Editing Russian Ark

{{Short description|2002 Russian experimental drama film}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2020}}
{{Infobox film
| name           = Russian Ark
| image          = Russian-Ark-poster-2002.jpg
| alt            =
| caption        = Theatrical release poster
| director       = [[Alexander Sokurov]]
| producer       = Andrey Deryabin<br />Jens Meurer<br />Karsten Stöter
| writer         = Anatoli Nikiforov<br />Alexander Sokurov
| narrator       = Alexander Sokurov
| starring       = {{plainlist|
* [[Alexander Sokurov]]
* [[Sergey Dreyden]]
* Mariya Kuznetsova 
* Maksim Sergeyev 
* Anna Aleksakhina 
* Vladimir Baranov
}}
| music          = Sergei Yevtushenko
| cinematography = Tilman Büttner
| editing        = Stefan Ciupek<br />Sergei Ivanov<br />Betina Kuntzsch<br />Patrick Wilfert
| studio         = Seville Pictures
| distributor    = Wellspring Media
| released       = {{Film date|df=y|2002|05|22|[[2002 Cannes Film Festival|Cannes]]|2003|04|19|Russia|2003|05|01|Germany}}
| runtime        = 96 minutes
| country        = {{ubl
  | Russia
  | Germany
  | Canada
  | Finland
  | Denmark
}}
| language       = {{ubl
  | Russian
  | Persian
}}
| budget         = ~$2.5 million<ref>{{cite journal |title=Что такое "Русский ковчег" |journal=Коммерсантъ |date=25 December 2001 |url=https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/304093 |publisher=[[Kommersant]] |access-date=2019-09-16 |language=ru}}</ref>
| gross          = $8.7 million<ref name="mojo"/>
}}
'''''Russian Ark''''' ({{langx|ru|Русский ковчег|Russkij kovcheg}}) is a 2002 [[Experimental film|experimental]] [[historical drama]] film directed by [[Alexander Sokurov]]. The plot follows an unnamed narrator, who wanders through the [[Winter Palace]] in [[Saint Petersburg]], and implies that he died in some horrible accident and is a ghost drifting through. In each room, he encounters various real and fictional people from various periods in the city's 300-year history. He is accompanied by "the European", who represents the [[Marquis de Custine]], a 19th-century French traveler.<ref>{{cite book|title=Historical Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Cinema|author=Peter Rollberg|publisher=Rowman / Littlefield|year=2009|place=US|isbn=978-0-8108-6072-8|pages=593–594}}</ref>

An [[co-production (media)|international co-production]] between Russia and Germany, ''Russian Ark'' was shot entirely in the [[Winter Palace]] of the Russian State [[Hermitage Museum]] on 23 December 2001, using a one-take single 87-minute [[Steadicam]] [[sequence shot]]. It extensively uses the [[fourth wall]] device, but repeatedly broken and re-erected. At times, the narrator and the companion interact with the other performers, while at other times they pass unnoticed.

The film was entered into the [[2002 Cannes Film Festival]].<ref name="festival-cannes.com">{{cite web |url=http://www.festival-cannes.com/en/archives/ficheFilm/id/3157774/year/2002.html |title=Festival de Cannes: Russian Ark |access-date=25 October 2009|work=festival-cannes.com}}</ref>

== Plot ==
On a winter's day, a small party of men and women arrive by horse-drawn carriage to a minor side entrance of the Winter Palace, dressed in the style of the early 19th century to attend a ball hosted by the [[Alexander I of Russia|Emperor Alexander I]]. The narrator (whose [[Perspective (graphical)|point of view]] is always in first-person) meets another spectral but visible outsider, "the European", and follows him through numerous rooms of the palace. "The European", a 19th-century French diplomat who appears to be the [[Marquis de Custine]], has nothing but contempt for Russians; he tells the narrator that they are unable to create or appreciate beauty as "Europeans" do, as demonstrated by the European treasures around him. Each room manifests a different period of Russian history, although the periods are not in chronological order.

