Transcript Aleksander Sokurov (b.1951)

“We are destined to sail
forever, to live forever…”
The Russian Ark
by AleksanderSokurov
AleksanderSokurov
(b.1951)
Aleksander Sokurov
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First worked as TV program director
Educated as historian
Educated at the VGIK as film director
Friend of Tarkovsky, develops Tarkovsky’s line in
cinema: dreams, reflections on the past, long
takes
Produced numerous documentaries, “elegies”;
first feature films were banned (in early 1980s).
Later films received numerous prizes (Cannes,
Venice, Toronto, etc.)
Selected filmography
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The Degraded (1980)
Mournful Unconcern (1983–1987)
Days of Eclipse (1988)
Empire (1986)
Save and Protect (1989)
The Second Circle (1990)
Stone (1992)
Mother and Son (1996)
Moloch(1999)
Taurus (2000)
Russian Ark (2002)
Father and Son (2003)
The Sun (2004)
Alexandra (2007)
Faust (2011)
Russian Ark (2002)
Russian Ark
• A passage through 300 years of history
and culture represented by the Hermitage
(its collection founded by Catherine the
Great in 1764)
• “History and life, history and art”; “simple
things put in simple words” (Sokurov)
• The meaning of the title: the biblical story
of Noah; culture as the ark that keeps the
nation afloat.
Russian Ark
• An encounter of a European (presumably,
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Marquis de Custine, author of Russia in 1839)
and a Russian (invisible, the voice behind the
camera’s “eye”).
The two wander throughout the halls and
staircases of the Hermitage as well as through
different epochs.
Both have no idea how they got there
(“accident” in case of the Russian). Unseen by
most other people.
The European “guest”/ghost
Russian Ark
• Celebration of a passing, never repeated
moment (as in theatre: impossible to edit
mistakes)
• Tarkovsky’s principles taken to the
extreme (long takes replaced by one-shot
film)
• Uninterrupted continuity of the film serves
as metaphor for continuity of history
Sokurov against Eisenstein
• Total opposite of the montage cinema (ironically, S.
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received Eisenstein scholarship as a student)
Dream in place of “documentary”
Individuals vs depersonalized “masses”
Beauty vs roughness
High culture vs barbarism (sailors at the Hermitage –
revolutionary sailors in October)
The aristocratic crowd leaving the stage of history (the
Hermitage) with dignity vs the revolutionary mob
rushing into the palace
The Palace Square, 19th cent.
Eisenstein’s October
19th-cent. view
Russian Ark: The room where Provisional Government was
arrested in 1917, shown in pre-revolutionary peace
Russian Ark: Quotes
• “Russia is like a theatre”
• “What kind of play is this? Let’s hope it’s not a
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tragedy”
“In any case, it’s too late to interfere. Everything
has already happened”
“Russian music makes me break out in hives”
“Everyone can see the future, but no one
remembers the past”
“Let’s go! – Where? – Forward!”
Russian Ark
Several genres combined:
• sci-fi (time machine)
• historical film
• documentary (life of the museum)
• poetic cinema (dream-like quality)
• Film about film; ironically, no film – digital
technology
Making Russian Ark
• Two years of work on the project. The route of
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the camera carefully planned
36 hours to prepare the setting
December 23, the shortest day of the year
About 4 hours of rehearsals
90 minutes to shoot the 90 minute film in a
single continuous take (“film made in one
breath” - Sokurov)
Digitally enhanced last image
Making Russian Ark
• About 2000 costumes
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made for the film
Over 1000 extras
participating
Real historical objects
(porcelain, furniture,
some jewellery, etc)
Mariinsky Theatre
orchestra, conductor
Valerii Gergiev
Tillman Büttner,
Steadicam operator (German).
Sokurov rehearses with the extras
The actual Hermitage treasures
prepared for shooting
Each scene carefully planned
The cameraman at work