Stars: Sergei Dreiden, Maria Kuznetsova, Leonid Mozgovoy, Mikhail Piotrovsky, Alexander Chaban, David Giorgobiani, Oleg Khmelnitsky, Alla Osipenko, Artem Strelnikov, Lev Yeliseyev

Director: Alexandr Sokurov

Summary: The world's first single take unedited full length feature film, this is a journey of three hundred years of Russian art and history. Two men witness key historical figures enacting scenes from the Tsarist Empire.

A visually hypnotising cinematic feat, RUSSIAN ARK is Alexsandr Sokurov's spellbinding ode to St. Petersburg's State Hermitage Museum. Shot in one fluid take using High Definition video cameras, the photography floats and careens through the lavish corridors of the museum, examining its architectural details while following a dreamlike plot. A cast of 867 actors supply the action of the film, whether dancing the mazurka in a lively ballroom, performing a military salute, or watching a theatre performance. The Marquis (Sergey Dreiden), an aged but limber European dressed in solid black, is the film's charismatic guide, leading the narrator--who is the unidentified voice behind the camera--through each doorway and into each gallery in a sweeping tour of the Hermitage. While the Marquis interacts with some of the guests, debating about Italian art with a couple of Russian scholars, delighting over rich paintings by Rubens and Van Dyck with an angelic blind woman, taking a lively brunette for a spin on the dance floor, others do not see him. Even the narrator suspects that the Marquis is a ghost, long dead and wandering the Hermitage in a quest to better understand history. Time periods, indicated by style of dress, fluctuate between the 1700s and the present. Famous Russian figures, such as Peter the Great, Nicholas I, and Catherine the Great appear and then disappear, with no explanation of their roles. Between the Marquis and the narrator, confusion reigns. They are spectators and trespassers in this mysterious space, trying to find their way.

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Russian master Alexander Sokurov has tapped into the very flow of history itself for the flabbergasting Russian Ark. Thanks to the miracles of digital video, Sokurov (and cinematographer Tilman Buttner) uses a single, unbroken, 90-minute shot to wind his way through the Hermitage in St Petersburg--the repository of Russian art and the former home to royalty. Gliding through time, we glimpse Catherine II, modern-day museumgoers, and the doomed family of Nicholas II. History collapses on itself, as the opulence of the past and the horrors of the 20th century collide, and each door that opens onto yet another breathtaking gallery is another century to be heard from. The movie climaxes with a grand ball and thousands of extras, prompting thoughts of just how crazy Sokurov had to be to try a technical challenge like this--and how far a distance we've travelled, both physically and spiritually, since the movie began. --Robert Horton

Aspect Ratio:	Wide Screen
Main Language:	Russian
Region:	Region 0
Special Features:	Making Of Documentary, Hubert Robert A Fortunate Life Documentary Film By Alexander Sokurov, Filmographies, Biographies, Theatrical Trailer
Subtitles:	English
Year:	2002
Release Date:	September 29, 2003
Runtime:	96 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	A R T 256 D V D
Keywords:	Ark, Subtitled, General, Wide, Screen, Russian, Drama
Genre:	Drama