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[jfb]

Russian Ark is a very strange film. Two mysterious characters--one entirely off-screen--wander through the Hermitage (Russia's largest art museum) and through several centuries of Russia's artistic and political history. There's no plot to speak of, but it's an absorbing experience, in large part because of an astonishing stylistic feat--the whole thing was filmed and is presented in a single ninety-some-minute take.

I think I would've gotten more out of it if I were more cultured, or more Russian. The film seems like a position paper in an ongoing debate about Russian history, and I missed the whole rest of the conversation. Also I frequently got the feeling that I was supposed to recognize historical figures--mostly tsars. Most of them (I think) were identified eventually, but I still didn't have the context to make much sense of them. Occasionally the film devolves to lecture, but most of the time it works as, if nothing else, sheer spectacle. The last quarter of the film, I think, is taken up with simple observation of a formal 19th-century (?) ball, and the crowd as it makes its way out of the building.

(Note to greyaenigma: One unbroken take. Think Tarkovsky.)

The Hermitage is an art museum today, but for most of its history it was the Winter Palace of the tsars. The film touches on the building's status in the present and during the Soviet era (a chilling scene alludes to the siege of Leningrad), but mostly depicts its past as the home of the ruling class--common people are rarely seen (unless they're the help, or the palace guards). I can't really articulate my reaction to this, but I will say I can't remember being so struck by the fact that I live in a country without a native tradition of aristocracy.

Comments

Re: I went and saw this too ...

[jfb.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's only people who can like a movie on technical merits--it wasn't the technical merits that I was thinking about, more the sensory experience. I don't know your tastes, but I do know there are people who need a story (and characters) to enjoy a film, and people who don't. I'm very much the latter (and, perhaps not unrelated, I tend to forget the plot of a movie immediately after seeing it), but I've noticed a lot of people aren't.

Whatever the crucial factor is: Definitely not for everyone. Good to have an alternate view.