Russian Ark (Русский ковчег) is a 2002 movie by Russian director Alexander Sokurov. It was the first feature film ever to be shot in a single take, filmed using a single 90-minute Steadicam tracking shot. Image File history File links Russian Ark DVD cover Source: Amazon. ... Alexander Nikolayevich Sokurov is a Russian auteur filmmaker from St Petersburg who has been hailed as successor to Andrei Tarkovsky. ... Alexander Nikolayevich Sokurov is a Russian auteur filmmaker from St Petersburg who has been hailed as successor to Andrei Tarkovsky. ... Also see: 2002 (number). ... This article is about motion pictures. ... Alexander Nikolayevich Sokurov is a Russian auteur filmmaker from St Petersburg who has been hailed as successor to Andrei Tarkovsky. ... To film this recreated Victorian London street scene, the cameraman next to the lamp post is using a steadicam and wearing the harness required to support it. ... In motion picture terminology, a tracking shot is the same as a dolly shot or a trucking shot--the camera is mounted on a wheeled platform that is pushed on rails while the picture is being taken. ...

Synopsis

A narrator, who is unnamed, and unseen by the audience, and voiced by the director, wanders through the Winter Palace (now the main building of Russian State Hermitage Museum) in St. Petersburg. The narrator implies that he has died, and is a ghost drifting through the palace. In each room he encounters various real and fictional people from various time periods in the city's three hundred year history. He is accompanied by a companion, 'the European' (played by Sergei Dreiden), who represents the nineteenth century traveller the Marquis de Custine, and who is visible to the audience. The fourth wall is repeatedly broken and re-erected; at times the narrator-director and the companion interact freely with the other performers, and at other times go completely unnoticed. Located between the Palace Embankment and the Palace Square, the Winter Palace (Russian: Зимний Дворец) in Saint Petersburg, Russia was built between 1754 and 1762 as the winter residence of the Russian tsars. ... The State Hermitage Museum (Russian: ) in Saint Petersburg, Russia is one of the largest museums in the world, with 3 million works of art (not all on display at once), [1] and one of the oldest art galleries and museums of human history and culture in the world. ... Saint Petersburg (Russian: Санкт-Петербу́рг, English transliteration: Sankt-Peterburg), colloquially known as Питер (transliterated Piter), formerly known as Leningrad (Ленингра́д, 1924–1991) and... For other uses, see Ghost (disambiguation). ... Renowned Russian actor and star of Alexander Sokurovs Russian Ark. ... Astolphe-Louis-Léonor, marquis de Custine (1790 – 1857) was a French aristocrat and writer who is best known for his travel writing, in particular his account of his visit to Russia in 1839 entitled Empire of the Czar: A Journey Through Eternal Russia. ... The fourth wall is the imaginary invisible wall at the front of the stage in a proscenium theater, through which the audience sees the action in the world of the play. ...

The film begins on a winter's day with the arrival by horse drawn carriage of a small party of men and women to a minor side entrance of the Winter Palace. The narrator (whose eyes are always our point of view) meets one member of this party, 'the European', and follows him through numerous rooms of the Palace. As each room is entered, we find ourselves in a different period of Russian history (but not in chronological order). Perspective when used in the context of vision and visual perception refers to the way in which objects appear to the eye based on their spatial attributes or dimension and the position of the eye relative to the objects. ...

The film shows, among other things, the spectacular presentation of operas and plays in the era of Catherine the Great; a formal court proceeding in which Tsar Nicholas I is offered a formal apology by the Shah of Iran for the death of Alexander Griboedov, an ambassador; the idyllic family life of Tsar Nicholas II's children; the formal changing of the Palace Guard; the museum's director whispering the need to make repairs during the rule of Josef Stalin; and a desperate Leningrader making his own coffin during the 900-day siege of the city in World War II. Catherine II (Екатерина II Алексеевна: Yekaterína II Alekséyevna, April 21, 1729 - November 6, 1796), born Sophie Augusta Fredericka, known as Catherine the Great, reigned as empress of Russia from... Nicholas I (Russian: Николай I Павлович, Nikolai I Pavlovich), July 6 (June 25, Old Style), 1796–March 2 (18 February Old Style), 1855), was the Emperor of Russia from 1825 until 1855, known as one of the most reactionary of the Russian monarchs. ... One of the worlds longest-lasting monarchies, the Iranian monarchy went through many transformations over the centuries, from the days of Persia to the creation of what is now modern day Iran. ... Alexander Sergeyevich Griboyedov (Александр Сергеевич Грибоедов in Russian) (January 15, 1795 - February 11, 1829) was a Russian diplomat, playwright, and composer, whose brilliant comedy in verse... Nicholas II redirects here. ... (Russian, in full: Ио́сиф Виссарио́нович Ста́лин [Iosif Vissarionovich Stalin]; December 18 [O.S. December 6] 1878[1] – March 5, 1953) was the leader of the Soviet Union from the mid-1920s to his death in 1953 and General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1922-1953... Saint Petersburg (Russian: Санкт-Петербу́рг, English transliteration: Sankt-Peterburg), colloquially known as Питер (transliterated Piter), formerly known as Leningrad (Ленингра́д, 1924–1991) and... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000...

