Photo: Sergei Donstov in Aleksandr Sokurov's Russian Ark
Russian Ark's filmmaker-as-camera protagonist is inexplicably dropped inside the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, and with a catty European diplomat as guide, he travels from room to room and experiences 300 years of Russian history. Stedicam expert Tilman Buttner (Run Lola Run) bears the brunt of Aleksandr Sokurov's rigorous yet exhilarating exercise: For 96 minutes, Buttner keeps the camera going, effortlessly weaving his way through the film's elaborate mise-en-scène. In one room, Catherine the Great stages a rehearsal of one of her plays. In the next, Valery Gergiev conducts his orchestra at the Great Royal Ball of 1913. Russian Ark catalogs and sorts through the artifice of Russian history, calling attention to itself as a ritual of performance art. Sokurov lingers on the many paintings that hang on the walls of the Hermitage, challenging notions of nationalism, artistic representation, subjectivity, and naturalism.
Russian Ark's filmmaker-as-camera protagonist is inexplicably dropped inside the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, and with a catty European diplomat as guide, he travels from room to room and experiences 300 years of Russian history. Stedicam expert Tilman Buttner (Run Lola Run) bears the brunt of Aleksandr Sokurov's rigorous yet exhilarating exercise: For 96 minutes, Buttner keeps the camera going, effortlessly weaving his way through the film's elaborate mise-en-scène. In one room, Catherine the Great stages a rehearsal of one of her plays. In the next, Valery Gergiev conducts his orchestra at the Great Royal Ball of 1913. Russian Ark catalogs and sorts through the artifice of Russian history, calling attention to itself as a ritual of performance art. Sokurov lingers on the many paintings that hang on the walls of the Hermitage, challenging notions of nationalism, artistic representation, subjectivity, and naturalism.
