Review: Russian Ark (2002) · 2:48am Feb 21st, 2016
Russian director Alexander Sokurov's spellbinding 93 minute meditation on more then 300 years of Russian history is an elegiac, elegant ode to a world long since lost to the forces of time, made all the more dreamlike and poetic by the fact that it is a single, uninterrupted tracking shot through the massive and labyrinthian world of Saint Petersburg's Hermitage Museum, otherwise known as the Winter Palace.
Beautifully crafted, the film has no real plot to speak of beyond the fact that the POV narrator (voiced by Sokurov himself) is awoken after an accident to find himself in the Winter Palace, and, upon meeting the eccentric Stranger (played by Sergei Dreiden), journeys through the complex history of Russia, as represented by an array of events and images.
This sequence is almost like a dream, with Sokurov's constantly roaming camera lovingly absorbing the astonishing artistic and cultural beauty that the Palace represents, and in doing so, writes an incredibly heartfelt poem to Russia's past. Perhaps a bit rose tinted, but no doubt a labor of true love and passion, and in that, one is swept into Russia's history and culture, and truly made to respect and admire that which the country has given us.
It is true that due to the film's dreamlike, almost meditative aura, this film isn't exactly a 'mainstream' film, but its a worthwhile one, if only to gaze in wonder at the beauty of Russia, and at the incredible technical achievement this film represents.
5 out of 5 stars.
