Synopses & Reviews
Alexander Sokurov's
Russian Ark is generally acclaimed as a milestone in cinematography. In this film, Sokurov reversed the idea of montage, creating instead the sensation of an uninterrupted flow of time encompassing three centuries of Russia's cultural history through a single, 90-minute take. Yet this film is but one milestone in the work of this versatile director. Since the 1990s, Sokurov's films have had international recognition at film festivals and through foreign distribution. In this, the first English-language book to cover Sokurov's full oeuvre, leading scholars on Sokurov unravel his work on documentaries; his early films and literary adaptations; his trilogy on leaders focusing on the decaying body; his films on passing youth and approaching age; and, of course,
Russian Ark. The book also provides samples of the major Russian-language studies of Sokurovs films to provide the reader with an insight into Russian approaches to Sokurov.
About the Author
Birgit Beumers is Reader in the Russian Department, Bristol University. Her publications include
Burnt by the Sun,
Nikita Mikhalkov, and
Russia on Reels: The Russian Idea in Post-Soviet Cinema (as editor), all published by I.B. Tauris. She is on the Editorial Advisory Board of Tauris' KINO Series. Nancy Condee is Associate Professor of Slavic Studies and a member of the Film Studies Program, University of Pittsburgh. Her publications include
The Imperial Trace: Recent Russian Cinema and
Antinomies of Art and Culture (as co-editor).
Table of Contents
Contents * Preface: Liubov Arkus (St Petersburg) * Introduction: Beumers and Condee * Sokurov and the documentary * Literary and cinematic affinities * Intimate Encounters * Remapping the Empire * Russian Responses * Single film reviews * Script-Sound-Editing * Works