Film
NEW PRINT OF RUSSIAN CLASSIC ANDREI RUBLEV (15) 182min 00000
'He who works with his hands is a labourer. He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman. He who works with his hands, his head and his heart is an artist. ' — Francis of Assisi.
Andrei Rublev was a guilt-tortured monk from the 15th century who became one of Russia’s most celebrated icon painters. Andrei Arsenyevich Tarkovsky was 3 Belarus poet’s son who abandoned the study of music and Arabic and became one of the most internationally celebrated filmmakers since Ingmar Bergman. The analogies are obvious, their themes sublime - nationalism, identity, faith and the belief that art transcends divine and profane thought, that to practice great art is to sculpt in time.
And so it was that the two met in 1966 in Tarkovsky’s remarkable second film. An historical epic that reimagines the life and times of this pious period cypher and artist through eight episodes that take their shape and themes from Rublev’s individual murals, paintings and frescoes (many of which can still be viewed in cathedrals, monasteries and galleries from Moscow to St Petersburg).
Shooting both in colour and black and white, Tarkovsky follows Andrei Rublev (Anatoli Solonitsyn) through the miserable, desperate years of divided 14005 Russia under the Tartar invaders. It takes a long time to understand where the film is going, and for at least two thirds of it you will have no idea what is going on. But just dig the rhythm, my friends. Look at these images and let the digression take you. Only in the third and final part of the film (plus the subsequent epilogue) do things begin to make sense.
Horse racing in fancy dress
DOCUMENTARY THE LAST VICTORY “$19,919.?”
the Palio. Instead of the flag- waving and costumes, he concentrates on the experiences
Have no doubt about it, this is a stretch for the modern viewer, with our five minute attention spans and emotional pay off mentalities, but step into this film’s murky Baltic waters and it is unlikely that you will ever shake the experience from your memory. Not for nothing was this film so taken to heart by the hippy communities of the late 19603 (well, actually it does contain loads of naked fireside dancing but that’s by the by). What is truly remarkable about Andrei Rublev is how Tarkovsky intuits both the vicious realism of a violent age alongside some of the most gobsmacking poetic
THRILLER
(15) 119min COO
Vicious realism and gob smacking poetry
imagery ever committed to film (only Tarkovsky’s friend and contemporary, the Georgian filmmaker Sergo Paradjanov, ever came close to creating anything comparable to what you see here). The film’s success however, has as much to do with the fact that Rublev’s screenplay was co-written by the great Andrei Konchalovsky (Ivan ’5 Childhood, Asya’s Happiness, Maria’s Lovers), a man as capable as Tarkovsky of turning a butterfly on a wheel and creating a winged dragon. A brutal beast of a masterpiece. (Paul Dale)
I GFT. Glasgow from Mon 9 Aug—~l'/eo‘ /' l Aug.
INFERNAL AFFAIRS ll
Rush released after the success of its hit Hong Kong crime thriller predecessor. and replacing Asian stars Andy Leung and Tony Cheung ‘.‘.'|Ill two pretty-boy pop idols. on paper this prequel looked like a (llSEtSi()l’-Ill-\."/£ili|llg. Seriously. would you make a follow-up to Heal with Justin Tirnberlake and Robbie Williams as the y0ung DeNiro and Pacino?
Seems there was more In the mrnds of directors Andrew Lau and Alan Mak's than just a quick cash-in. True. most of the cast lay dead at the end of lnlei'nal Affairs. so going back in time is a smart way to resurrect your favourite Characters. What's less predictable is their decislon to bring back leung's trlad police mole Ming and Cheung's undercover cop Chan in their younger incarnations (Edison Chan and Shawn Yue. who had cameos last time outl. Nov. Ming and Chan are merely supporting players on a \.'.’|(l(}l' stage.
Inspector Wong (Anthony Wong Chau—Sangl and hrs nemesis Sam lEi'it: Tsangl
To the uninitiated. Siena's Palio is simply a horse race in fancy dress. A breakneck, bareback ride around the city's main square, the race is over in less than a minute and a half, while the pageantry that precedes it goes on for hours. An outsider could be forgiven for wondering what all the fuss is about.
Dutch filmmaker John Appel’s fascinating documentary. however, shows that for the inhabitants of the city's 17 comrade, the Palio is a crucial part of their identity. His film focuses on the city’s smallest district, Civetta, in the run up to the Palio of July 2003. Their last victory in the biannual race was 24 years ago. but hopes are high this time.
Appel’s film wisely steers clear of the more folkloristic aspects of
14 THE LIST 5—12 Aug 2004
and aSpirations of a handful of Civetta locals. His subjects range from 92-year-old Egidio, who has seen eight Civetta victories in his lifetime. to 21 year-old groom Paolo, who likens the joy of winning the Palio to an orgasm but is too young to have ever witnessed a Civetta triumph. Other figures remain on the film‘s margins. The contrada's capitano is a shadowy figure whose hush-hush dealings. a key part of every Palio. are conducted out of sight. The jockey makes a brief speech at the pre-race dinner. The horse. allocated to Civetta by lot and the repository of the district's hopes. remains a remote. inscrutable object of veneration. (Jason Best) I Selected release from Fri 6 Aug. See preview
are back but thrs time both have another problem: rival gang lord Ngar lFrancis Ng). seeking revenge for the murder of his father. 'losslng in numerous other snaking subplots. Lau. Mak and writer l-elix Chong go for broke. gambling on an
Asian Godfather Part l/. Their epic cops'n'inol>sters saga plays out oxer the years counting down Hong Kong's Anglo—Chinese llando\.iei' and If It's missing the telling social resonance of Coppola's masterpiece. as well as the leung Cheung factor. it's still far more ambitious. Impressive and exhrlaratlng than expected. Bring on
Part III. (LClgh Singer)
I Selected release from Fri (5 Ant . J
No, Richard Gere isn’t in this one neither