Example Of Russian Ark By Alexander Sokurov Essay

Shot in 2002, Russian Ark by Alexander Sokurov is a historical drama which amazes the audience by its uncommon cinematographic devices and the director’s unique and profound approach to the motion picture. The film got a critical acclaim and numerous nominations and awards including the nomination for Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
The film’s phenomenon is the director’s successful shooting of the whole movie in a single take – almost one hour and a half, the camera is following the characters thus conveying the unusual effect of the non-stopping action on the screen. The role of editing is very important in the production of every film because it gives an opportunity for the director to correct all the flaws and errors that might have appeared during the shooting process.
In Russian Ark, the option of editing is absent due to the nature of the film: the single take supposes no mistakes of the whole production team – from actors to the camera operators. Such difficult challenge as making the whole movie in a single take demands numerous rehearsals resulting in the perfect cooperation. The approach is taken from the theater while it still stays more complicated due to the lack of the act-waits.
In the film that has essentially no shot-to-shot editing, the director was forced to use the Steadicam in order to achieve the effect of flying from one room to another. Unlike other film cameras, Steadicam’s time of the continuous shooting is not limited by the magazine capacity of the film footage. The film’s idea was possible to incorporate due to the modern technologies and the director’s patience and persistence in work.
Apart from the film’s visual significance, music plays a huge role in Russian Ark – it is an integral part of the film’s wholeness, and the effect would not be full without it. The score represents the symphony orchestra play which contributes to the film’s overall atmosphere. One of the examples demonstrating the diegetic music is the scene where the orchestra is visible. The character who is responding to it is Catherine the Great – she uploads and approves of what she hears.
Music’s role in structuring the film is inevitable – it gets louder during the balls and becomes faint or even disappears during the dialogues. It may be heard far away so that the audience guesses that there are dances in one of the rooms nearby. Generally, the music contributes to the film’s rhythm and the camera’s fluid movement between the epochs. The opening scene contains the non-diegetic sounds of water, wind, human laughter, and many other invisible elements thus disorientating the audience. The voiceover of the narrator is to be considered the non-diegetic sound because he cannot be seen by the audience thus creating the effect of the fourth wall which is another theatrical device.