November 20, 2012 (XXV:12 Aleksandr Sokurov, RUSSIAN ARK (2002, 99 min) Directed by Aleksandr Sokurov Written by Boris Khaimsky, Anatoli Nikiforov, Svetlana Proskurina and Aleksandr Sokurov Produced by Andrey Deryabin and Jens Meurer Original Music by Sergei Yevtushenko Cinematography by Tilman Büttner Film Editing by Stefan Ciupek, Sergey Ivanov, Betina Kuntzsch Sergei Dontsov…The Stranger (The Marquis de Custine) Mariya Kuznetsova…Catherine The Great Leonid Mozgovoy…The Spy Mikhail Piotrovsky…Himself (Hermitage Director) David Giorgobiani…Orbeli Aleksandr Chaban… Boris Piotrovsky Lev Yeliseyev…Himself Boris Smolkin…Chancellor Nesselrode Oleg Khmelnitsky…Himself Yuri Khomutyansky…Insane Italian Alla Osipenko…Herself Valery Gergiev…Conductor Artyom Strelnikov…Talented Boy The State Hermitage Orchestra…Orchestra Tamara Kurenkova…Herself (Blind Woman) Aleksandr Sokurov…The Time Traveller (voice) Maksim Sergeyev…Peter the Great Natalya Nikulenko…Catherine the Great ALEKSANDR SOKUROV (b. Aleksandr Nikolaevich Sokurov, June 14, Yelena Rufanova…First Lady 1951, Podorvikha, Irkutskaya oblast, RSFSR, USSR [now Russia]) Yelena Spiridonova…Second Lady has 58 directing credits, about half of them documentaries. Some of Konstantin Anisimov…First Cavalier his films are 2011Faust, 2010 Intonatsiya. Vladimir Yakunin, 2007 Aleksey Barabash…Second Cavalier Alexandra, 2006 Elegiya zhizni. Rostropovich. Vishnevskaya., 2005 Ilya Shakunov…Third Cavalier The Sun, 2004 “The Diary of St. Petersburg: Mozart. Requiem”, 2003 Anna Aleksakhina…Alexandra Fyodorovna, Wife of Nicholas II Father and Son, 2002 Russian Ark, 2001 Elegy of a Voyage, 2001 Vladimir Baranov…Nicholas II Taurus, 2000 Dolce..., 2000 The Dialogues with Solzhenitsyn, 1999 Valentin Bukin…Military Official Moloch, 1997 A Humble Life, 1997 Mother and Son, 1994 Svetlana Gaytan…Museum Custodian Whispering Pages, 1992 Kamen, 1990 The Second Circle, 1990 Vadim Gushchin…Grandee of Catherine The Great Madame Bovary, 1989 The Lonely Voice of Man, 1988 Days of Kirill Dateshidze…Master of Ceremonies Eclipse, 1987 Mournful Unconcern, 1980 The Degraded (short), 1979 Mikhail Dorofeyev…First Card Player Posledni den' nenastnogo leta (short), 1974 “Avtomobil nabiraet Valentina Yegorenkova…Maid of Honor of Catherine The Great nadezhnost” (short), and 1974 “Samye zemnye zaboty” Sergey Losev…Court Official Vadim Lobanov…Lord Chamberlain TILMAN BÜTTNER (January 22, 1964, East Germany) has 6 Vladimir Lisetsky…Court Minister cinematographer credits: 2007 Why Men Don't Listen and Women Aleksandr Malnykin…Servant of Peter The Great Can't Read Maps, 2005 “Kabale und Liebe”, 2004 Hinter der Tür Sergei Muchenikov…Museum Official (short), 2002 Ten Minutes Older: The Cello (segment "The Yuriy Orlov…Grandee of Catherine The Great Enlightenment"), 2002 Russian Ark, 1991 and Stalinallee (short). Sokurov—RUSSIAN ARK—2 SERGEI YEVTUSHENKO has four composer credits: 2009 The Last Alexander Nikolayevich Sokurov (Russian: Алекса́ндр Station, 2007 The Border, 2002 Russian Ark, and 1999 Robert. A Никола́евич Соку́ров; born June 14, 1951) is a Russian filmmaker. Fortunate Life (short). His most significant works include a feature film, Russian Ark (2002), filmed in a single unedited shot, and Faust (2011), which was SERGEI DONTSOV… The Stranger (The Marquis de Custine) (b. honoured with the Golden Lion, the highest prize for the best film at Sergei Simonovich Drejden, September 14, 1941) has 24 acting the Venice Film Festival. credits: 2011 Expiation, 2009 “Ivan Groznyy”, 2009 Taras Bulba, Sokurov was born in Podorvikha, Irkutsk Oblast, in Siberia, 2009 Help Gone Mad, 2008 Antonina obernulas, 2007 Jolka, 2006 into a military officer's family. He graduated from the History Mnogotochie, 2004 Daddy, 2003 Do Not Make Biscuits in a Bad Department of the Nizhny Novgorod University in 1974 and entered Mood, 2002 Russian Ark, 2002 The Tale of Fedot, the Shooter, 2001 one of the VGIK studios the following year. There he became friends Podari mne lunnyy svet, 1999 Marigolds in Flower, 1998 Tsirk with Tarkovsky and was deeply influenced by his film Mirror. Most sgorel, i klouny razbezhalis, 1994 Viva Castro!, 1994 Okno v Parizh, of Sokurov's early features were banned by Soviet authorities. During 1993 Drug voyny (short), 1993 Vladimir svyatoy, 1991 Abdulladzhan, his early period, he produced numerous documentaries, including an ili posvyashchaetsya Stivenu Spilbergu, 1990 Tank 'Klim Voroshilov- interview with Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and a reportage about Grigori 2', 1989 Fontan, 1975 Moy dom, teatr, 1975 Vozdukhoplavatel, and Kozintsev's flat in St Petersburg. His film Mournful Unconcern was 1966 A Ballad of Love. nominated for the Golden Bear at the 37th Berlin International Film Festival in 1987. MARIYA KUZNETSOVA…Catherine