Russian Ark (DVD 2003)

I liked the acting, customes, and scenery, the storyline was good and was well written, but it was too boring to watch, it was like a lecture given by a bored teacher in College, so it wasn't very entertaining, maybe if there had been a bit more action I would have enjoyed it more.

I bought it because it was about Russian History and culture and I'm quite fond of Russian history & culture.

I bought this film as it seemed an intriguing concept. The whole 90 or so minutes shot continuously without editing. According to the DoP (on a bonus feature interview), who was carrying the steadicam for most of the time, he nearly collapsed towards the end of the filming.

The film runs through the five palaces of the Hermitage in St. Petersburgh and attempts to show off some of it's treasures and relate some sort of narrative on it's 300 year history.

The costumes are fabulous but I think this was a bit of an extravagant experiment - something like 850 actors and 1000 extras who all had to be dressed and made up to perform in a space, which is a Russian National treasure and usually open to the public, at the same time. A Herculean production task.

Much of the weight of the film seemed centred on an actor playing a 17/18th century European who was a guide and commentator and interacted with some of the other characters (or in some cases members of the public). We didn't get to see the works of art too closely (indeed we found out in the interviews in the bonus material that no one was allowed to get closer than 1m to the priceless items).

A lot of it I didn't understand at all or not till I'd seen the bonus features - for instance Peter the Great punishing his underlings. There are some wonderful images such as the back of Catherine the Great being led along a freezing snowy path and the camera overtaking the great hoardes of 19th century banqueters leaving a magnificent ballroom (after having waltzed to the music of a full orchestra).

An excellent technical achievement which I'm sure will provide much inspiration for other film makers but as education or entertainment I would only rate it as good.

This is by no means a bad film, I actually enjoyed some parts, and I'm a great art lover myself. I do feel a knowledge of Russian history is required though, as I couldn't understand who most of the charactrs were or what they were doing.

The set and costumes are impressive, as is the continuous take idea so points for trying, but a film shouldn't rely on a previous knowledge of obscure parts of a country's histroy in order to tell a story, that's bad moviemaking, which makes me think this should be seen as simply art, and that's it. It's not a bad thing, as you can't truly say any piece of art is bad, but it wasn't to my tastes.