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In his introduction to Russian Ark, Professor Gillespie, pointed out how much Russian history is portrayed in the film as well as how much is not portrayed. The film gives the feeling that Russian history starts from the early 1600s (when Peter the Great declared St Petersburg the Russian capital) and ends with the termination of Imperial rule brought on by the Revolution. There is barely any reference to the Soviet period. Since this film is a journey through St Petersburg's Hermitage museum, Sokurov has portrayed a rich tapestry of an historical period that is most associated with the building itself - as home to the Romanov dynasty - from Peter the Great, to Catherine the Great (who started the famed art collection) right through to Nicholas II. Much of the post-film discussion was centred on the motivation and merits of the long-take strategy. For example, why did Sokurov decide to shoot the film in one take? Professor Gillespie provided a range of interesting answers. Firstly the film is a single take because Sokurov was technically able to achieve this with the advent of digital film which overcomes the 10/12 minute limitations imposed by tradtional film stock. Secondly, Sokurov was able to make, in some sense, the ultimate long take. As someone who has learnt from and looks up to Andrei Tarkovsky (some would say one of the great long-take masters), he could go one better and make the whole film in a single shot. Finally and more interestingly, Sokurov's style takes issue with that of the heavily edited socialist realist style of montage as deployed by such filmmakers as Eisenstein in the Soviet period. Professor Gillespie explained that various eras and thoughts converge in the film. If the costumes did not indicate it, the language used (which many non-Russian speaking viewers miss) indicates the period and identity of the people in the film be they the nobility or modern characters such as the revolutionary sailors. An implication is also made about the loss of religious values in the scene where is a young boy is reprimanded for only seeing the artistic (rather than the spiritual) qualities in a painting of St Peter and John the Baptist. As to its reception in Russia, Professor Gillespie identified a mixed reaction. Firstly, it was great that Sokurov has made a positive film about Russia and that his films are successful commercially and in Film festivals - he is a director to be proud of! In contrast, he is criticized for accepting European funding. Professor Gillespie also surmised that the film's target was a Western audience in order to show a positive view in contrast to some Russian genres depicting gangsters and Stalinism. We asked the question whether Sokurov was in fact being post-modern? By employing a good deal of performative and reflexive style he may well have been casting a highly sceptical eye over the history that is present in the film. Since it was also pointed out that the film could be relating the history of the art collection itself, it could be a sceptical view of the history contained within the Hermitage. We asked how this film fits in with Sokurov's other work. Professor Gillespie pointed out how different Sokurov's films are, but, taking into account his very unorthodox portrayals of Hitler, Lenin and Hirohito, there could be some validity in pointing to an interest in alternative historical representations. After the discussion, Professor Gillespie joined us in the pub for drinks, chips and more chats.
7th March - Russian Ark by Aleksandr Sokurov (Russia, 2002)
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Duke Of York's Cinema Wednesday 7th March, 6:30pm Alexander Sokurov wanted to make a whole film "in one breath" and that is exactly what he has done in Russian Ark. Focusing on three centuries of Russian history, the film is a unique tour de force, filmed in one long take of a 96-minute tracking shot with a cast of 2000 actors and extras and taking the viewer in one breath to the great Hermitage Collection in St. Petersburg, showing real works of art from 33 rooms and exploring their meaning in a larger context. To have pulled off the ambitious feat of one continuous tracking shot, the longest of its kind in cinematic history, is amazing but the film’s greatness does not lie on its technical achievements alone. "Everyone knows the present, but who can remember the past", says the stranger in Russian Ark, but in remembering the past Sokurov lets us enter the past in a dream-like manner where past, present and future meet. The film begins in a slow and meditative style but ends in a grand finale unequalled in film history. Shooting on high-definition video under immense pressure, director of photography Tilmann Büttner, who also shot Run Lola Run, through his graceful steadicam work, lends this bold experiment a certain dreamlike quality. The screening will be introduced and the post-film discussion led by Prof David Charles Gillespie from the Department of European Studies and Modern Languages, University of Bath. Prof Gillespie teaches Russian at Bath and has published monographs and articles on various aspects of Soviet and post-Soviet literature and Russian film. He is the author of Early Soviet Cinema: Innovation, Ideology and Propaganda (Wallflower, 2000) and Russian Cinema (Longman, 2003). He is currently working on the portrayal of femininity in post-Soviet Russian film.
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