The Great has 17 acting Mother and Son (1997) was his first internationally- credits: 2009 Dvoynaya propazha, 2006 Vy ne ostavite menya, 2006 acclaimed feature film. It was mirrored by Father and Son (2003), Travesti, 2005 Dreaming of which baffled the critics with its Space, 2005 The Italian, 2005 implicit homoeroticism (though Golova Klassika, 2005 “Kazus Sokurov himself has criticized this Kukotskogo”, 2004 Imeniny, particular interpretation). Susan 2003 Tayna Zaborskogo omuta, Sontag included two Sokurov 2002 Tycoon: A New Russian, features among her ten favorite 2002 Russian Ark, 2002 “Lyubov films of the 1990s, saying: imperatora”, 2001 Taurus, 1994 "There’s no director active today Koleso lyubvi, 1992 Glaza, 1989 whose films I admire as much." In Utoli moya pechali, and 1987 2006, he received the Master of “Gde by ni rabotat....” Cinema Award of the International Filmfestival Mannheim- LEONID MOZGOVOY…The Spy Heidelberg. has 13 acting credits: Sokurov is a Cannes Film 2011 “Raspoutine”, 2011 Gogol. Festival regular, with four of his Blizhayshiy, 2009 “Isayev”, 2009 movies having debuted there. “Ivan Groznyy”, 2007 However, until 2011, Sokurov Dyuymovochka, 2007 The didn't win top awards at major Border, 2006 Gadkie lebedi, 2005 Garpastum, 2002 Russian Ark, international festivals. For a long time, his most commercially and 2001 Taurus, 2001 Text or Apologia of a Commentary, 1999 Moloch, critically successful film was the semi-documentary Russian Ark 1992 Kamen, 2004 Bozhestvennaya Glikeriya, and 2003 In One (2002), acclaimed primarily for its visually hypnotic images and Breath: Alexander Sokurov's Russian Ark (short). single unedited shot. Sokurov has filmed a tetralogy exploring the corrupting MIKHAIL PIOTROVSKY…Himself (Hermitage Director) has four effects of power. The first three installments were dedicated to acting credits, all as himself: 2011 “Pozner”, 2003 “Shkola prominent 20th-century rulers: Moloch (1999), about Hitler, Taurus zlosloviya”, 2003 In One Breath: Alexander Sokurov's Russian Ark (2000), about Lenin, and The Sun (2004) about Emperor Hirohito. In (short), and 2002 Russian Ark. 2011, Sokurov shot the last part of the series, Faust, a retelling of Goethe's tragedy. The film, depicting instincts and schemes of Faust ALEKSANDR CHABAN…Boris Piotrovsky has four acting credits: in his lust for power, premiered on 8 September 2011 in competition 2005 “The Master and Margarita” (9 episodes), 2002 Russian Ark, at the 68th Venice International Film Festival. The film won the 2002 “Lyubov imperatora”, and 1992 The Waiting Room. Golden Lion, the highest award of the Venice Festival. Producer Andrey Sigle said about Faust: "The film has no particular relevance ALLA OSIPENKO… Herself (1932, Leningrad, USSR [now St. to contemporary events in the world—it is set in the early 19th Petersburg, Russia]) has 8 acting credits: 2002 Russian Ark, 1989 century—but reflects Sokurov's enduring attempts to understand man Otche nash, 1988 Filial, 1987 Fuete, 1987 Mournful Unconcern, and his inner forces." 1987 Ampir (short), 1985 Zimnyaya vishnya, and 1982 Golos . The military world of the former USSR is one of Sokurov’s D. ongoing interests, because of his personal connections to the subject and because the military marked the lives of a large part of population of the USSR. Three of his works, Spiritual Voices: From the Diaries From Wikipedia: of a War, Confession, From the Commander’s Diary and Soldier’s Sokurov—RUSSIAN ARK—3 Dream revolve around military life. "Confession" has been screened reverence, the child-like wonder with which Alexandr Sokurov at several independent film festivals, while the other two are virtually approaches the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, the setting of his unknown. monumental film Russian Ark/Russkiy kovcheg. In 1994 Sokurov accompanied Russian troops to a post on The film’s sheer scale and ambition elicited gasps of awe the Tajikistan-Afghanistan border. The result was Spiritual Voices: upon its release in 2002. Four years in development, it was the first From the Diaries of a War, a 327-minute cinematic meditation on the feature to be shot in one continuous, HD Steadicam shot covering war and the spirit of the Russian army. Landscape photography is more than one and a half kilometres. Utilising more than 850 featured in the film, but the music (including works by Mozart, professional actors, 1000 extras and spanning three centuries of Messiaen and Beethoven) and the sound are also particularly Russian history, the film is set in a museum which holds several important. Soldiers’ jargon and the combination of animal sounds, million artworks. Russian Ark was, as Sokurov has stated, an attempt sighs and other location sounds in the fog and other visual effects to make a film