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 RUSSIAN
ARK
(aka Russkij kovcheg, 2002)
A film review by Jeff Johnson
Director: Aleksandr Sokurov
Sergei Dontsov .... Stranger (as Sergei Dreiden)
Mariya Kuznetsova .... Catherine The Great
Leonid Mozgovoy .... The Spy
David Giorgobiani .... Orbeli
Aleksandr Chaban .... Boris Piotrovsky
Maksim Sergeyev .... Peter the Great
Deep inside the meaning of ethereal, between the ether and the
real, exists the movements, moments and memories of the past gliding
effortlessly and hanging elegantly as mist, as fog, as glimpses
of the glances and laughter, slivered slightly and deeply, behind
the paint in the walls, behind the paintings on the wall, mistily
among the painters that have looked into the deep heart of humanity,
the everlasting truths and the fluidity, the rigidity, the captivity
of history and our journey and debt to those ghosts that inhabit
every nook and cranny of our world, of the clock or the Hermitage
Art museum in St. Petersburg which sparkles all gold, all cavern
deep full of the Masters and marble and the sweet, sweet smell of
history trapped in a gilded cage of wood and let loose (were the
walls to speak, or laugh, or question, or flirt, or dance) to dance
to the lovely strings of a country’s brush-stroke history
contained within the walls of a vessel created by Kings, architects
and artists that has been brought alive - literally - by Royalty,
Revolutionaries, artists and the people of Russia and today shown
through a bright-light mist of ghostly whispers and ballroom dances
by the Russian Director Alexander Sokurov, a steady-cam
and 850 people in one real-time continuous 90 minute history-cracking
shot on one cold day inside the Hermitage, which of course is an
assemblage of the most momentous and mundane moments in the history
of the Russian people, and therefore, four of the most beautiful
talking walls in the world (not, of course, to dismiss your own)
then again that’s what this film is all about, the enormity,
humanity and forgotten voices that have soaked into the paint on
the wall, that exist in the spaces between the insulation and the
wall of an important historical landmark and, simply enough, your
own art museum, your own landmarks or your own home which only goes
to suggest that Russian Ark is an amazing peek at the ghosts
that live in the woodwork, a display of space as a gathering of
society, of humanity living out history one parquet step at a time
and while I couldn’t help but be overwhelmed by the technical
brilliance, audacity and beauty of Russian Ark, the great
thing about this film is the fact that it is a love letter, a visually
lyrical love letter from its Director to a work of architectural
art…to a people…to his people.
JEFF JOHNSON - 26 January 2003
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