Featured are [[Peter the Great]] harassing and striking one of his generals; a spectacular presentation of operas and plays in the era of [[Catherine the Great]]; an imperial audience in which [[Nicholas I of Russia|Tsar Nicholas I]] is offered a formal apology by [[Fath-Ali Shah Qajar|the Shah of Persia]], represented by his grandson [[Khosrow Mirza]], for the death of ambassador [[Alexander Griboyedov]] in 1829; the idyllic family life of [[Nicholas II of Russia|Tsar Nicholas II]]'s [[Nicholas II of Russia#Children|children]]; the ceremonial changing of the various regiments of [[Russian Imperial Guard|the Imperial Guard]]; contemporary tourists visiting the palace; the museum's [[Joseph Orbeli|director]] whispering the need to make repairs during the rule of [[Joseph Stalin]]; and a desperate [[Saint Petersburg|Leningrad]]er making his own coffin during the [[Siege of Leningrad|900-day siege]] of the city during [[World War II]].

A grand ball follows, held in the [[Neva Enfilade of the Winter Palace#The Nicholas Hall|Nicholas Hall]], with many of the participants in spectacular period costume and a full orchestra conducted by [[Valery Gergiev]] featuring music by [[Mikhail Glinka]], then a long final exit with a crowd down [[Jordan Staircase of the Winter Palace|the grand staircase]]. The European tells the narrator that he belongs here, in the world of [[Romanov Tercentenary|1913]] where everything is still beautiful and elegant, and does not want to go any further. The narrator then walks backwards out the hallway and sees many people from different time periods exiting the building together. As he watches them, the narrator quietly departs the procession, leaves the building through a side door and looks out upon the [[Neva|River Neva]].

== Cast ==

* [[Alexander Sokurov]] as Narrator
* Sergei Dontsov ([[Sergey Dreyden]]) as the European ([[Marquis de Custine]])
* Mariya Kuznetsova as [[Catherine the Great]]
* Maksim Sergeyev as [[Peter the Great]]
* Anna Aleksakhina as [[Alexandra Feodorovna (Alix of Hesse)]]
* Vladimir Baranov as [[Nicholas II of Russia|Nicholas II]]
* [[Svetlana Svirko]] as [[Alexandra Feodorovna (Charlotte of Prussia)]]

== Production ==

The film displays 33 rooms of the museum, which are filled with a cast of over 2,000 actors and three orchestras. ''Russian Ark'' was recorded in uncompressed [[high-definition video]] using a [[Sony HDW-F900]] camera. The information was not recorded compressed to tape as usual, but uncompressed onto a hard disk which could hold 100 minutes which was carried behind the cameraman as he traveled from room to room, scene to scene. According to ''In One Breath: Alexander Sokurov's Russian Ark'', the documentary on the making of the film, four attempts were made. The first failed at the five-minute mark. After two more failed attempts, they were left with only enough battery power for one final take. The four hours of daylight available were also nearly gone. Fortunately, the final take was a success and the film was completed at 90 minutes. Tilman Büttner, the director of photography and [[Steadicam]] operator, executed the shot on 23 December 2001.

In a 2002 interview, Büttner said that film sound was recorded separately. "Every time I did the take, or someone else made a mistake, I would curse, and that would have gotten in, so we did the sound later."<ref name="indieWIRE">{{cite web | work=indieWIRE | title=Interview: Achieving the Cinematic Impossible | date=26 November 2002 | url=http://www.indiewire.com/article/interview_achieving_the_cinematic_impossible_russian_ark_dp_tilman_buttner_/ | access-date=13 October 2011}}</ref> Lighting directors of photography on the film were [[Bernd Fischer (cameraman)|Bernd Fischer]] and Anatoli Radionov.<ref name="IMDb">{{cite web | work=Russiky kovcheg | title=Full Cast and Crew for Russiky kovcheg | url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0318034/fullcredits#cast | access-date=1 August 2008}}</ref> The director later rejected Büttner's nomination for a European Film Academy award, believing that only the whole film should gain an award.<ref name="Sokurov">{{cite web|work=The Island of Sokurov |title=To the European Film Awards |url=http://www.sokurov.spb.ru/island_en/ans_1.html |access-date=1 August 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070816133343/http://www.sokurov.spb.ru/island_en/ans_1.html |archive-date=16 August 2007 }}</ref>

