Russkiy kovcheg (2002)

Director:

Aleksandr Sokurov

Writers:

Boris Khaimsky (dialogue)
Anatoli Nikiforov (written by)

Release Date:

8 November 2002 (Italy)

Genre:

Drama | Fantasy | History

Tagline:

2000 cast members, 3 orchestras, 33 rooms, 300 years, ALL IN ONE TAKE

Plot:

A 19th century French aristocrat, notorious for his scathing memoirs about life in Russia, travels through the Russian State Hermitage Museum and encounters historical figures from the last 200+ years.

Plot Keywords:

Russian | 19th Century | Russian History | Museum | Winter Palace

Awards:

9 wins & 9 nominations

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Sergei Dontsov	...	The Stranger (The Marquis de Custine) (as Sergei Dreiden)
Mariya Kuznetsova	...	Catherine The Great
Leonid Mozgovoy	...	The Spy
Mikhail Piotrovsky	...	Himself (Hermitage Director)
David Giorgobiani	...	Orbeli
Aleksandr Chaban	...	Boris Piotrovsky
Lev Yeliseyev	...	Himself
Oleg Khmelnitsky	...	Himself
Alla Osipenko	...	Herself
Artyom Strelnikov	...	Talented Boy
Tamara Kurenkova	...	Herself (Blind Woman)
Maksim Sergeyev	...	Peter the Great
Natalya Nikulenko	...	Catherine the Great
Yelena Rufanova	...	First Lady
Yelena Spiridonova	...	Second Lady

Also Known As:

Русский ковчег (Russia)
Russian Ark (International: English title)
Russian Ark - Eine einzigartige Zeitreise durch die Eremitage (Germany)

Runtime:

99 min

Country:

Russia | Germany

Language:

Russian

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Taiwan:GP | Italy:T | Brazil:Livre | France:U | New Zealand:PG | Sweden:7 | Switzerland:7 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:7 (canton of Vaud) | UK:U | Argentina:Atp | Australia:G | Singapore:PG | Chile:TE | Canada:G

Filming Locations:

St. Petersburg, Russia

Company:

State Hermitage Museum, The

Trivia:

The film's final, hypnotic dance sequence was a recreation of a 1913 gathering which marked the final ball ever held in Csarist Russia. It should be noted that the sequence was filmed in the exact same ballroom that was used in 1913, and that the room had not been used for dancing since that pre-Revolutionary time.

Movie Connections:

Featured in In One Breath: Alexander Sokurov's Russian Ark (2003) (V)

Soundtrack:

Aria

A feature length virtual museum tour

If you like visiting the homes of the formerly high and mighty, or have a passion for museums, this film ought to satisfy. It's really a virtual tour of the Hermitage Museum (the former Winter Palace) in St Petersburg but with 2800 actors and extras in full costume to add a little verisimilitude to the occasion. (If you want to repeat the experience for free visit the Hermitages' brilliant web site). I can believe that the whole 90 minutes was filmed in one take (at the third attempt) but I was staggered that the museum authorities allowed them to do it. Perhaps the clincher was to include a role for the present museum director who is seen with some of his predecessors fretting over the state of the Tsar's throne's upholstery.

Not knowing a lot of Russian history, some of the scenes didn't make much sense, but I did cotton on to Anastasia being late for tea. Maybe she got away after all. There was nothing from the Soviet era, except a brief scene during the German siege of Lenningrad (a million died, mainly from starvation, and many made coffins for themselves before they expired). This seems appropriate, since the communists contributed nothing to the buildings, which were started by Peter the Great and added to by his successors. A bad fire in 1837 was followed by extensive reconstruction and many of the rooms we see in the film date from that time.

I suppose this is the first film in which the set is the star and the actors merely props. There is in fact one dramatic part, that of the French Marquis who attended the Tsar's court in the 1840s, and who is somehow able to take us backward and forward in time. Even he is a bit two-dimensional, in fact the other, unseen, presence (the voice of the director of the film) is as real.

Towards the end we attend a great ball, and the Marquis gets to dance the Marzurka again. The music is great (is that Glinka conducting something of this own?) and the atmosphere gay (as somebody says `you can't be shy for the Mazurka') and for a moment history is forgotten. But we don't have a plot, the characters are cut-outs (with the exception of Catherine who seems to have been one of the more boisterous Empresses in history) and, basically, nothing happens. Yet I found myself absorbed by it all, occasionally wishing I could click my mouse to zoom in on an interesting painting. Ironically, much of the art is non-Russian, so `Russian Ark' is something of a misnomer – `Euro-Ark' is nearer the mark. At the end of the day, though, I am lost with admiration for the cinematographer, who managed to keep his digital camera running and pointed in the right direction for 90 minutes without making a mistake. Madness, brilliant Russian madness.