Russian Ark [2003] [DVD]

Aleksandr Sokurov has created a unique, wondrous masterpiece of a film in his great homage of Russian history and art and the Hermitage Museum. Four years in the planning, a cast of thousands, exquisite reproductions of costumes that span the three hundred years of Russian history, and brilliant cinematography by the German Tilman Buttner, Sokurov has condensed the essence of Russian culture in a 90 minute non-stop 'live' filming within the halls of the Hermitage museum (all 5 palaces known as the winter palaces of the Tsars). The result is an enchanting, bewitching, meandering tour of Russian from the time of Catherine the Great, Peter the Great, Pushkin, the Romanovs - Nicholas I and II - to the final ball in the palace the night Tsarist Russia ended. Our tour guide is the off camera voice of Sokurov in conversation with a French Marquis and assorted ghosts of the past as we seamlessly view glimpses of Russia's past, scenes like an actual play that Catherine the Great wrote and watched, the writer Pushkin, the Romanov family at their last supper in the palace and the grand ball that culminates this stage of the glory of Russia. The ballroom scene is resplendent with vast numbers of costumed actors dancing a mazurka to the music (Glinka's mazurka from his opera 'The Life of the Tsar') provided by the Maryinski Orchestra conducted by no less than Valery Gergiev! As the guests finally leave the Hermitage museum the camera focuses on an open window overlooking the sea on which the city of St Peterburg floats. We then know that we have been on an ark of Russian culture for the past 90 minutes - an immeasureably beautiful and sensitive document that has captured all the mystery of Russia's history, presented with tenderness and finesse and with the extraordinary facility using the newest of digital camera technology. This is a magnificent epic film and deserves a wide audience on its own. The additional information provided by a 30 minute "How the film was made" on the DVD is equally informative and graceful. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

This is probably the most beautiful art film ever made. It holds the distinction of being the first and only cinematic event to date, to be filmed in one single 96 minute take. As a consequence, there is no editing. The cast of 2000 supporting actors had to perform on cue, as the camera and director moved through the many rooms and buildings that comprise the St Petersburg's Hermitage. Once filming began the project had to unfold exactly to plan. The result is stunning on many levels. The grasp of the moment is so perfect, that one is left with a sense of utter eternity that renders the need for all other explanation superfluous. To be present, and to be a witness - is enough. The film was made on the 23rd of December 2001 and released in the cinema in 2002. This DVD version was released in 2003.

The film travels throughout the Winter Palace, which is the main building of the Russian State Hermitage Museum. This musuem is made-up of six buildings:

1) The Winter Palace.
2) The Small Hermitage.
3) The Old Hermitage.
4) The New Hermitage.
5) The Hermitage Theatre.
6) The Reserve House.

The film covers 300 years of Russian art and artistic culture. Each room the camera enters, plunges the unsuspecting audience into a different Russian year, dynasty and existential environment. The Director - Alexander Sokurov - narrates the entire film through a disembodied voice. Infact, the events of the film are viewed only through the eyes of this unnamed character. He is Russian of course, but there is an implication that he may have died in an accident. The other main character throughout is a Frenchman (played by the actor Sergei Dreiden), usually referred to as 'the European', whose character is called the Marquis de Custine. These two characters encounter one another at the beginning of the film, and the dialogue involve the European criticising Russian art as being a mere copy of European art, whilst the Russian voice continuously disagrees with this analysis, instead always advocating the uniqueness of the Russian interpretation of nature, and perhaps gently suggesting that the Russian people are as much European, as they are anyother identity. With the perfect acting, costuming and historical recreation, the result is compelling and the narrative convincing. In the end, the Marquis is won-over by the sheer wight of delight that high Russian culture has presented him with - so much so infact, that he decides to stay in the room that displays an 18th century Ballroom dance scene and full orchestra. The two main characters are never really explained - nor should they be. The caste is magnificent and their acting perfect. The film took 96 minutes to shoot, but 4 years to plan and rehearse. In many ways, it can be viewed as a theatre performance on a scale never attempted before. Of course, there is no stage, but simply room after room of actors and actresses waiting for the door to open, and their performance to begin.

The 2003 DVD edition contains the unabridged film, lasting 96 minutes. The Special Features consist of the following:

a) Theatrical Trailer.
b) Documentary - a 43 minute 'behind the scenes' that is as compelling as the film itself.
c) Hubert Robert (1733-1808) - A Fortunate Life. Many of the paintings in the Hermitage were painted by this French artist.
d) Biographies.
e) Production Notes.
f) Weblinks.

The Russian name for this film is 'Russkij Kovcheg' - indeed 'Russian Ark' in English. The reason for this is made clear at the very end of the film. The Hermitage itself appears to be floating in a body of water - perhaps the sea - and is performing the function of an ark that is carry, and therefore preserving Russian history, culture and art. It is an immense vision, that at the sametime has the simplicity of an Haiku. The imperial scenes of a Persian Diplomatic Mission apologising to the Tsar, the popmp and ceremony, the handsome, tall and straight Russian soldiers, are reminiscent of similar scenes often found in Chinese films, such as 'Hero'. This is a truly beautiful experience on every level of awareness.

This Alexander Sokurov feature is one of the most staggering technical achievements in the history of cinema - a single shot lasting 95 minutes while moving through 33 rooms in the world's largest museum, the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg (which also encompasses the Winter Palace). Part pageant and museum tour, part theme-park ride and historical meditation, it covers two centuries of czarist Russia as smoothly as it crosses the Hermitage and even periodically moves outside of it, with the offscreen Sorukov engaged in an ongoing dialogue with an on-screen 19th-century French diplomat (apparently suggested by Adolphe, marquis de Custine).

Sokurov used close to 2,000 actors and extra and three live orchestras in making what may be the world's only unedited single-take feature as well as the longest Steadicam sequence ever shot. (Reportedly only one previous take of the sequence was even attempted, after lengthy and detailed rehearsals of all the participants, and it apparently failed due to the subdegree temperature outside.) Russian Ark is also the first uncompressed high-definition film recorded on a portable hard-disk system rather than on film or tape before being transferred to 35mm, and, along with Sokurov's earlier innovative experiments with optical distortions and perspective in features such as Whispering Pages (1993) and Mother and Son (1997), it marks him as a kind of 19th-century modernist - a filmmaker who, like Manoel De Oliveira in a very different way, combines an acute sense of the past with a very up-to-date sense of how to convey it.

As one critic has suggested, Russian Ark is an anti-October, challenging Sergei Eisenstein's reliance on montage while using the Winter Palace as a gigantic set. All of which is to say that we are only just starting to grasp the dimensions of this formidable achievement, although it is worth adding that the surprising and virtually unprecedented commercial success of this film in the United States strongly indicates that Sokurov's technical mastery is not merely an achievement to be enjoyed by specialists of cinema or Russian history.