RUSSIAN ARK
Russia, 2002, 99 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Aleksandr Sokurov.
Russian Ark is the work of the celebrated Russian director Aleksandr Sokurov who has explored Russia and Europe’s past in such films as Molok, Taurus, The Father. He also explored something of the relationship with Japanese history in Black Sun.
The film is a tour-de-force as it is taken in one single shot, on high digital video. This gives a great flexibility of movement to the camera as it moves through the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg.
While a contemporary character, unseen, begins his tour of the Hermitage in the present, he is joined by a 19th century French aristocrat, Custine, who accompanies him through the museum. Together, they observe, they talk, they explore the history of Russia. The film also gives the opportunity of seeing the gallery, the masterpieces of European art that are on display as well as understand the taste which brought them there. The film also has historical characters, in the dress of their times, as they move through the museum culminating in a ball, set in 1913 on the eve of World War One, where people dance the Mazurka, applaud themselves – and then hurry out into the night, the camera moving with them out into the darkness of contemporary St Petersburg.
The film explores the Russian character, Russian history, the 19th century man unable to understand what happened to Russia and its range of events from the Russian Revolution to the collapse of the Soviet empire. The contemporary man also has his limitations in understanding the background of Russia.
The film gives the opportunity for an audience not only to see what is in the Hermitage and have a tour but also to explore the whole notion of Russia and its history.
1.The quality of the film? As a work of art? Cinema art? As an exploration of history and the arts?
2.The technical bravura of the film, high digital video, the single 99-minute take? The mobility of the camera, the angles, the close-ups? The timing of the action so that it all could be completed in one take? The musical score?
3.The role of the narrator, the introduction to the contemporary young man, the audience not seeing him, but looking through his eyes? Custine, the background of the 19th century, the culture of Russia in the time, its elegance, French links, visual arts, costumes, manners?
4.The Hermitage itself, its place in St Petersburg, its housing of art? It historical role in the history of St Petersburg? The experience of World War Two and the communist era? The recovery of the Hermitage and its status?
5.Custine and his trying to understand the 20th century? The explanations? His bewilderment that the events of the 20th century could possibly happen? The contemporary man, his understanding of history, history and geography, his having to learn the geopolitical experiences of Russia in the past?
6.The works of art, the middle of the film, the close-ups of the particular paintings, Van Dyk, Rubens, El Greco, Rembrandt? The humour of the camera trying to get close and the guard pushing it away? The harassment by the guards wanting to close the museum?
7.The historical people, their entering into the gallery, later their being seen, along with historical characters like Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, Pushkin, Nicholas and Alexandra? The 19th century visitor from the Persian court and the elaborate ritual of his bringing gifts? The man and the coffins for the victims of the siege of Leningrad?
8.The final ball, World War One, the orchestra, dancing, the Mazurka, the discipline? The spectators? Their costumes? The movement of the camera inside the dance? Particular characters that audiences identify with? Exuberance, cultural achievement?
9.The ending, the tour, the audience sharing the experiences, the historical sweep, the artistic sweep? Coming out into the open and a possibility of reflection on the experience of Russia through the Hermitage?
