach, remains controversial—was it self-inflicted?)  The film spends considerable time on Van Gogh’s relationship with Paul Gaugin (Oscar Isaac), a more successful post-impressionist artistic rebel. Van Gogh was driven, and almost driven mad, by a compulsive eccentric artistic vision of nature and beauty.  In an asylum he confesses to a skeptical yet sympathetic priest (played by Mads Mikkelsen): “Maybe God made me a painter for people who aren’t born yet.”  (That has proved to be prescient indeed.)  In the conversation Van Gogh also speaks about Jesus.  Viewers may recall Dafoe’s remarkable title role in Scorsese’s controversial The Last Temptation of Christ.
            For all of Dafoe’s admirable effort, including imitating brush strokes on famous canvasses, At Eternity’s Gate isn’t a masterwork.  The language mix is odd with smatterings of French but most of the dialogue in English (including a few voiceovers by Van Gogh with a blank screen), The musical score is intrusive at times.  Key relationships (notably with Gaugin, Theo) and encounters are more sketched than deeply explored.  Still the enduring Van Gogh mystique is enough to make this an interesting work.  B

  
     


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

First New Year Movies Post

First, a few comments on the 77 th “Golden Globes”.   Netflix had no less than three of the five nominees in the major category of best dramatic feature— The Irishman , Marriage Story , and The Two Popes .   Yet these collectively scored only one minor win—Laura Dern in a supporting category for Marriage Story .   (I still expect all three to be in the running for the Oscar best picture nominations to be announced January 13.)   The biggest surprise was the big-screen epic 1917 taking the top award of best drama as well as best director for Sam Mendes, giving it an undeniable boost ahead of a January 10 North American wide release.   Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood took three Globes including for best musical or comedy.   When it comes to movie awards, the streaming services have yet to catch up to these made-for-theatrical-release features.   Series are another matter as streaming increasingly dominates.   I was glad to see Olivia Colman win for her superb portrayal of Queen Eliza

New Year Post: Best Movies of 2019 and Best Movies of the Decade

The Ten Best Movies of 2019 Below are very brief descriptions of my favorite films of this past year. Most have been the subject of longer reviews.   For reference to these I have indicated both the blog post dates and the page number(s) in the 2019 collected reviews document.   I have also added a list of a dozen documentaries that most impressed, with information links and review dates and page numbers if applicable.   Parasite South Korean director Bong Joon Ho’s savage satire of his society’s class divides earned the Cannes film festival’s top prize Palme d’Or and should be the favorite for the best international feature film (previously best foreign-language film) Oscar to be announced February 9.   Don’t be surprised if it also makes it into the main best picture category, nominations for which will be announced on January 13.   (Reviewed 30 October, p. 67) The Two Popes Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles’ insightful imagining of this unusual relationship features

The Holiday Edition: New Views from the Big Screen to Home Viewing

The Holiday Edition: New Views from the Big Screen to Home Streaming 27 December 2021 Recently in a Cineplex theatre I went to see Guillermo del Toro’s carnivalesque Nightmare Alley (B) which has tons of psycho-noirish atmosphere over its 150 minutes. It’s definitely lacking the Christmas spirit so be warned.   (I had somewhat of a nightmarish time after as I got stranded with car engine failure.) In “Alley” Willem Dafoe has a small role as a creepy carny. That evening the “Crave” channel featured Dafoe in the lead role as a tormented soul in Abel Ferrara’s nightmarish 2019 psychodrama Siberia (C).    If anything, it’s even more grotesque and ghastly.   So bring on the heartwarming holiday favorites! As usual there is a vast amount of content being added to streaming platforms. Netflix seems to add another series almost every day. Worth checking out is the four-episode docuseries Animal (A) that starts with the predatory world of big cats.   And speaking of large cats and the murde