Aleksandr Sokurov

Russian Ark

By: Birgit Beumers

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Paperback | 15 January 2016 | Edition Number 1

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112 Pages

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24.5 x 17.0 x 0.5

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Russian director Alexander Sokurov's feature film Russian Ark is of great significance to Russian and world cinema and Russian culture at the turn of the millennium. Little substantial work is available on Sokurov's films, despite - since the death of Alexei German - his current status as Russia's greatest living film director. This volume provides a comprehensive synopsis, production history and in-depth analysis of his best-known film. After establishing a common text through an exploration of Russian Ark's plot, the film is here framed in its historical, cultural and biographical context before a discussion of the unique production process. Detailing how Sokurov directed 2,000 actors and three orchestras inside the Russian State Hermitage Museum, the reader will discover exactly how the film's single 96-minute Sony Steadicam HDW F900 sequence was shot. The following analysis considers how Sokurov's use of characters, time and themes intersect with how he manipulates assumptions about reality and Western culture. How popular and critical audiences received the film both domestically and internationally is also explored, before a conclusion that looks ahead to Sokurov's subsequent work, and elaborating an assessment of the director's place in Russian film history, as well as his contribution to world cinema.

Industry Reviews

'Birgit Beumers' book is an excellent primer on the movie, contextualizing it and presenting the critical reception and scholarly analysis the motion picture has inspired. At once a production history, a film analysis and a history of the museum, the Chair of the Film Studies Department at Aberystwyth University has written a concise and thought-provoking volume. Based on interviews, research and an interpretation of the digital movie, Dr. Beumers explores the contradictions and controversies for viewers, scholars and critics responding to the film, which celebrates Russian modern history and Russian nationalism by focusing on an international collection of Western European Art, featuring mostly art collected by the strong and charismatic Empress Catherine II.'

-- N.A.Cordova, PopMatters

'These and future KinoSputniks will be cherished by Russian-film fans and used in courses on Russian cinema and culture. All three contribute not only to the project of writing Russian film history, but also to explorations of Russian/Soviet culture and history. In fact, whether this was intended or not, all three ultimately address the question of nationality and nation in Russian and Soviet culture: the controversial treatment of the Jews in The Commissar, the celebration of the Ukrainians in Shadows, and the place of Russia vis-a-vis the west in Russian Ark.'

-- Maria Belodubrovskaya, Slavic Review

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