Andrei Rublev

Starring: Anatoly Solonitsyn, Ivan Lapikov

Release: 1971

The first film on the list (which is not ranked; these artist portraits are presented in no particular order) is Andrei Rublev (1966), about the medieval icon portrait painter and Russian Orthodox saint of the same name. Little is known about Rublev, who died in the early 15th century, so the film's director, Andrei Tarkovsky, took the slim facts and expanded from there. Initially the film's religious and political content led the Soviet government to squash its release, but over the next seven years, cut versions made their way to the Cannes Film Festival and throughout the Soviet Union. It was many years before the film was available in its totality – and quite a totality it is, at about three and a half hours long.

My husband studied Andrei Rublev back in college, and I was wary when, before we watched the movie, he announced, "I'm going to warn you – it's a little…tangential. And long." Obviously, a warning like that is unsettling and cryptic to say the least, but it's actually pretty on target.