12. Andrei Rublev
So Andrei Rublev and Balthazar both have the bells and you started as a [carillon] bell ringer?
Well the concept of making bells in the Russian tradition is that a bell is like "a soul" and it doesn’t have a special pitch – Carillion is like "Do-Rey-Mi-Fa-So" – but in Russia the bell is like a soul and so you’re sort of making a religious icon. That’s a fabulous concept and I have to say that Rublev is my favourite Tarkovsky.
So, when you saw Ander Rublev that was well after you had been ringing bells?
Yes, I started ringing the bells when I was 13-years-old till I was near to 21, almost every day. Moondog was my neighbour! He became a famous composer but at the time he was just a "Street Viking" on Sixth Avenue and I was the "Quasimodo" of Fifth Ave so we were considered to be two local weirdos. If I had more films [for the list], then I would use all the three versions of the Hunchback of Notre Dame starting first with Lon Chaney then then Charles Laughton because that character Quasimodo is very important to me.
