Russian Ark

I randomly found a movie called Russian Ark in a Blockbuster one day but wasn't feeling risky enough to spend $5 to rent it. Luckily, I remembered the title years all these years later and got it from Netflix. What intrigued me about the movie many years ago was the fact that this 96-minute movie was filmed in one take.

The movie is in Russian (with subtitles) and it shows scenes from 300 years of Russian history as the camera winds through a museum. I'm not up on my Russian history whatsoever but The Wife is, and she really enjoyed those aspects of it. Me, I just thought it was pretty cool to see an uninterrupted shot for 96 minutes. It's kind of weird because you're so used to scene transitions and the cuts every director has in a movie. You're sitting there almost expecting to see a cut, or a wipe to another scene. There are times where they are stalling for a little bit of time but if nothing else, you should check out this movie for the feat. There is also a 40-minute documentary on the disc about how they shot it and the coordinated efforts it took. The shot you see in the movie was their fourth attempt at getting it done and if it didn't make it on that take, the movie might not have made it at all.

So, if you're into Russian history, you'll love this movie. If you're into movies that were shot in a really unique way, you'll probably like it, too.