Russian Ark

(Russkiykovcheg, Aleksandr Sokurov, Russia/Germany/Japan/Canada/Finland/Denmark 2002, 99 min., 35mm, Russian and Persian w/subtitles)

Two spectral figures roam the Winter Palace of the Russian State Hermitage Museum, passing through salons, galleries, and time periods. One, an unnamed narrator, observes as his European acquaintance alternately admires and criticizes the works on display. Sometimes they are able to interact with the people there, but are often unnoticed. Director Aleksandr Sokurov organized and rehearsed more than two thousand actors and three orchestras across 33 rooms of the museum, and finally executed the single-take film on the fourth try on a cold day in December. Lavishly mounted and exactingly rendered, the film is a whirlwind tour through three hundred years of Russian history.