I am not Russian, I am Mexican, but I have the deepest respect for Russians and their history and culture (if it is really possible to separate them). Yes there are some flaws (the lousy lip-synch and the awful subtitles). Yes, it does not provide an accurate rendition of Russian history and, of course, is not a compendium of Russian culture. Can we really expect for one single movie to provide that? Amores Perros or Y tu mamá también are by no means accurate reflections of Mexican society and culture, but S. Eisenstein's movies on Mexico were not either, and even the brightest novels of Tolstoi or Dostoievski cannot be that for Russia's culture and/or history.
Russian Ark is more than a documentary because there is no attempt to provide a detailed account of the origins of the Hermitage and its many treasures. The movie is a small wonder beyond the technical achievement of the one shot filming, mainly because it stresses some of the contradictions that are inherent to any attempt to collect and display art: What is the artistic value of the guns and helmets at exhibition "as art" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NY? What is the value of displaying what the British military stole from Greece, India and Egypt in the British Museum? Or why the Mexican obsession with the wars we have fought against Spain, France, and the US has found its way up to the best museums in Mexico City? But those are precisely the kind of questions that art should raise and that is one of the many points made by the movie, What is art, how it is decided and by whom. I can understand why those issues and the movie's obsession with the European-ess of Russia and the Russians bothers some colleagues here, but it is undeniable that Russia, as many other societies has been obsessed, at times, with such issues and that such obsession is yet another point made by the movie, not because it provides a definite answer, but because it is able raise the question. Is up to us to come with our own answer.
Russian Ark is more than a documentary because there is no attempt to provide a detailed account of the origins of the Hermitage and its many treasures. The movie is a small wonder beyond the technical achievement of the one shot filming, mainly because it stresses some of the contradictions that are inherent to any attempt to collect and display art: What is the artistic value of the guns and helmets at exhibition "as art" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NY? What is the value of displaying what the British military stole from Greece, India and Egypt in the British Museum? Or why the Mexican obsession with the wars we have fought against Spain, France, and the US has found its way up to the best museums in Mexico City? But those are precisely the kind of questions that art should raise and that is one of the many points made by the movie, What is art, how it is decided and by whom. I can understand why those issues and the movie's obsession with the European-ess of Russia and the Russians bothers some colleagues here, but it is undeniable that Russia, as many other societies has been obsessed, at times, with such issues and that such obsession is yet another point made by the movie, not because it provides a definite answer, but because it is able raise the question. Is up to us to come with our own answer.