I'd be pleased if the oligarchs would just do something to make Alexander Sokurov's existing films more accessible in the US. Allow me to once again offer a plug here on the list for Sokurov's dreamlike tour de force "Russian Ark" (2002), which I saw on DVD for the first time a year ago or so ago and re-viewed recently. It's the best movie I've seen in years.
"Russian Ark" is much more than a spectacular technical stunt, though it is famed for being the world's longest unedited feature film, consisting of a single 90-minute shot -- requiring the choreography of 2,000 performers and the flawless movement of one camera through 33 rooms of the Hermitage Museum. It is a fascinating meditation on the 300-year-old Hermitage's long life as the Winter Palace and on the uneasy relationship between Russian and European culture. It is also one of the most romantic films I've seen. Man of the left as I may be, I am awed by the scale, beauty and dignity of the film's final scene, which recreates the last imperial ball to be held at the site. Those aristos could really put on a show! The sight at movie's end of hundreds of actors in fully detailed period costume departing the ball, flowing down the palace's Grand Staircase and vanishing into history, is oddly moving.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Ark>
More recently, I viewed Sokurov's "Confession" (1998), a 210-minute documentary for Russian TV about the mundane daily tasks of a modern warship on a routine, pointless patrol of arctic seas during winter's endless night.
As a study in existential bleakness, it seems unbeatable. I really need to see this again, too, since I was so tired the night I watched the DVD I kept nodding off. In a weird way, though, this seemed to add to this very long documentary's appeal. Like "Russian Ark," "Confession" has a strong oneiric quality, so it seems appropriate view it in the mystical hypnagogic state that exists between sleep and wakefulness.
<http://www.dvdtown.com/review/confession/15797/2784/>
At any rate, I think it would be nifty if Americans could get their hands on more of Sokurov's work.
Carl
_________________________________________________________________ Mortgage rates as low as 4.625% - Refinance $150,000 loan for $579 a month. Intro*Terms https://www2.nextag.com/goto.jsp?product=100000035&url=%2fst.jsp&tm=y&search=mortgage_text_links_88_h27f6&disc=y&vers=743&s=4056&p=5117