== Post-production ==

In post-production the uncompressed HD 87-minute [[one shot (film)|one-shot]] could be reworked in detail: besides many object removals (mainly cables and other film equipment), compositings (e.g. additional snow or fog), stabilisations, selective colour-corrections and digitally added focus changes, the whole film was continuously and dynamically reframed (resized) and for certain moments even time-warped (slowed down and sped up). This work took several weeks and was mainly executed by editor Patrick Wilfert under supervision of lead editor Sergei Ivanov on [[Autodesk Media and Entertainment|Discreet Logic]]'s Inferno system. Avoiding any playouts and using framestore to framestore transfers only, the picture was left uncompressed, before being reprinted onto filmstock for theatrical distribution.

== Background ==
The narrator's guide, "the European", is based on the book by the French aristocrat [[Marquis de Custine]], who visited Russia in 1839 and wrote ''La Russie en 1839'', in which he depicted Russia in extremely unflattering terms. A few biographical elements from Custine's life are shown in the film. Like the European, the Marquis' mother was friends with the Italian sculptor [[Antonio Canova|Canova]] and he himself was very religious. Custine's book mocks Russian civilization as a thin veneer of Europe on an Asiatic soul. For Custine, Europe was "civilization" while Asia was "barbarism", and his placing of Russia as a part of Asia rather than Europe was meant to deny that Russians had any sort of civilization worthy of the name. Echoing this sentiment, the film's European comments that Russia is a theater and that the people he meets are actors. The Marquis's family fortune came from a porcelain works, hence the European's interest in the [[Sèvres]] porcelain waiting for the diplomatic reception. At the end of the film, which depicts the last imperial ball in 1913, the European appears to accept Russia as a European nation.

''In One Breath'', a documentary about the making of ''Russian Ark'', written and directed by Knut Elstermann, gives more insight into the single long shot tracking techniques and formidable organization behind the making of the film.{{citation needed|date=December 2020}}

== Reception ==

=== Box office ===

''Russian Ark'' is a German-Russian co-production. The film grossed $3,048,997 in the United States and Canada, with $5,641,171 internationally, for a worldwide total of $8,690,168.<ref name="mojo">{{mojo title|russianark|Russian Ark}}</ref>

=== Critical response ===
''Russian Ark'' received high critical acclaim. [[Rotten Tomatoes]] reported that 89% of critics gave the film a positive review based on 109 reviews, with an average rating of 7.9/10. The consensus review summary reads, "As successful as it is ambitious, ''Russian Ark'' condenses three centuries of Russian history into a single, uninterrupted, 87-minute take."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/russian_ark |title=Russian Ark (2002) |website=[[Rotten Tomatoes]] |publisher=[[Fandango Media|Fandango]] |access-date=30 April 2022}}</ref> On [[Metacritic]], which uses an average of critics' reviews, the film has an 86/100 rating based on 32 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.metacritic.com/movie/russian-ark |title=Russian Ark Reviews |publisher=[[Metacritic]]|access-date=22 April 2020}}</ref>

[[Roger Ebert]] wrote, "Apart from anything else, this is one of the best-sustained ideas I have ever seen on the screen.... [T]he effect of the unbroken flow of images (experimented with in the past by directors like Hitchcock and [[Max Ophüls]]) is uncanny. If cinema is sometimes dreamlike, then every edit is an awakening. ''Russian Ark'' spins a daydream made of centuries."<ref name="Roger Ebert">{{cite web | work=Chicago Sun-Times | title=Russian Ark | url=http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20030131/REVIEWS/301310304/1023 | access-date=1 August 2008}}</ref>

