Russian Ark

A film shot in a single take inside the Winter Palace. The narrator does not know where he is. After an accident he finds himself in the halls of the Hermitage; nobody sees him. A French diplomat from the nineteenth century joins him and the two move from room to room. Every hall holds a different time: Peter the Great in one, Catherine in another, the staff who guarded the museum during the siege years in another, the family of the last tsar in another. The narrative does not put these in order; you pass through a door and the century changes. What the film is known for is its production. All of it was taken in one unbroken shot. It was filmed on 23 December 2001, in a single day, with Tilman Büttner carrying the camera on a Steadicam. The third attempt was the one that worked; the earlier ones broke down in the opening minutes. Hundreds of actors, dancers and musicians are in it and all of them rehearsed for months to work to the moment the camera passed. The last section is given to a great ball and ends as the crowd comes down the stairs. Aleksandr Sokurov directed. A one-off experience for anyone curious about the formal limits of cinema and anyone who likes walking through museums. For a viewer looking for plot, the film tells no story; it offers a walk.