Sokurov: Russian Ark (2002)
Russian Ark (Русский ковчег).
This is an amazing film: preparations had taken four years; then the whole movie was shot in one go: one long-shot of hundred minutes, no editing at all! It is an uninterrupted scene that passes through the large spaces of The Hermitage, caressing famous paintings and reenacting personages and moments from a history of three hundred years, the glorious history of the Romanovs, from Peter the Great to Nicholas II. It is the vision of film director Sokurov: Russia had its greatest period during these three hundred years, the Communist Revolution destroyed everything.
For Sokurov, The Hermitage is not just a museum. It keeps together great art works and great moments of history. Each room there keeps secrets and events, moments of joy and of sorrow, the sound of plain laughs and discreet tears. Thus the works by El Greco, and Van Dyk, and Rembrandt are not alone. The large and small rooms keep a spirit: the spirit of the great elite of Russia. The elite of the Enlightenment epoch. It was destroyed by Communism this elite, but its spirit resisted there, in The Hermitage: the universe of great art works made possible the resilience of the spirit.
And so, The Hermitage is for Sokurov an ark, like the biblical Ark of Noah: it keeps there great treasures of art, along with the spirit of all those aristocrats who loved these treasures so much. Their deeds, their memories, live forever in this Winter Palace: it is a large boat floating on the hostile or indifferent waters of the present, waiting for a New Covenant, a New Alliance to restore the spirit in the right place.
You can raise many objections to this vision of Sokurov. A society carries its whole history, even if it is trying to remove parts of it. Russian society inherits Romanovs' genes, also Lenin's. And I doubt you can return to the past. I believe that we should live in the present and build the future. And I know that each empire has an end. Also each elite is not forever.
Yet, the vision of Sokurov has undoubtedly its greatness, and the movie is breathing this imperial vision.
It is interesting: Sokurov had to find a balance in the story, and he chose as main character a curios personage, constantly questioning the value of Russian elite along the whole movie.
This was actually a real personage, the Marquis de Custine, a Frenchman who traveled to Russia in 1839 and wrote a very unflattering book about (I came here to see a country and what I found was a theater... I don't reproach the Russians for being what they are; what I blame them for is their desire to appear to be what we are... etc, etc).
Hugo: An unseen man regains consciousness, not knowing who or where he is. No one seems to be able to see him, except the mysterious man dressed in black. He eventually learns through their discussions that this man is a XIX-th century French aristocrat, who he coins The European. This turn of events is unusual as the unseen man has a knowledge of the present day. The two quickly learn that they are in the Winter Palace of the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, the European who has a comprehensive knowledge of Russian history to his time. As the two travel through the palace and its grounds, they interact with people from various eras of Russian history, either through events that have happened at the palace or through the viewing of artifacts housed in the museum. Ultimately, the unseen man's desired journey is to move forward, with or without his European companion.
Sujit R. Varma: Told in one fluid shot, a tale which floats like a dreamlike journey through the majestic spaces of the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, engaging real and imagined characters from Russian and European history. The nameless protagonist, a 19th-century French diplomat, guides the audience through a lost, sumptuous dream that was the Enlightenment period. The film, staged among some of the Western Art tradition's greatest masterpieces, climaxes in a pageant of color, motion, and music. For Sokurov, the Hermitage--home to generations of Romanovs and repository of so much Russian history--is the ark of the Russian soul, guarding it affectionately until the world sees better days.
(Sokurov)
This is an amazing film: preparations had taken four years; then the whole movie was shot in one go: one long-shot of hundred minutes, no editing at all! It is an uninterrupted scene that passes through the large spaces of The Hermitage, caressing famous paintings and reenacting personages and moments from a history of three hundred years, the glorious history of the Romanovs, from Peter the Great to Nicholas II. It is the vision of film director Sokurov: Russia had its greatest period during these three hundred years, the Communist Revolution destroyed everything.
For Sokurov, The Hermitage is not just a museum. It keeps together great art works and great moments of history. Each room there keeps secrets and events, moments of joy and of sorrow, the sound of plain laughs and discreet tears. Thus the works by El Greco, and Van Dyk, and Rembrandt are not alone. The large and small rooms keep a spirit: the spirit of the great elite of Russia. The elite of the Enlightenment epoch. It was destroyed by Communism this elite, but its spirit resisted there, in The Hermitage: the universe of great art works made possible the resilience of the spirit.
And so, The Hermitage is for Sokurov an ark, like the biblical Ark of Noah: it keeps there great treasures of art, along with the spirit of all those aristocrats who loved these treasures so much. Their deeds, their memories, live forever in this Winter Palace: it is a large boat floating on the hostile or indifferent waters of the present, waiting for a New Covenant, a New Alliance to restore the spirit in the right place.
You can raise many objections to this vision of Sokurov. A society carries its whole history, even if it is trying to remove parts of it. Russian society inherits Romanovs' genes, also Lenin's. And I doubt you can return to the past. I believe that we should live in the present and build the future. And I know that each empire has an end. Also each elite is not forever.
Yet, the vision of Sokurov has undoubtedly its greatness, and the movie is breathing this imperial vision.
It is interesting: Sokurov had to find a balance in the story, and he chose as main character a curios personage, constantly questioning the value of Russian elite along the whole movie.
This was actually a real personage, the Marquis de Custine, a Frenchman who traveled to Russia in 1839 and wrote a very unflattering book about (I came here to see a country and what I found was a theater... I don't reproach the Russians for being what they are; what I blame them for is their desire to appear to be what we are... etc, etc).
Hugo: An unseen man regains consciousness, not knowing who or where he is. No one seems to be able to see him, except the mysterious man dressed in black. He eventually learns through their discussions that this man is a XIX-th century French aristocrat, who he coins The European. This turn of events is unusual as the unseen man has a knowledge of the present day. The two quickly learn that they are in the Winter Palace of the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, the European who has a comprehensive knowledge of Russian history to his time. As the two travel through the palace and its grounds, they interact with people from various eras of Russian history, either through events that have happened at the palace or through the viewing of artifacts housed in the museum. Ultimately, the unseen man's desired journey is to move forward, with or without his European companion.
Sujit R. Varma: Told in one fluid shot, a tale which floats like a dreamlike journey through the majestic spaces of the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, engaging real and imagined characters from Russian and European history. The nameless protagonist, a 19th-century French diplomat, guides the audience through a lost, sumptuous dream that was the Enlightenment period. The film, staged among some of the Western Art tradition's greatest masterpieces, climaxes in a pageant of color, motion, and music. For Sokurov, the Hermitage--home to generations of Romanovs and repository of so much Russian history--is the ark of the Russian soul, guarding it affectionately until the world sees better days.
(Sokurov)
Labels: Sokurov
posted by Pierre Radulescu at
5:36 PM
1 Comments:
I saw the film today, and I was less than enthusiastic about it. While I appreciate the technical and logistics craft beyond the idea of filming one long shot, and the elegance of the camera work (but not the quality of the film media), I found the result greatly disappointing. The whole idea of the characters wondering through the labyrinth of rooms in the Palace and the labyrinth of time seemed to me didactic, and so was the dialog. The message as carried by the film did not come loud and clear to me at all.
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Dan Romascanu, at 11:29 AM
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