''[[Slant Magazine]]'' ranked the film 84th in its list of the best films of the 2000s.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/feature/best-of-the-aughts-film/216/page_2|work=[[Slant Magazine]]|access-date=10 February 2010|title=Best of the Aughts: Film|date=7 February 2010}}</ref> In a critics' and readers' poll by ''[[Empire (magazine)|Empire]]'' magazine, it was voted the 358th greatest film of all time.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.empireonline.com/500/27.asp |title=Empire Features |website=www.empireonline.com |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111012103416/http://www.empireonline.com/500/27.asp |archive-date=2011-10-12}}</ref>

===Awards and nominations===
''Russian Ark'' received the Visions Award at the [[2002 Toronto International Film Festival]], a Special Citation at the [[2003 San Francisco Film Critics Circle Awards]] and the 2004 [[Silver Condor Award for Best Foreign Film]] from the [[Argentine Film Critics Association]]; it was also nominated for the [[Palme d'Or]] at the [[2002 Cannes Film Festival]], the Golden Hugo at the 2002 [[Chicago International Film Festival]] and the 2004 [[Nika Award]] for Best Film. In addition, Alexander Sokurov was named Best Director at [[Fancine]] in 2003 and was nominated for the 2002 [[European Film Award for Best Director]]. Cinematographer Tilman Büttner was also nominated for various awards for his work on the film, including a [[European Film Award for Best Cinematographer]] and a German Camera Award.

== References ==
{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

== Further reading ==
{{cite book |last1=Beumers |first1=Birgit |title=Aleksandr Sokurov: Russian Ark |date=2016 |publisher=Intellect |location=Bristol, UK |isbn=978-1-78320-703-9}}

== External links ==
* {{IMDb title|0318034|Russian Ark}}
* {{mojo title|russianark|Russian Ark}}
* {{rotten-tomatoes|russian_ark|Russian Ark}}
* {{Metacritic film|title=Russian Ark}}

{{Alexander Sokurov}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Russian Ark}}
[[Category:2000s avant-garde and experimental films]]
[[Category:2002 fantasy films]]
[[Category:2000s historical films]]
[[Category:2002 films]]
[[Category:2002 drama films]]
[[Category:2000s ghost films]]
[[Category:Films set in 1829]]
[[Category:Films set in 1913]]
[[Category:Cultural depictions of Catherine the Great]]
[[Category:Cultural depictions of Nicholas II of Russia]]
[[Category:Cultural depictions of Peter the Great]]
[[Category:Cultural depictions of Nicholas I of Russia]]
[[Category:Films directed by Alexander Sokurov]]
[[Category:Films set in art museums and galleries]]
[[Category:Films set in Saint Petersburg]]
[[Category:Films set in the Russian Empire]]
[[Category:Films shot from the first-person perspective]]
[[Category:German historical drama films]]
[[Category:Historical fantasy films]]
[[Category:One-shot films]]
[[Category:2000s Persian-language films]]
[[Category:Russian detective films]]
[[Category:Russian fantasy drama films]]
[[Category:Russian historical drama films]]
[[Category:2000s Russian-language films]]
[[Category:Canadian historical drama films]]
[[Category:Finnish historical drama films]]
[[Category:German mystery drama films]]
[[Category:Canadian mystery drama films]]
[[Category:2002 multilingual films]]
[[Category:German multilingual films]]
[[Category:Russian multilingual films]]
[[Category:Canadian multilingual films]]
[[Category:Finnish multilingual films]]
[[Category:2000s Canadian films]]
[[Category:2000s German films]]
[[Category:Russian-language Canadian films]]