| 100 |
Time
A coda that will have the movie's audience gasping in exhilarated exhaustion, whispering astonished gratitude to Sokurov for having created vigorous art out of 21st century video technique and asking themselves, "What's the Russian word for Wow!?"
|
| 100 |
Washington Post
Dramatically, this is something of a waking dream.
|
| 100 |
Chicago Sun-Times
The film is a glorious experience to witness, not least because, knowing the technique and understanding how much depends on every moment, we almost hold our breath.
|
| 100 |
LA Weekly
Henry Sheehan
High art, low comedy, hard labor and royal prerogative are here thrown together in an elegant unity, a breathtaking demonstration of Russian cinematic -- hence artistic -- brilliance.
|
| 100 |
Portland Oregonian
Audacious, gorgeous and unique.
|
| 100 |
Los Angeles Times
An astonishing technological feat, but what is even more remarkable is that the technology does not overwhelm the artistry.
|
| 100 |
Boston Globe
Who most of these exquisitely costumed people are I have no idea, but they brush past the camera in such rapids of jubilation it's a wonder they don't knock the thing over. I watched most of the film exhilarated, but depressed that I'm not a big Russophile.
|
| 100 |
New York Post
The result is a magnificent feast for the eyes and brain.
|
| 100 |
Chicago Tribune
Extraordinary film, one that, like the museum itself, captures and shows three centuries of Russian culture and history in all its beauty, confusion, terror and majesty.
|
| 100 |
Christian Science Monitor
Well worth seeing on the wide screen before its video release next year. It's guaranteed to take your breath away.
|
| 100 |
San Francisco Chronicle
Kenneth Baker
Marks a cinematic milestone.
|
| 100 |
Dallas Observer
Turns out to be more than simply a near-miracle of filmmaking, however; it is also an astonishing work of art, a historical epic that drifts through one's consciousness like a reverie.
|
| 91 |
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
That rare thing at the movies these days: a new experience. It awes us with its technological feat, it sweeps us up in its mystical spell and, with its final scene -- it takes us to an emotional climax of almost unbearable poignancy.
|
| 90 |
The New Yorker
By the time of the closing shot -- twists of fog rising like spectres from a leaden sea -- even the most stubborn viewer will be lying back in a state of happy hypnosis. [16 December 2002, p. 106]
|
| 90 |
The New York Times
A magnificent conjuring act, an eerie historical mirage.
|
| 90 |
Variety
Seems destined to go down in film history as a technical tour de force.
|
| 88 |
Miami Herald
Even in its most tedious scenes, Russian Ark is mesmerizing.
|
| 83 |
Entertainment Weekly
It was only with the advent of digital technology that the notion of an entire film done in a single take became possible. Mike Figgis got there first with ''Time Code,'' and now the Russian director Alexander Sokurov has brought off a comparably startling feat with Russian Ark.
|
| 80 |
Chicago Reader
The problem with these feats is that they threaten to overwhelm the film's content, both as complex historical commentary and as aesthetic and theoretical gesture.
|
| 80 |
TV Guide
The final effect, particularly the climactic ballroom sequence, is astonishing -- a haunting impression of the vast synchronicity of unbroken time that must surely stand as one of the great achievements in the development of the movie medium.
|
| 80 |
New York Magazine
It’s a hyper-aestheticized meditation on the meaning of history, visually astonishing, dramatically stilted. No masterpiece, but quite a feat (and quite effete).
|
| 80 |
Village Voice
Dazzling dance to the music of time.
|
| 78 |
Austin Chronicle
A tour de force of modern cinema.
|
| 75 |
New York Daily News
A technical and visual tour-de-force.
|
| 75 |
Charlotte Observer
The first movie I'd have enjoyed more asleep. That's not because it put me to sleep, but because it may be the most dreamlike film I've ever seen.
|
| 70 |
The New Republic
Substantively there is no content. Everything we see or hear engages us only as part of a directorial tour de force. That force is exceptional, but since there is not much more to the picture, it leaves us hungry.
|
| 70 |
Wall Street Journal
By turns intriguing, boring, frustrating, amazing and stirring, this is a tour de force that, necessarily, lacks dramatic force, but one that creates a dream state of seemingly limitless dimensions.
|
| 70 |
Washington Post
For the truth is, given the audacity, the organization, the seriousness of purpose, the movie isn't nearly as provocative as you think it might be.
|
| 63 |
Philadelphia Inquirer
It's a cinematic feat, an art lover's dream, but as a moviegoing experience, Alexander Sokurov's Russian Ark is something of a letdown.
|
| 63 |
Baltimore Sun
Sokurov, for all his accomplishment, is less a bold innovator than a raider of lost art.
|
| 20 |
Film Threat
Little more than a travelogue designed to show off the grandeur of the Hermitage, with the silly actors in fancy costumes getting in the way of the paintings and sculptures on display.
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