Review: Russkij kovcheg (2002)
Dennis Schwartz
screenwriters: Boris Khaimsky/Anatoli Nikiforov; cinematographer: Tilman
Büttner; editors: Stefan Ciupek/Sergei Ivanov/Betina Kuntzsch; music: Sergei
Yevtushenko; cast: Mariya Kuznetsova (Catherine The Great), Leonid Mozgovoy (The
Spy), Sergei Dreiden (The Marquis), Mikhail Piotrovsky (Himself), David
Giorgobiani (Orbeli), Boris Piotrovsky (Alexander Chaban), Lev Yeliseyev
(Himself), Oleg Khmelnitsky (Himself); Runtime: 96; MPAA Rating: NR; producers:
Andrey Deryabin/
Jens Meurer/Karsten Stoter; Wellspring Media; 2002-Russia/in Russian with
English subtitles)
"A truly unique cinematic experience."
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Russian Ark is shot in a single, unedited Steadicam shot of 96-minutes while
moving through 33 rooms in the world's largest museum, the Hermitage in St.
Petersburg. The talented German cinematographer Tilman Büttner took the longest
continuous take ever in a movie. Yes. It's a gimmick. But the lyrical story is
so masterfully conceived and the groundbreaking visuals so spellbinding, that
the gimmick can be overlooked in favor of the film's overall sublime effect. I
felt as if I was transported back in a dreamlike state to the 19th century and
became part of the bizarre scenario of visiting the Hermitage along with a party
of Russian nobles and officers. I felt slightly dizzy with joy realizing I was
not taken on the usual art museum tour, but was welcomed as an observer into how
it must have felt to be caught up in the frenzy of being in the company of the
privileged class.
The film is transferred from high-definition digital video to a 35mm print,
where some picture quality is lost in its theatrical release but not enough to
matter. It's directed by Tarkovsky protégé Alexsandr Sokurov ("Taurus"/"Mother
and Son"), and features a cast of close to two thousand costumed actors and
extras plus three live orchestras. The actors rehearsed for several months and
the Hermitage was restored to give it the look the filmmaker wanted (there were
reportedly two failed takes before it was completed in one swooping motion
without editing, as the Hermitage was procured for only one day). "Ark" is a
stunning homage to St. Petersburg's State Hermitage Museum, built in the 1700s.
It also holds the Winter Palace (the former home to the tsars).
The film crosses three centuries of tsarist Russia, while Sokurov remains
invisible as the narrator engaged in an ongoing dialogue with an on-screen
cynical and boorish 19th-century French diplomat dressed out of place in black
and known as the Marquis (Sergei Dreiden). Sokurov has identified him as the
Marquis de Custine (his sarcastic observations in the Empire Of The Czar was
published in 1839), and he becomes the unlikely tour guide taking us through his
time-traveling journey. He rubs shoulders at the Hermitage with such dignitaries
as Peter the Great (beating one of his generals) and Catherine the Great
(searching for the loo in order to do number one). All the guests are acting
natural without them aware of the camera's presence.
The film opens as the offscreen Sokurov says "I open my eyes and I see nothing."
Some kind of miracle left him viewing the past image of smartly uniformed
Russian officers escorting gorgeously costumed women out of their carriages and
making their way through falling snow in search of the grand ball held in the
Hermitage.
This ghost-like story is part pageant, museum tour and historical reflection, as
it moves through the elegant corridors and the richness of the Hermitage's art
collection and fine architecture and through the seat of where the history of
Russia has been preserved. The frizzy-haired Marquis is the only one to
acknowledge the filmmaker's presence and continually baits him by taking swipes
at the Russian culture. He bumps into Pushkin and says of the legendary national
poet that he read him in French and doesn't see what all the fuss is about. The
Marquis dismisses the Russian artist as imitative of the Italian Raphael and
other great European artists, because his government doesn't trust him to be
creative and original.
There are many eye-dazzling moments of great paintings displayed and further
analyzed (such as the Rubens and Van Dyck), overheard whispered conversations,
an apology from the grandson and representatives of the Shah to Nicholas I for
the killing of Russian diplomats (carried out in the pomp of a state function),
and there are the love intrigues between young dashing officers over one lady
they both fancy. But it all culminates in the height of pageantry at the great
royal ball held in the Hermitage under Tsar Nicholas 11 in 1913 just before the
Bolshevic Revolution. To the music of Glinka played by a live orchestra, the
mazurkas are danced by the many enthusiastic nobles. They are oblivious that
their end is coming so soon. The filmmaker is wryly commenting on how Russia dug
its own grave and can't get out of it. Though the scenario might seem to wax
nostalgic, the sense is more of pity that Russia's greatness and rich cultural
past was only reserved for the pleasure of the nobles while the masses were
treated with cruelty. Sokurov's aesthetic aim might be to film in the polar
opposite style of Sergei Eisentein's 1927 proletarian masterpiece October, a
spectacle commissioned to celibrate the tenth anniversary of the 1917 revolution
and noted for its sharp editing techniques and symbolic montage shots. Sokurov's
aims also seem darker, as he brings back the past but is too frightened to
contemplate what the future holds. He contemplates what price must be paid for
freedom, as he recalls while defending St. Peterburg from the Germans during
WW11 a million lives were lost.
The result is a mind-boggling adventure through the richness of Russian history
and art, where the filmmaker painted sketches of what it was like for those in
power and lets the viewer fill in the ominous blank spaces he left in the
shadows. It's a daring way of filmmaking, telling a true story as if it were a
dream and subject to all sorts of interpretations. Some might find it
pretentious, not fulfilling, or just plain boring. I found it overwhelming, an
innovative film that brought to life its penetrating story. A truly unique
cinematic experience.
REVIEWED ON 5/10/2003 GRADE: A +
Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews"
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED DENNIS SCHWARTZ
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