Khaberni - The Cinema Committee at the Abdul Hameed Shoman Foundation will present tomorrow, Tuesday, the Russian film "The Russian Ship" directed by Alexander Sokurov, at six thirty in the evening at the foundation's headquarters in Jabal Amman.
"I open my eyes and see nothing... all I remember is that there were some incidents... everyone ran to save their lives as best they could... As for what happened to me, I don’t remember anything"; with these mysterious words displayed consecutively on a black screen and heard in the voice of an unseen person, the Russian film "The Russian Ship" or (Russian Noah's Ark 2002) begins, followed by a scene with a crowd of men and women in, perhaps, 19th-century costumes, noisily rushing to enter the famous Hermitage museum in Russia to attend a ceremony, then in a stunning scene, the camera enters a grand hall where hundreds of dancers, in their lavish attire and jewelry, dance to the tunes of a symphony orchestra, and the camera appears to float in the air towards the orchestra stage, moving among the musicians.
This is the first scene of the film consisting of a single continuous shot that lasts for an hour and a half, a precedent in the history of global cinema where the camera sneaks through many halls of the Hermitage Museum which is described as a repository of Russian art and history in Saint Petersburg and which has 33 halls packed with 2000 actors and extras.
To achieve this cinematic feat, cinematographer Tilman Büttner used a fixed camera and high-resolution digital technology to follow and film about 2000 actors who were distributed and managed in their movements in the museum's corridors and halls beforehand which can be described as a continuous movable theatrical show, where every movement and signal had to be executed with meticulously calculated timing; there is no room for error.
The subject of the film, written and directed by Alexander Sokurov, covers no less than three centuries of Russian history. The camera does not merely take us on a guided tour among the artworks hanging on the walls and corridors, but also witnesses the many visitors who have come to the Hermitage museum over the years. It is said that Sokurov repeatedly rehearsed the extremely difficult camera maneuver with the cinematographer and actors, and the invisible technicians of sound and lighting, knowing that filming in the Hermitage Museum was only available to him for one day.
The narrative begins when we meet the Marquis (Sergey Dreiden), a French nobleman who will wander in the world of art and history while we follow him commenting on everything he sees. The voice we heard at the beginning is the voice of Sokurov, the film's director and writer, whom we never see, and who will complement the Marquis's narrative, continuing his commentary as he wanders inside the museum's halls and the camera follows him. What we see is a general glimpse of Russian history in the years preceding the revolution, and a brief look at the dark times that followed.
It is worth noting that all this creative effort in directing and designing and filming the spectacular and other scenes, could not have succeeded without a precisely creative screenplay.
