Russian Ark, 2002

Aleksandr Sokurov
RUSSIAN FILM
Awards? none that I know of -- but there is an interesting article about the Director in a recent (early 2010) "NY Review of Books" that is worth reading
Starring: -- a cast of 2000 --or so the  publicity says

sez says -- yawn --other than the fact that he did it in one-shot, with a hand held camera, it held my interest for about 10 minutes--then I watched it only to see if the camera would blink. It didn't. It really is all in one shot--which gives it a dream like quality.  But a walking tour of the Hermitage, with a not so creative script for a  ghostly narrator (where am I, what year is this, don't you recognize the Czar, why am I speaking Russian, I don't know Russian, why is there so much European Art in Russia..etc)  just doesn't get me to sit forward in my chair.  The costumes were elaborate -- the architecture is impressive, the idea is sort of interesting--but the product just didn't fly. GRADE D