Russian Ark -- 1 of 10

	Duration: 10:57 minutes Upload Time: 2007-08-15 23:15:57 User: igorzee :::: Favorites :::: Top Videos of Day
Description: 2000 Actors. 300 years of Russian History. 33 Rooms at the Hermitage Museum. 3 Live Orchestras. 1 Single Continuous Shot. "I'm a subscriber to the notion that the language of cinema finds its origins in the way the human mind dreams, specifically that montage replicates the structure of dreams. After all, surrealist cinema has primarily been predicated on montage. For me, 'Russian Ark,' by Alexander Sokurov, might be the most cinematically groundbreaking work in the last couple of decades simply because it completely challenges that notion by being the most dream-like movie I've seen, while not featuring a single edit. Sure, this type of thing has been done before -- filming in feature-length, in a single, unbroken take -- but it was always a gimmick. Sokurov, that most transcendent of working filmmakers, transcends the gimmick, and 'Russian Ark' is flawless, breathtaking, and visually plausible -- a legitimate accomplishment. Many Russian films are esoterically Russian, and some of the content in 'Russian Ark' certainly is, exploring Russian history, art, tensions and rivalries with European art and European nations, and national identity crisis, but cinematically, the movie is universal. It's universally astonishing. The narrative and narrator (a narrator in a physical sense only, more of a guide) drift through time and space as time and space become one, indistinguishable. The movie, in its unrelenting continuity and unblinking gaze, not only feels like a dream, but it sort of becomes one. In the sense that most movies are like dreams, they are really only remembered dreams, fragmented in a way that reflects the mechanics of both dream as well as memory. Because there is no editing in 'Russian Ark,' the movie has no language; cinematically, it's the equivalent of unspoken communication. Without the grammar inflicted by montage, using pure mise-en-scène, the movie becomes a pure experience and is like a dream not remembered, but a dream dreamt." by BornJaded (BornJaded@aol.com) from United States
Comments
NeoMoquariuz ::: Favorites I wonder what it would be like to exist in the right country in different century... 07-09-15 01:07:44 __________________________________________________
grossgermany ::: Favorites Why does everyone say the western civilisation is falling? 07-08-23 18:34:11 __________________________________________________
kutanov ::: Favorites absolute masterpiece. but you must be russian to completely understand. 07-08-16 06:29:05 __________________________________________________