Russian Ark

In Russian Ark, the master Sokurov makes a visually overwhelming and technically admirable journey through three centuries of Russian and global (art) history, filmed in one 96 minute take. It is a guided tour of one of the world’s most famous museums, the Hermitage in St Petersburg. Not a dry trip past all the paintings, sculptures and crafts, but a sparkling dream come true about the different inhabitants of and visitors to this former palace. A narrator (the voice of Sokurov himself) and a cynical French marquis lead us around events large and small, while they enjoy (and squabble about) the works of art. They meet historic figures such as Catherine the Great and Czar Nicholas II, who gave his last ball there in 1913. In all, hundreds of actors and extras played a role in Russian Ark, who all had to be dressed in the historic costumes of the different eras. The music was performed by three orchestras and conducted by Valeri Gergiev. Steadicam specialist Tilman Büttner (also responsible for the running scenes in Lola rennt) also makes a great contribution to the film. His digital HD video camera glides and dances around the characters and objects. The recording was made directly to hard disk, after which the colour and light were processed in Berlin, still without a single cut.