Russian Ark 2002

Before Birdman and 1917 popularized the technique, this experimental film was shot entirely in one take, requiring four attempts before the final shot was taken. Unlike the aforementioned movies, however, we wouldn’t say that its events are in real time. As if sailing through the Winter Palace across centuries, the narrator, whose POV is the camera’s, could possibly be an invisible time traveller, a ghost, or an entity trapped in a moving spacetime singularity, maybe even all three. We don’t know. The narrator themselves aren’t even sure how they got there. But what we do know is how novel this idea is. Touring from room to room like the museum the building will become, the drama juxtaposes the history with Marquis de Custine’s commentary, unfolding the nation’s fate in both good and bad. It’s an outstanding film, regardless of how one feels about the country itself.