Russkiy kovcheg (2002)

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1. 

   neocowboy

   Having been to Russia and The Hermitage and picking up quite a lot of Russian history, I still find this films content to be considerably esoteric. It is not so much a history lesson as it is an occasional milieu of famous peoples and events from which this viewer feels completely removed.
   
   The praise for this film, I feel relies too much upon the - dare I say - gimmick of the one take wonder. It is beautiful, but it pales to the awe of walking the salons of the Winter Palace in person. It is also accomplished but all the technical brilliance can't conceal the - possibly erudite, but in my mind - whimsically vague wanderings of two ethereal men-out-of-time.
   
   The one scene(?) I did find intriguing was in front of Rembrandt's Danae. "This painting and I share a secret." Indeed. 10 years ago
2. 

   MKej

   The last 10min is fantastic 9 years 10 months ago
3. 

   bklooney

   This is a film less about Russian history as a whole, but about the period of Russian history where it's culture owed a considerable debt to European aristocratic exports while at the same time transforming it into something that was idiosyncratically Russian.
   
   The reason for the European out of time as a contrast to the unseen/unnamed narrator is to show that this period was a time of opulence for the Russian Empire prior to it's dissolution in the turmoil of the Revolution. Hence why he chooses to remain in the Hermitage though initially being dismissive of a Russian aesthetic. The period reflected here is one closely tied to Europe and European aesthetics.
   
   The Revolution dissolved the Impirial aesthetics of Peter the Great, Catherine, et al. which is why the film ends with the Romanovs in happier times.
   
   In one sense, the film can be read as a strong work of Russian nationalist pride (not necessarily in the perjorative connotation) and a mournful regret at the loss of the grand Imperial aesthetics to the inevitable October Revolution. 4 years 4 months ago

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