Russian Ark

Russian Ark (Russkiy Kovcheg) (2002)

Runtime: 99 minutes

Directed by: Aleksander Sokurov

Starring: Hundreds of people

From: Seemingly hundreds of different production companies across 6 countries

This movie is now currently off of Netflix Instant, where I saw it on Thursday night. My apologies for not seeing it sooner, but stuff happens. I did rewatch the poliziotteschi film Rulers of the City, which I do still dig. As for this film, it is quite unique and it is far from traditional... despite it being more about gimmick than anything else. I am glad I still watched it. All the details are below: 

Here is yet another case of me watching something because it will soon be gone from Netflix Instant. Ever since I heared about this movie from Letterboxd, I was intrigued. Sure, it's more gimmick than actual story, but it is something I am glad I finally watched.

This fantastical tale is about an unseen man who wanders through what is the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, Russia. He is with a mysterious man that is apparently some 19th century French dude known as Marquis de Custine, who traveled to Russia in his life... and judging by the movie, was a pompous A-hole. They go through the various rooms and the settings represent the past several hundred years of Russian life and both real & fictional characters are seen, including Catherine the Great, Peter the Great, and both Tsar Nicholas I & Tsar Nicholas II. At least there's sites like Wikipedia that can fill in some of the details if you are not an expert in Russian history; it helps clarify various things, you know. Oh, and did I say that this production involved a few thousand people in front of the camera and behind it... and this was all done in ONE TAKE with a Steadicam?*

Like I said, it's more about the incredible gimmick than the fanciful story, although at least you get to see many different paintings, learn various things about Russia, and get to see how those people dressed. While the audio was done in post-production, that does not diminish how they had to do this all in one day as that Winter Palace (where the monarchs lived) is now part of a museum. In addition, the entire hour and a half long shot was done from beginning to end on the 4th take. It's incredible that they actually pulled it off with no complications and the biggest gripe you can make is that some of the actors look right at the camera. When you have a big ballroom dance sequence for a few minutes and it goes swell, I won't gripe too much about little errors.

I really was not quite sure how to rate this. I finally came to 4 stars as the technical achievement was great and despite how curious it is and how it is a strange way to advertise the Hermitage Museum (they were among the many producers)... I was compelled by this oddity and depending on how you feel about the current Russian political climate, you might wish to travel to St. Petersburg in order to visit the Winter Palace yourself.

* Since the release of this film, only a small number of (mostly) obscure foreign films have been filmed in a one true take format. Aside from a Bela Tarr movie about Macbeth-as of course Bela Tarr would try to do such a thing in the 80's-this was the first movie to do such a thing.