Tarkovsky's Andrei Rublev on Blu-Ray

As the first Blu-Ray title of one of the most acclaimed Russian arthouse directors, Andrei Tarkovsky, comes out in the next days, here are some specs on it:

Andrei Rublev
(Андрей Рублев)

The film has been previously released by RUSCICO (outside Russia), Krupny Plan (inside Russia) and Criterion (in USA; a longer cut of the film with the title "The Passion of Andrei"). The best PQ was in fact the Krupny Plan version (Beaver calls it Lizard), however, it was Russian-only.

Now MOSFILM, the mother company of Krupny Plan and RUSICO, has taken over the production of Blu-Ray of their film stock. And one of the first titles is Tarkovsky's "Andrei Rublev". The disc features English subtitles, so it is likely to turn up in international online shops after some while. Unfortunately, Russian DVD shops are not allowed to ship to foreign countries, because Russia is not a member of the WTO.

Anyway, here be the specs:

Cover:



Technical infos:
Code: ABC (codefree)
Version: Russian theatrical version (not Criterion's "Dom Kino" version which runs 15 minutes longer and has a different title).
Running time: 1:24:49 (Part 1) + 1:38:09 (Part 2)

Video/Codec: 1080p/AVC MPEG-4

Aspect Ratio: 2.30:1

Sound
- Russian DTS-HD MA 5.1 (48 kHz / 2026 kbps / 16-bit)
- Russian Dolby Digital 5.1 (448 kbps)
- Russian Dolby Digital 2.0 (192 kbps) (original mono)

Subtitles
- English (yess!)

Bonus
Unfortunately, nothing of the sort. The Criterion DVD was quite full of bonus, and even the old Krupny Plan DVD had a nice bonus disc with a documentary.

Screenshots





More info on the film:
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDCom...dreirublev.htm

No, this is not like this at all.

The first cut ("The Passion According to Andrei") was made by Tarkovsky and was shown only once for the Dom Kino professional audience (running for 205 minutes). Because of its length and featured graphic violence, the Soviet State cinema ministry, the Goskino, requested Tarkovsky to cut the film down. This shorter version (186 minutes) received the title "Andrei Rublev" and went to Cannes film festival in 1969, where it won the FIPRESCI prize. This version was released in several Western countries and also in the Soviet Union in 1971 (and this is in fact the version which is now released on BluRay and was published by RUSCICO, Krupny Plan etc. before).

Basically, both of these versions were edited and authorized by Tarkovsky. The first cut (which was released by Criterion as the "Director's Cut") also features some alternative takes. According to Tarkovsky's sister, Marina Tarkovskaya, one of the editors of the film, Lyudmila Feiginova, secretly kept a print of the first, original cut in her home, under her bed. This was basically the source for the Criterion version. (As a matter of fact, I wonder if they can source a hidef transfer from this copy...)

According to some sources, at the end, Tarkovsky was convinced that the 186 minute cut was in fact better.

Well... the longer version did not resurface long until after the director's death. Nevertheless, both of them are authorized, were shown to audiences and have the right to be released.

Maybe Criterion will come up with a Blu-ray of the longer cut (as only them have the rights to do so). After all, their DVD was even non-anamorphic letterbox (scope aspect ratio!), and the PQ was rather suboptimal.

I personally look at the two versions as complementing each other.

I have some information from the Blu-Ray producer, the company "Tsifrovoy Element" (who produce Blu-Ray for Mosfilm).

They wrote that they did have bonus features, however, the rights situation for them was not clear: it is not clear who holds copyright for these, and as such, they could not be published on Blu-ray.

Other Mosfilm films from their catalogue will feature English subtitles if they already exist from earlier DVD releases.

I will keep this post updated as soon other famous Tarkovsky films like Stalker or Solaris will turn up on their schedule.

I will. Also, for non-Tarkovsky related Soviet films released by Mosfilm / Digital Element, I have started a new thread.