#11 - JRL 6600
Washington Post
December 13, 2002
Spectacular 'Russian Ark'
By Desson Howe

Chances are the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences won't be nominating "Russian Ark" for Best Picture. Yet Alexander Sokurov's movie makes almost everything else seem mediocre.

A movie that consists of one extended 90-minute shot (with a high-definition digital video camera), "Russian Ark" is a stunning spectacle. It's also the longest, uninterrupted shot in film history and the first movie to be fully contained in one single take.

In that single, moving shot (which cinematographer Tilman Buettner recorded on a Steadicam), the film follows a nameless protagonist (a 19th-century French diplomat) as he walks through the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. He encounters real and imagined characters from Russian and European history and through changing scenes and locales, traverses some of Western civilization's greatest moments. It's a drama of surrealistic, richly layered pageantry.

Sokurov took months of rehearsal and used 867 actors, hundreds of extras, dozens of technicians and two live orchestras to make this event unfold in real time and space. And if you want to catch something rare and wonderful, you owe yourself a visit to the American Film Institute, where it will screen Jan. 31 through Feb. 6. More information is scheduled to appear at www.afi.com/exhibition/nft.asp closer to the opening date.