Guide Rating -

The Hermitage in St. Petersburg served as location for "Russian Ark," a lush meditation on history, art, and Russia in the guise of a bravura filmmaking stunt: all of the film's 97 minutes were shot in one single, relentless take. Forget Ray Liotta and Lorraine Bracco entering the restaurant in "Goodfellas" or Hitchcock's one-shot chamberplay "Rope" -- Sokurov stages "Russian Ark" as a feat of logistics and coordination in the sprawling building with a cast of over 800 actors and several hundred extras.

The camera swoops and glides, drifts, pulls in, and sails through doors opened just in time by the invisible narrator or one of his mysterious companions. Neither he nor we are particularly sure why we are there; as we pass gilded halls, paintings by the masters, scenes from Russian history, diplomatic receptions, and the climactic ball complete with live orchestra, we search for clues, connections, and meaning. The uninterrupted flow seduces into a trance.