Russian Ark

It's fashionable to praise this audacious film simply for its audacity, setting aside ordinary critical standards; would that I had been able to do so emotionally, and enjoy it to the degree which others clearly have. Alas, though I was impressed by the challenge it took on (travelling through 300 years of Russian history in a single take), and I thought it handled it well overall, it was very far from perfect. Superb choreography and timing all round did not make up for intermittent loss of focus and cinematographic cohesion. Whilst these things might be forgivable in the circumstances, they still made the film difficult to watch.

Russian Ark is also handicapped by an irritating central performance - The Stranger, who echoes Pushkin, Peter the Great and the Devil, annoys more than he intrigues, and never reveals quite enough to make himself interesting. When he interacts with a blind woman in the gallery, for instance, it's difficult to tell whether there is an intentional joke at his expense (a hall so full of echoes is easy to navigate without sight), or whether the filmmakers were simply naive.

The poor subtitling would make it difficult for a non Russian speaker to follow a lot of of the layered dialogue, and even with a basic understanding of the language too much of it was impossible to catch. Weighing against this are some charming cameo performances and truly stunning visuals.

The costumerie and make-up are brilliantly done, and good use is made of St. Petersberg's marvellous architectural heritage. The visual narrative grows stronger as the tale progresses, leading to a superbly orchestrated closing shot which explains the film's title whilst drawing together many of the poetic references earlier encountered.

For all this, though, Russian Ark is too often a slow and frustrating film, akin to the experience of being dragged through a beautiful museum by an eccentric and unpleasantly scented uncle who will never hang around long enough in one place to let one get a look at the really interesting exhibits.