The climax of the film is a grand ball, with many hundreds of participants in spectacular period costume, and a full orchestra conducted by Valery Gergiev, followed by a long final exit with a crowd down the Grand Staircase of the palace. Valery Gergiev Valery Abisalovich Gergiev, Russian: Вале́рий Абиса́лович Ге́ргиев (born 1953) is a Russian conductor and opera company director. ...

The narrator then leaves the building through a side exit and in a digitally enhanced sequence, the building is represented as an ark preserving Russian culture, and floating in the sea.

Production

The film displays 33 rooms of the museum, which are filled with a cast of over 2000 actors.

Russian Ark was recorded in uncompressed high definition video using a Sony HDW-F900. The camera used was specifically designed for this film. The information was not recorded compressed to tape as usual, but uncompressed onto a hard disk which could hold 100 minutes. Four attempts were made to complete the shot; the first three had to be interrupted due to technical faults, but the fourth attempt was completed successfully. The shot was executed by Steadicam operator Tilman Büttner. The lighting cameramen on the film were Bernd Fischer and Anatoli Radionov (uncredited). The movie itself was made using a technique called formalism, a technique that makes the film seem abstract in nature. It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into High-definition television. ... Lars von Trier shoots Dogville using a Sony HDW-F900 The Sony CineAlta series of cameras are high definition video cameras geared toward motion picture production. ... A long take is an uninterrupted shot in a film which lasts much longer than the conventional editing pace either of the film itself or of films in general, usually lasting several minutes. ... To film this recreated Victorian London street scene, the cameraman next to the lamp post is using a steadicam and wearing the harness required to support it. ... Formalist film theory is a theory of film study that is focused on the formal, or technical, elements of a film: i. ...

Historical background

The narrator's guide, referred to as "the European" in the film, is based on the Marquis de Custine, who visited Russia in 1839 and wrote a widely-read book about his visit. A few biographical elements from Custine's life are shown in the film. Like the European, the Marquis' mother was friends with the Italian sculptor Canova and he himself was very religious. Throughout his book, La Russie en 1839, Custine mocks Russian civilization as a thin veneer of Europe on an Asiatic soul; in the film, this is why the European makes comments about Russia being a theater and the people he meets being actors. The Marquis' family fortune came from a porcelain works, hence the European's interest in the Sèvres porcelain waiting for the diplomatic reception. At the end of the film, which depicts the last imperial ball in 1913, the European appears to accept Russia as a European nation. Astolphe-Louis-Léonor, marquis de Custine (1790 – 1857) was a French aristocrat and writer who is best known for his travel writing, in particular his account of his visit to Russia in 1839 entitled Empire of the Czar: A Journey Through Eternal Russia. ... 1839 (MDCCCXXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... Canova may refer to: Antonio Canova Canova, South Dakota This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Road to Sèvres, Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, 1855-1865. ... Year 1913 (MCMXIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ...

Critical Reception

While the movie was not a huge commercial success, the movie was almost universally praised by film critics. Roger Ebert wrote about the film: "Apart from anything else, this is one of the best-sustained ideas I have ever seen on the screen....{T}he effect of the unbroken flow of images (experimented with in the past by directors like Hitchcock and Max Ophuls) is uncanny. If cinema is sometimes dreamlike, then every edit is an awakening. Russian Ark spins a daydream made of centuries."[1] Roger Joseph Ebert (born June 18, 1942) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American film critic. ...

Tagline

"2,000 Actors. 300 Years of Russian History. 33 Rooms at the Hermitage Museum. 3 Live Orchestras. 1 Single Continuous Shot."

See also

• Winter Palace
• Hermitage Museum

Located between the Palace Embankment and the Palace Square, the Winter Palace (Russian: Зимний Дворец) in Saint Petersburg, Russia was built between 1754 and 1762 as the winter residence of the Russian tsars. ... The State Hermitage Museum (Russian: ) in Saint Petersburg, Russia is one of the largest museums in the world, with 3 million works of art (not all on display at once), [1] and one of the oldest art galleries and museums of human history and culture in the world. ...

External links

• Russian Ark at the Internet Movie Database
• Russian Ark at Rotten Tomatoes
• Russian Ark at Box Office Mojo
• Russian Ark homepage
• Russian Ark Page at Wellspring Media
• Review at Kino Kultura